Killing For Ivory Could Drive African Elephant Into Extinction
Demand for ivory has resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of African elephants with poachers hunting more elephants faster than they can reproduce according to a new study. The study also found that poaching deaths have affected over half of all elephant families in the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya.
In 2011 eight per cent of the African elephant population was wiped out, or an estimated 40,000 elephants making it the worst year on record since 1998. In the absence of poaching, the elephant population in Africa would grow by about 4.2 per cent each year.
The African elephant is an intelligent animal with individuals regularly cooperating with one another and in times of distress offering consolation to compatriots. Unfortunately ivory is still very popular says Dr. George Wittemyer the lead researcher from Colorado State University.
Dr. Wittemyer has closely studied elephant populations in Kenya for nearly 20 years. In 2009, drought resulted in a decline of 12 per cent of the elephant population in Kenya. Numbers fell further as a result of poaching which has been continuing since that year.
“Sadly, in 2009, we had a terrible drought, and we started seeing a lot of illegal killing of elephants as well as natural deaths. We’ve been struggling to respond. We’ve been trying to find solutions to dampen the illegal killing.” Dr. Wittemyer said.
Dr. Wittemyer’s team looked at natural death data and compared it with poaching related deaths in the Samburu National Reserve. The team then applied their numbers to a database that spans the continent called MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants). The database was started in 2002 and is supported by African communities that report when, where and how elephants die.
Over the last decade elephant populations at 12 locations have fallen by 7 per cent which also takes into account the fact that until 2009, elephant numbers were mostly increasing. Over the last 10 years elephant numbers in central Africa have fallen by as much as 60 per cent. Poaching is so endemic that 75 per cent of elephant populations have fallen since 2009 with only 25 per cent having a stable or increasing population Dr. Wittemyer said.
Peter Leimgruber, a conservation biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute who did not participate in the study said that the African elephant is being rapidly driven into extinction as a result of alarming increases in killing for ivory
He adds that ivory poaching rates are simply unsustainable and outstrip the natural population growth rate for wild African elephants which means that every decade, elephant populations will fall between 60 to 70 per cent and in the near future if the illegal trade in ivory is not stopped the species will go extinct.
