Home Other Elephants

Elephants

In 1930, there were between 5 and 10 million African elephants. The Africa elephants were added to the international list of the most endangered species in 1984. By then, there were only about 600.000 remaining. This is less than 1% of their original number. Asian elephants are even more endangered than African elephants. At the turn of the century, there were an estimated 200.000 Asian elephants. Today there are probably no more than 35.000 to 40.000 left in the wild.

elephantHumans have become the biggest threat. Elephants are mainly threatened because of their ivory and habitat loss. Ivory is known as ‘white gold’ because it is beautiful, easily carved and durable. Most of the world's ivory is carved in Japan, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries. Skilled carvers depend on a supply of ivory for their livelihoods.

Even thought hunting elephants is no longer legal in many African countries, poaching was widespread until very recently. As the price of ivory raised, poachers became more organized, using automatic weapons, motorized vehicles and airplanes. Thousands of elephants have been killed because of poaching. Poaching has caused the collapse of elephants social structure, as well as decimating their numbers. The worst thing of the poaching is that the poachers often kill all the adults in the group, leaving young elephants without any adults to raise them.

The African government now takes action to protect the elephants. The main reason they are takinh action, is because they have realised elephants are very important for the economy of Africa. A lot of tourists visit Africa because of the elephants.

 

More about:

Rhinos
Rhinos have an ivory horn. Therefor rhinos are hunted. They are also threatened by habitat loss.

Living area elephants

Living area elephants

This is the living area of the African elephants. 

News about elephants


New analysis points to ivory enforcement failures in parts of Africa, Asia - Doha, Qatar – Urgent law enforcement action by governments in Central and West Africa and South-east Asia is crucial to addressing the illicit ivory trade, according to a new analysis of elephant trade data. Detailed regional summaries of the data held in the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), the world’s largest database on ivory seizures, highlight the failure of law enforcement in key elephant range States facing an increasing threat from organised crime and the presence of unregulated markets. The re-analysis comes as 175 governments meet in Qatar for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), where they will consider ivory trade issues. "It's clearer than ever that governance shortfalls and weak enforcement allow illicit ivory trade to go unchecked in West and Central Africa and in South-East Asia, where large domestic ivory markets openly sell ivory illegally," said Tom Milliken of TRAFFIC, who undertook the ETIS analysis. "What's needed is urgent action by government enforcement agencies in these regions and strong collaboration with counterparts in Asia where many of the current seizures are being made." “If there was adequate political will, a commitment to law enforcement would shut down the illegal markets and check corruption. That isn’t happening.” Milliken said. ETIS is compiled by TRAFFIC on behalf of CITES, and comprises more than 15,400 ivory seizure cases compiled over the last 21 years. The re-analysis of the data was made by region rather than by country, and was carried out to align the data with MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants), another of the CITES tools used to monitor poaching, which also shows that the Central African region is losing the most elephants. "Until this strengthened law enforcement happens, ivory will continue to leak out of Africa” said Elisabeth McLellan, Species Manager, WWF International. "We're not talking small-time smugglers here, we're talking hardened, organized criminal gangs," McLellan said.