Ivory Poaching Threatens ‘Elephant Memory’ The large number of mature and experienced African elephants being killed illegally for their ivory is exposing younger surviving elephants to a higher risk of mortality from predation and other risks, wildlife conservationists said today.
Close monitoring of a thousand elephants in Samburu, northern Kenya, over the last 14 years has provided solid evidence of disruption of the social dynamics within families, according to Save the Elephants (STE), a Kenya-based conservation organization that conducted the research. “Over the last four years demand for their tusks has disrupted their close-knit society,” STE said in a news release about the study published today in the science journal PLOS One. George Wittemyer of Colorado State University and Save the Elephants led the 14-year study. Photo courtesy of George Wittemyer. Éléphants empoisonnés pour l'huile de palme.
Avec sa trompe, un éléphanteau tente en vain de réanimer sa mère gisant sur le sol.
Kenya loses over 1000 elephants in 4 years - Wildlife News. Over 1000 elephants have been lost in Kenya over the last 4 years.
A report today has revealed that Kenya has lost over 1000 elephants since 2008. The report comes just after the Kenya Wildlife Service completes a survey of elephants and zebras across three major wildlife regions. The number of elephants lost was revealed by Kenyan newspaer The Star. The article quoted KWS Director, William Kipkoech, explaining that in 2008 there were 7415 elephants in Kenya that number is now down to 6,361.
A loss of 1,054 animals. Zebra numbers were also down with the 2008 population of 2,400 now down to just 1870. Kipkoech explained that the losses were due to poaching and drought due to climate change. The news comes after last weeks survey of elephants and zebras in three major wildlife regions in Kenya: Samburu, Laikipia and Marsabit ecosystems that covered 60,000km2 . Working withpartner organisations the KWS deployed 60 census takers to record animals from both ground and air. Why the KFC's Colonel has to act to protect tigers, orangutans and forests. Les éléphants d'Afrique frappés par la "plus grave crise" en 25 ans.
Déclin dramatique des éléphants africains de forêt. Battle for the Elephants: Preview. Tchad: 89 éléphants massacrés par des braconniers. Elephants Mourning. Battle for the Elephants Episode 2: Criminal Traders Exposed. Battle for the Elephants Episode 3: The China Ivory Market. Battle for the Elephants Episode 4: Massive Ivory Stockpile. Les éléphants du Mozambique menacés de disparition dans les dix ans. Centrafrique: 26 éléphants massacrés dans un site classé au patrimoine mondial. Comparative Demography of an At-Risk African Elephant Population. Knowledge of population processes across various ecological and management settings offers important insights for species conservation and life history.
In regard to its ecological role, charisma and threats from human impacts, African elephants are of high conservation concern and, as a result, are the focus of numerous studies across various contexts. Here, demographic data from an individually based study of 934 African elephants in Samburu, Kenya were summarized, providing detailed inspection of the population processes experienced by the population over a fourteen year period (including the repercussions of recent increases in illegal killing). These data were compared with those from populations inhabiting a spectrum of xeric to mesic ecosystems with variable human impacts. Figures Citation: Wittemyer G, Daballen D, Douglas-Hamilton I (2013) Comparative Demography of an At-Risk African Elephant Population. Editor: Matt Hayward, Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Australia.
Ivory Worship - Interactive: Elephant Ivory Poaching. Killing African elephants for their ivory is devastating a species that’s already losing ground to a growing human population.
In 2011 poaching hit the highest level in a decade, with the greatest impact in the central Africa region. Most of the world’s countries agreed to ban international trade in ivory in 1989. Yet demand has grown in Asia, driven by new wealth in China. Ivory seizures represent only a fraction of what gets through. Each tusk icon represents 90 elephants, based on a tusk weight of 11 pounds, used to help calculate poaching levels. Conflit Hommes - Eléphants : la délocalisation n’est pas une solution. Le Gabon, nouveau repaire du braconnage d'éléphants. Poachers kill over 10000 elephants in Gabon. A new study confirms what has been long suspected: elephant populations are being decimated to the point that the survival of the species in Central Africa is now in question.
According to a study by the Gabonese National Parks Agency, WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), poachers have killed an estimated 11,100 elephants – between 44 to 77 per cent of the population –in parts of Minkébé’s National Park and its surroundings in northern Gabon since 2004, when it held Africa’s largest forest elephant population. “The situation is out of control. We are witnessing the systematic slaughter of the world’s largest land mammal,” said Bas Huijbregts, head of the Central African strand of WWF’s global campaign against illegal wildlife trade. “Some reports lead the world to believe that the ivory war has moved from the Central Africa region to other parts of the continent. This is wrong. Poachers drove elephants into path of train claim. Were 6 elephants deliberately driven into the front of a train by poachers?
On the 30th December there was a devastating train accident in Ganjam district of Odisha state in India. 6 elephants appeared on the track in front of the train and were killed together with one of the railway staff. Reports from the initial investigation suggests that the elephants may have been purposely driven in front of the train by a group of poachers. Railway staff at the level crossing where the accident occurred have reported seeing a gang of 8 or 10 people driving the elephants down the road on to the track. As the train approached the gang disappeared.
About an hour later – after the accident – the gang returned to the spot and hacked away the tusks of the dead elephants. A railway spokesman Divisional Railway Manager, S K Mohanty, said that they did not know who the people were. The state forestry division is said to be investigating whether the ‘accident’ was set up by a gang of poachers. Des éléphants pygmées empoisonnés à Bornéo. Trois éléphants pygmées de Bornéo, une espèce en danger de disparition, ont à nouveau été retrouvés morts dans une forêt de Malaisie mercredi 30 janvier, portant à treize le nombre de pachydermes morts ces dernières semaines dans des circonstances encore mystérieuses.
Les animaux ont probablement été empoisonnés, ont indiqué, mardi 29 janvier, des responsables de la faune sauvage. Les carcasses des éléphants ont été découvertes à proximité les unes des autres, dans la réserve de Gunung Rara Forest, selon Laurentius Ambu, directeur du département de la vie sauvage de l'Etat de Sabah, sur l'île de Bornéo. Dans un cas, les sauveteurs ont secouru un bébé de trois mois qui essayait de réveiller sa mère morte.
L'empoisonnement semblait être la cause de ces décès, mais les autorités n'ont pas déterminé s'il était intentionnel, selon le ministre de l'environnement de Sabah, Masidi Manjun. "C'est un jour très triste pour la conservation et pour Sabah. Bornean elephant meets palm oil: saving the world's smallest pachyderm in a fractured landscape. An interview with Nurzahafarina Othman, a part of our on-going Interviews with Young Scientists series.
Bornean elephants tussling on the Kinabatangan River. Photo courtesy of: Nurzahafarina Othman. In the Malaysian state of Sabah, where most conservation students are still foreigners—either European or American—Nurzahafarina Othman stands out: not only is she Malaysian, a Muslim, and a mother of a young daughter, but she's rapidly becoming a top researcher and champion for the world's smallest elephant: the Bornean elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis). Although sometimes described as a pygmy elephant, they still weigh 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds). Le braconnage menace la mémoire des éléphants. Hong Kong: saisie de 1,3 tonne de défenses d'éléphant.
Les braconniers trompaient les éléphants grâce à des uniformes de l’armée britannique. Une autoroute fermée la nuit pour protéger les animaux, en IndeMagazine GoodPlanet Info. Cadavre d’un éléphant après une collision avec un train dans la région de Bengali en Inde. © AFP/STR Certains tronçons de l’autoroute 212 en Inde sont désormais interdits aux véhicules la nuit car ils traversent le parc national de Bandipur.
L’interdiction de circuler concerne la portion qui relie les Etats de Karnataka et du Kerala et fait l’objet d’une bataille juridique depuis son entrée en vigueur en 2010. Les deux Etats tentent d’obtenir de la Cour Suprême un assouplissement de cette interdiction et recherchent des routes alternatives. « L’autre sujet évoqué par les deux gouverneurs des provinces lors d’une réunion est le tracé du chemin de fer entre Nanjangud et Nilambur dans le Kerala qui doit aussi traverser, sur 22 km, le parc national de Bandipur », rapporte The Hindu.
La voie ferrée étant elle aussi susceptible d’etre interdite à la circulation de nuit, elle pourrait être détournée.