How Bigger Impact Can Elephants Have and How Can They Be Prevented?
Introduction:
There are two types of elephants recognised, Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta Africana). They’re substantially very similar however, have a few differences. The African elephant is larger, with a greater weight than the Asian. It is also the African elephants both male and female who have large tusks, whereas male Asian elephants have small tusks; whilst the female’s tusks are not visible.
My report is based on the impact elephants have on the environment, and so the lives of people and animals alike. I am merely drawing attention to the issues surrounding the elephant behaviour and problems to evaluate what can be done to prevent damage and disturbance as well as the extinction of the species.
The Conflicts Evolving Around Elephants:
Many of the conflicts revolve around the growth in human population. As this increases, urbanisation occurs, and develops; leading to a loss in habitats for elephants and other wild life. For such large land animals this can cause many problems.
Loss of habitat not only results in death of many animals but also reduces the available food source for elephants in particular, as trees and vegetation are cut down to meet demands for housing.
The majority of elephant’s diet consists of grass and leaves from surrounding trees and shrubs, this causes a decease in food and more noticeable decline in population of plants and trees, for example in some areas it has been reported that elephants eat up to three trees a day! This can not only lead to the reduction in tree population, but also the destruction of habitats and food for other wildlife. These numbers rise and fall (as seen in the graph on page…) according to the elephant population. One example is a species of plant whose plant community structure and species richness is particularly affected by elephants. It is associated with the succulent thicket, and can be found in Addo Elephant National Park in Cape Town, South Africa; it is also the only park in southern Africa that contains the succulent thicket, and so scientists are keen to protect this environmental dilemma.
As food source decreases gradually becoming a major environmental issue, elephants will naturally search elsewhere to substitute. This can lead to increased conflicts with local farmers and villagers. In some of Africa’s National Parks, elephants roaming can get up to half their food by risky midnight raids into crop fields; this was reported by scientists who tracked the elephants through satellite monitoring. During these raids elephants cause major damage to the farmer’s crops. In India 8-10 million hectares of crops are destroyed per year. However, farmers have increased the tensions in the elephant’s populations by taking over parkland to grow more crops, they are then confused as this land used to be free for them to roam.
In Sumatra, reports suggest that elephants are occasionally poisoned by villagers who are angered by repeated crop-raiding and house destruction. In one instance in 1996 twelve elephants were poisoned in Riau province. In May 2002, 17 elephants were poisoned in North Sumatra, and there have been more incidents of poisoning since these.
Not only have their habitats been taken over by farmers feeding ever growing human population, but their migrating routes have also been interrupted by highways and other urban development. This affects the genetic diversity of elephant’s herds, as they are isolated; there is lack of opportunity to mate with unrelated elephants. Inbreeding can cause many problems with elephants – one article stated that death rates of young inbred was far greater than those who were non-inbred.
In the seventies and eighties the ivory trade was at its peak and considered a huge ethical issue. Evidence shows that at least half the population was cut due to this period. It was not only the tusks that were hunted for, but also the elephant skin; this could be used to make belts and bags. In some areas up to three hundred elephants were killed each day, in Uganda 95% of their elephant population was lost in fifteen days! Their aim was to retrieve the largest tusks, these could be found on African male elephants, therefore the smaller and female (whose tusks aren’t as big) survived, the Indian elephants were not at risk as their tusks are not as prevalent as previously stated, for example: In Africa hundreds of thousands were being killed whereas merely hundreds of Asian elephants were. The Asian elephants also experienced the ivory trade, as it was the males that had visible tusks it was these who were affected most, in some areas of India reports show that the ratio of male to female had fallen to 1:100. During this period, in the area of Ranchi, Jharkhand, residence claim to never have seen the elephants let alone had any conflicts, could this be due to the decline in elephant numbers due to the poaching period? However it has not completely stopped, investigations show that elephants are in Amboseli are being wounded and killed by bullets, poison arrows and spears rapidly. Also, for the first time since the ivory trading period tusks are being removed by unknown persons. Through investigations it has been discovered that the recovered ivory is selling at 3000/- shillings ($38) per kilo. It is believed that this is going across the border into Tanzania. Unless action is taken fast, the Amboseli elephants will be decimated.
In comparison it is not only humans hurting elephants. Elephants are the largest land animals. African elephants weigh between 4000 and 7500kg, whilst Asian elephants weigh 3000-6000kg. They cause huge amounts of destruction affecting the social lives of many local villagers, in India alone; elephants kill 170 people per year, as well as damaging 10,000 – 15,000 houses. Another example is and elephant in Balumath Range in Palamau District, it has so far killed 32 people, damaged 250 houses, and 580 crop cases have been attributed to this particular elephant (till July 2001). On investigation, it was known that this was a domestic elephant that had been abandoned.
Evidence Of The Problems and Conflicts:
Population of elephants vs. humans:
· The root cause of human-elephant conflict is the exploding human population growth andresultant pressure on elephant habitat. Habitat loss and degradationinevitably lead to conflict.
· From the data it is clear to see that the number of elephants is…This could be a result of…
· It is hard to comment on the reliability of the data I have used, as it was immensely difficult to find sufficient data, as the elephants are hard to keep track of! However most sources I did find displayed similar figures for some of the above countries. It is also apparent that the data is only of African countries and you could say that it is therefore not a reliable source of evidence for the vast areas involved in the conflicts with elephants.
Elephants killing humans:
S.S. Bist (Inspector General of Forests and Director Project Elephant) produces the following data in a recent article, An Overview of Elephant Conservation in India1.
· The data shows that the number of deaths caused by elephants has decreased. This could be due to the conservation or translocation of a number of elephants causing major problems.
· The number of people killed could be reflective of the number of elephant population. As seen in the tree and elephant conflict graph that numbers have risen and fallen in a similar pattern.
Elephants killed by humans: Bist 1 also reports on the numbers of elephants being killed annually in India as a result of human activities. He states that approximately 200 elephants per year die because of human-related activities.These include:
120 poaching for ivory or meat25 poisoned
20 cattle born disease
16 electrocution
10 hit by trains
10 miscellaneous
It could be argued that this data is unreliable as it is not possible to report every death of elephants, and to be entirely sure of the reason for death. However from other sources it is clear that the above incidents do occur, but it is hard to be of how many it occurs to.
Conflicts betweens elephants and trees:
How these issues can be addressed:
When poaching was an overwhelming issue, it came to many peoples attention that something had to be done about it. One group being the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). In 1986, CITES had listed the elephants on Appendix 2, this allowed the trade to continue internationally as long as the sellers had permits. In 1989, CITES sought to protect the elephants from international trade by listing them on Appendix 1 - this is still the case. The main concerns were with African elephants, as they have the larger tusks and were more at risk. An international trade ban was agreed in 1989, however this was only temporary. It was re-evaluated in 1992 and put into action. Post the ban, the market declined rapidly, as did poaching. There was still a black market of illegal trade, but was minor and little could be done to stop it, and so because of this elephant numbers began to increase again showing that the ban made a difference and was in fact an appropriate method to stop the poaching and potential extinction; however leading to increased conflict with humans and vegetation.
In areas where elephants are becoming pests to local farmers, or urban development is limiting their habitats, they can be successfully translocated. Herds have been driven to new habitats in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Routes have to be organised and barriers set up to ensure that the elephants don’t try to return. It is very risky for both the elephants and humans involved in transporting them, even with the use of chemicals immobilising them and specialised transport approved by veterinarians.
The elephants can also be captured and transported to zoos. One advantage of zoos is that you can get many benefits from it, which can lead to the resolution of other issues. For example researchers can get more information about elephants, their behaviour and what they like to eat or even what they can substitute for food in order to save some of the trees and plants out in the wild.
This is essentially what the conservationists for Save the Elephants Foundation in Kenya aim to do. They believe that by using satellite trackers and data to determine how the elephants behave, where and when they migrate. They have already discovered whilst doing research that six out of the seven elephants they traced followed the same eating pattern and route. It was recorded that six of them spent most of their time in the arid lowland areas of Samburu, eating trees and shrubs then during the rainy season they switched to eating grass. However the last elephant named ‘Lewis’ spent the rainy season in lowland Samburu, then trekked 25 miles to a forest in Mount Kenya, to make repeated midnight raids, in dry season! From their data and experience of regular patterns, they can predict when the raids will occur and can therefore prepare local subsistent farmers for them ensuring the correct measures are taken to protect themselves, the crops and the elephants.
As for the environmental issue of the succulent thicket species in Cape Town, they have their own strategy for protecting them. They implement that there should be two new reserves containing the species, they want to ensure that they are protected and that there is no further conflict between elephants and plant species, they are yet to discover whether this is achievable or not.
The conservation of Elephants and the captivity in zoos, may be a solution for the local residence who feels the elephants are a pest to their community, but is it unethical and the start to further problems. The removal of elephants from their natural habitats into conservation can cause stress, and discomfort. While it saves and protects the elephants from poisoning in Sumatra, poaching and black market of ivory, providing them with a habitat for those whose habitats are constantly being destructed due to urban development also providing them with a constant and reliable food source; for which they do not have to raid and search for so it is effective in those senses. However the disadvantage of zoos is being reported on a day to day basis. One source stated that female Elephants in Africa and Asia live far longer than those kept in captivity of European zoos, they even quoted that "bringing elephants into zoos profoundly impairs their viability." Another states that obesity is an ever growing reason for deaths of zoo kept elephants.
It is also important to take note that elephants have a more prominent impact on biological diversity than expected. Without the presence of the elephants in the ecosystem, there will be not be the variety of plant and animal species that could one day be the source of new food, medicines and fibre. Elephants effectively shape the number of plant and animal species in a certain area. For example when elephants remove the canopy of trees species richness of birds and ants is lowered, as their habitats are destructed.
Maybe it is more suitable to meet the elephant’s needs by protecting their land, letting them roam free and not taking it over with crops and developments. But then there is the issue of the three hundred trees a day being consumed. This could be helped by planting new trees every couple of months or shifting the elephants to another reserve to allow the area to recover.