Suspend your belief. I found an African charity that doesn’t boil my blood. The human/wild animal conflict in Africa is almost as politically volatile as climate change throughout much of – especially rural Africa. Elephants in particular are the problem and a tour company has done something admirable about it.
When I defend zoos to my clients on safari I point out the structural shift zoos began three or four decades ago away from public entertainment. Most zoos have shrunk in physical size. Most now have fewer animals on display and most spend increasing amounts of their revenue on field conservation and scientific research. I…Continue reading
The Botswana elephant story is out of hand. Elephants Without Borders (EWB) has gone bazonkers, the Botswana government is unnecessarily defensive, October elections are driving false emotions, and exaggerated claims on all sides have damaged elephant conservation for years to come. Animal rights activists were always easily ticked off by any poaching, but the current…Continue reading
When Africa recovered from the millennia of drought that caused a small band of homo sapiens to migrate to Europe, the southern half of the continent flourished, again. Great grasslands and increasing forests nurtured enormous numbers of animals. Then around 2000 years ago the climate in the south changed again, growing much hotter and drier….Continue reading
She usually gave a warning before charging. This time she didn’t. There are too many elephants in northern Tanzania. I worry each time I guide here. The normal dozen people crushed to death annually surged a few years ago to two dozen. Fortunately, my car squeaked out of a dangerous situation.
Another two tourists were killed by elephant Saturday. There are conflicting accounts of the deaths. The official Zambian police report claims that the 57-year old Belgian woman walked “too close” to take photos. But family members of the two killed told the Lusaka Times “the duo were looking at the giant mammals from a distance”…Continue reading
COP17, the CITES treaty working group, is winding down like a firecracker with the biggest boom possibly yet to come. Southern African countries prevailed in a bitter fight to keep all elephants from being listed as imminently going extinct, and the fight over lions begins today. CITES was absolutely fundamental in saving elephants from extinction…Continue reading
Last Wednesday the Great Elephant Census was released, documenting a major decline in elephant populations in the study area over the last decade. The study is a good one, although flawed in an important respect.
Twenty-five elephants exploded out of the forest about 400 meters away from us and cantered quickly directly at us. We were in open Landcruisers. No sides and a simple canvas top. They stopped about half way. Not having had the time to look at the area with our binocs none of us at first realized…Continue reading
We were among about 400 people at the Sheldrick elephant orphanage yesterday, and I carefully scanned the group noting only five non-white visitors. The day before we visited the Giraffe Centre and I’d roughly estimate that 50% of the visitors there were non-white. I presume that most of the non-white were Kenyans or Africans. It…Continue reading
Recently we were besieged by conservation organizations begging for money to stop the otherwise inevitable extinction of elephants. Fortunately, you didn’t give them anything near what they requested, and fortunately, elephants are not going extinct. The #4 story of 2015 in Africa is “the elephant story” finally in a balanced, scientific way and much to…Continue reading
Elephants do not have souls, and countenancing this myth is a sure fire way to accelerate their extinction. The brilliant and stunning film, “Soul of the Elephant,” which aired on PBS’s Nature yesterday evening was rife with untruths and speculative science. It was as bad a nature documentary as a Fox News report. The exquisite…Continue reading
Here’s a flash: elephants aren’t capable of human emotions. Neither are whales. Or your dog. Despite whatever pretenses we might employ for our own happiness, animals don’t share our consciousness. That doesn’t mean they might not have “animal emotions,” but since we aren’t elephants, whales or dogs, we’ll never fully understand what “animal emotions” are….Continue reading
Elephant hysteria has reached a new high, and I left Botswana amazed at how dangerously unorganized elephant protection is. The almighty and by this writer much revered CITES seems wobbling. African research organizations nip at each rather than cooperate to gather much needed facts. Positive moves in China get ignored so the country can be…Continue reading
Elephant poaching is less important than jobs, energy, poverty and a host of other domestic African issues and until westerners embrace this, poaching will continue to increase. At yesterday’s “historic“ African summit in Washington so many meetings and public forums occurred that Washington police had to close some of the city’s main roads, with limo…Continue reading