OnSafari: Elephant Hysteria

OnSafari: Elephant Hysteria

woolycircusElephant 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 bashed still again. Meaningless grandstanding gets the headlines.

And so, we clone a wooly mammoth?

I’m not kidding. Within four years we’re going to have a live wooly mammoth, with DNA from a permafrosted 3300 year-old baby slipped into the DNA of a healthy modern elephant by Harvard researchers.

Zimbabwe is among the best places to traffic ivory, and now even live elephants. In blatant disregard of CITES, Zimbabwe is sending 34 baby elephants to Asia and Arabia.

The outcry was formidable, but not a single country in CITES asked that the treaty enforcement provisions be applied to Zimbabwe.

It’s a circus, folks. At least for three more years. That’s when Ringling Brothers has announced they will discontinue using elephants. Jump to hashtag #3YrsTooLong.

What you have is a mess. Nobody really knows how much poaching is going on. The reported figures are so disparate as to be laughable.

The once respectable Save The Elephant Fund issued a critical news release claiming that 50,000 elephant were poached annually, while the also once respectable National Geographic said 25,000.

Think one of them’s wrong? Or both?

We have no idea how many elephant are being poached, for the same reason that we have no idea how many elephant there are. African government wildlife agencies don’t undertake counts or can’t be trusted, and not-for-profit wildlife NGOs refuse to cooperate because it might jeopardize their fund raising.

One of the most respected government wildlife agencies, the Kenyan Wildlife Service, sacked five top officials last year for involvement in the ivory trade. Hardly a day after one of Kenya’s most notorious wildlife traffickers was arrested on an Interpol warrant, the man jumped bail.

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Government – probably among the top conduits for illegal ivory – won headlines worldwide for burning ivory and proclaiming a “Zero Tolerance” for wildlife poaching. But no journalist noticed that the entire top of the pyre was actual carved ivory sculptures and trinkets. Ivory isn’t carved until it gets to Asia. Where did that come from?

You confused? Join the pack.

His Excellency the honorable Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama, told a conference in Botswana last week that any elephant problem that exists doesn’t come from Botswana elephants, but “ensues from elephants that migrate from neighboring countries,” which – he then deduced for us – means that those countries have serious problems.

We just finished a successful safari in Botswana, and we didn’t see all that many elephants, but I’m told more elephants exist in Botswana than anywhere else on earth.

Do I believe that?

Jim filed this from Arusha, Tanzania.

2 thoughts on “OnSafari: Elephant Hysteria

  1. When it comes to assessing poaching, we are all like the blind men describing the elephant. It depends what part you touch. So a visitor Botswana in September may can see large herds of eles in the Chobe-Lisanti area and conclude, as you often express, Jim, that there are too many elephants… whereas someone visiting the Selous may see few elephants and will readily agree that poaching is out of control (and it may well be in southern Tanzania). You are right-fund raising turf wars make wildlife groups suspect, while governments and park officials are all about butt-covering. The international CITES wildlife trade monitoring group, bases its estimates on the level of busts and confiscations that get reported. Although nobody knows exactly what is going on, the volume of ivory on sale in Asia seem to confirm that a hell of a lot of elephants are getting killed. China, Thailand, and others should continue to be criticized for their tolerance and encourage of all types of wildlife trade. The US is hardly blameless.
    One thing I can say: in the 1980s eles in East Africa were very skittish in places like Serengeti and Tarangire– a tell-tale sign of heavy poaching. I see little sign of elephant nervousness inside national parks in the last years. That does not mean that they are not getting poached like hell in less touristed areas. I gather you are on safari in Tanzania now, so I’d be interested in what you report.

    Jim Heck replies: As always Allen your long experience and wise appraisals are most appreciated. For sure I’ll let you know what’s happening here in Tanzania. Whenever wifi lets me, there will be a blog.

  2. What??? Just when I thought Ethopiao was doing right, finally, about the elephants. Who’s incharge? Obviously, nobody!

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