The African Elephant
Elephant Abuse
Elephants are majestic creatures trademarked by their glorious ivory. Their tusks are also functional and are utilized to get food and water. These tusks are precious and highly sought after. An international network of traffickers has made it their mission to find and kill elephants for their ivory.
(American Wildlife Foundation, 2021)
In 1980, during what is known now as “the ivory wars,” over 700,00 elephants were killed because legal trade allowed the tragic and inhumane large-scale laundering of ivory to commence. New markets grew internationally, and a new class of poachers was born.
(AWF, STE, 2014)
Image: Matthew Spiteri
The illegal wildlife market is booming
image: Mark Hammond
The illegal wildlife trade is said to be worth more than 10 billion yearly. (Wildaid, 2019)
The cost of ivory had been slowly decreasing giving people all over the world some hope of saving this precious species, but in 2020, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, prices spiked for the first time since 2014. (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, Daily Maverick, 2016)
This means there’s a BIG potential for profit, and the elephants are in danger. Previously dismantled networks may start up again, meaning the elephant population is at extreme risk.
Losing homes
Elephants have important migratory routes that are being lost due to human expansion and habitat fragmentation. Canals, fences, roads, agriculture, and settlements have all encroached on elephant habitats leaving them lost and hopeless.
Environmental factors such as fragmentation, destruction, and climate change have made it hard for the species to thrive. (World Wildlife, 2021)
Many African ecosystems have been broken up and suffered habitat destruction due to humans, making it difficult for species to migrate and grow their populations. Climate change is expected to increase rainfall across Africa. (African Savannas affected by how often and how hard it rains during the wet season, 2019)
This will lead to an increase in trees and shrubs, which will overcrowd the grasslands in the Savannah. The complications that the Savannah ecosystem is facing are all caused by humans.
In order to save this species, laws and regulations must be set to limit the amount of human interference with the ecosystem.