Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe & Namibia

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Re: Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe - CITES statement

Post by Mel »

If these numbers are true, it is hard to argue that the removals would have a significant impact on numbers but as elephant biologist, Dr Keith Lindsay says: "The bigger impact is on elephant behaviour. Taking calves away from the midst of families would be very disruptive and I would not be surprised if the adult females from the affected families were very frightened and angry about people on foot or even in vehicles,
You would think that people who are in the position to make decisions about taking animals from national parks would know that sort of thing!!!

But these days everything is all about the money everywhere on this planet @#$ @#$ @#$


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Re: Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe - CITES statement

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In Zimbabwe the ones who decide, couldn't care less :evil:


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Re: Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe -

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Exclusive: footage shows young elephants being captured in Zimbabwe for Chinese zoos

BY ADAM CRUISE AND CHRISTINA RUSSO - 3 OCTOBER 2017 - THE GUARDIAN

Rare footage of the capture of wild young elephants in Zimbabwe shows rough treatment of the calves as they are sedated and taken away.

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The Guardian has been given exclusive footage which shows the capture of young, wild elephants in Zimbabwe in preparation, it is believed, for their legal sale to Chinese zoos.

In the early morning of 8 August, five elephants were caught in Hwange national park by officials at Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks).

These captures are usually kept as secret as possible. The Guardian understands that in this case the usual procedure was followed. First, a viable herd is identified. Then operatives in a helicopter pick off the younger elephants with a sedative fired from a rifle. As the elephant collapses, the pilot dive-bombs the immediate vicinity so the rest of the herd, attempting to come to the aid of the fallen animal, are kept at bay. When things quieten down, a ground-team approaches the sedated elephants on foot, bundles them up, and drags them on to trailers.

The footage, a series of isolated clips and photographs provided to the Guardian by an anonymous source associated with the operation, documents the moment that operatives are running into the bush, then shows them tying up one young elephant. The elephants are then seen herded together in a holding pen near the main tourist camp in Hwange.

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In this part of the footage, a young female elephant is seen being kicked in the head repeatedly by one of the captors. Photograph: The Guardian

Finally, in the most disturbing part of the footage, a small female elephant, likely around five years old, is seen standing in the trailer. Her body is tightly tied to the vehicle by two ropes. Only minutes after being taken from the wild, the animal, still groggy from the sedative, is unable to understand that the officials want her to back into the truck, so they smack her on her body, twist her trunk, pull her by her tail and repeatedly kick her in the head with their boots.

Altogether, 14 elephants were captured during this time period, according to the source, who asked to remain to anonymous for fear of reprisal. The intention was to take more elephants, but the helicopter crashed during one of the operations. It is estimated that 30-40 elephants were to be captured in total.

The elephants that were taken are now in holding pens at an off-limits facility within Hwange called Umtshibi, according to the source. One expert who reviewed the photographs, Joyce Poole, an expert on elephant behaviour and co-director of the Kenya-based organisation ElephantVoices, said the elephants were “bunching” – huddling together because they are frightened.

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The young elephants in their enclosure. According to experts, they are “bunching”, huddling together because they are frightened. Photograph: The Guardian

Audrey Delsink, an elephant behavioural ecologist and executive director for Executive Director for Humane Society International Africa, also reviewed the photos and footage. She believed that most of the elephants were aged between two and four. “Basically, these calves have just been weaned or are a year or two into the weaning process.” In the wild, elephants are completely dependent on their mother’s milk until they are two, and are not fully weaned until the age of five.

A number of the calves, she said, were displaying temporal streaming – a stress-induced activity. “Many of the gestures indicate apprehensive and displacement behaviour – trunk twisting, trunk curled under, face touching, foot swinging, head-shaking, ear-cocking, displacement feeding, amongst others.” Zimparks were approached but did not make a comment.

The buyer for the young elephants is a Chinese national, according to inside sources who asked not to be named. Last year he was associated with a case involving 11 wild hyenas, who were discovered in a truck at Harare international airport that had been on the road for 24 hours without food or water and were reportedly in an extremely stressed condition, dehydrated and emaciated and, in some cases, badly injured.

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One of the hyenas found in a consignment at Harare airport in Zimbabwe. Photograph: The Guardian

The legal live trade in wild animals

The capture of the baby elephants is just one of a number of operations that have taken place in Zimbabwe and across the continent over several decades. Nine elephants were reportedly exported from Namibia to Mexico in 2012, six from Namibia to Cuba in 2013, and more than 25 from Zimbabwe to China in 2015. In 2016, the US imported 17 elephants from Swaziland despite objections from the public and conservationists. From 1995-2015, more than 600 wild African elephants and 400 wild Asian elephants are reported to have been traded globally, according to a database kept by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Under Cites, trading live elephants is legal, with a few stipulations. The destination must be “appropriate and acceptable”, and the sale must benefit conservation in the home country. But elephant conservationists and animal welfare advocates point out a number of flaws in the system. “There are no criteria setting out what “appropriate and acceptable” means and what is really contributing to conservation,” explained Daniela Freyer of Pro-Wildlife, a German-based organisation that seeks to improve international legislation protecting wildlife. “Currently, it is entirely up to authorities in the importing countries to define and decide. There are no common rules and no monitoring of the conditions of the capture, the number of animals being traded, where they will end up or the conditions in which they will be kept at their destination.” There is also no monitoring of the requirement that a sale benefit conservation.

For example, Zimbabwe and China are the biggest players in the live elephant trade, but Iris Ho, wildlife programme manager at Humane Society International (HSI), says they have found little information from the importing countries on the animals’ arrival. “We don’t know how many facilities in China have received the elephants imported from Zimbabwe during the last few years. We don’t know the status of these animals.”

Attempts to comply with the few Cites stipulations such as “appropriate and acceptable destinations” are sometimes dismissed. In 2016, a Zimbabwe delegation of Zimparks and ZNSPCA inspectors travelled to China to access the facilities, where they found that most of the zoos “showed signs of poor treatment of the animals”. But their recommendation that a shipment of 36 elephants “remain in Zimbabwe until the holding facilities in China were completed and assessed for compliance by Zimbabwe”, was ignored.

On September 16 Chinese papers announced in cheery headlines that three elephants – two females and a male, aged approximately four years old – had arrived at the Lehe Ledu wildlife zoo. Photographs of the elephants from Chinese media were analysed by Poole, who noted that the face one of the females looked pinched and stressed. The elephant appears to have begun to wear her tusks down on the bars, rubbing back and forth in frustration. Poole added that the sunken look, dark eyes and mottled skin are common for young, captured elephants. “In the wild, you only see the pinched, sunken look in sick or orphaned elephants.”

The zoo has said that it is providing more than 1,000 square metres of indoor space and 3,000 sq metres outdoors. The animals have six full-time “babysitters” and every meal is prepared carefully, based on scientific recommendation.

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A video posted on YouTube celebrating the arrival of the elephants at Lehe Ledu zoo.

Finally, questions have been asked about whether Zimbabwe is complying with the Cites stipulation that the sale of the elephants must benefit their conservation in the wild. The environment minister, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, was reported in the Guardian last year as saying the sale of the elephants was necessary to raise funds to take care of national parks in Zimbabwe, which have been ravaged by drought and poaching. But in the past, there have been unconfirmed reports of Grace Mugabe, the president’s wife, using funds from the sales of elephants to pay off a military debt to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The international body governing the trade, Cites, is increasingly coming under fire for its role. “The scientific literature states that captive facilities continue to fall far short of meeting elephants’ natural needs for movement, space and extended social networks, with negative effects on health, behavior and reproduction,” said Anna Mulà, a legal adviser on animal law at Fondation Franz Weber, an organisation that is lobbying Cites to end the trade of live elephants.
A spokesman for CITES said: “The triennial CITES conference held last year (CoP17) agreed that ‘appropriate and acceptable destinations’ was defined as destinations where the importing State is satisfied that the recipient of the live animals is suitably equipped to house and care for them. CoP17 also agreed on a process to assess if additional guidance on this matter is required. Further, both the importing and exporting countries are now required to be satisfied that any trade in live elephants should promote the conservation of elephants in the wild. In addition, the exporting Party must also be satisfied that animals are prepared and shipped so as to minimize the risk of injury, damage to health or cruel treatment of live elephants in trade… CITES does not address the way in which the animals are captured or stored prior to export.”

But for now, China continues to import the vulnerable elephants at almost conveyor-belt speed. According to Ho, some pressure to stop the practice is beginning to be felt, but the country is “influenced by the view that breeding is conservation. And then, of course, there is a willing partner in Zimbabwe – and the thrill of seeing African elephants by the visitors.”

It’s a win-win, she said, for those who are financially profiting from the legal trade in the calves. “But it’s a lose-lose for the animals, both imported and left behind.”

Read original article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... inese-zoos


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Re: Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe - CITES statement

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stupid men :evil:
stupid action :evil:

:no: :no: :no:


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Re: Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe - CITES statement

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This is sickening. :-( :-(

The fact that some humans can be so selfless and good, juxtaposed against those who are so coldhearted and evil is unexplainable to me. :no: :no:

This story brings so many tears, not just from me and you, but from the animal youngsters and their families - so much anguish - for such ignorant and self-serving reasons.

The human race can be utterly disgusting, and I am sad to be one of its members at times like this. :-( :-(


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Re: Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe - CITES statement

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:evil: :evil: :evil: 0= 0= @#$ @#$ :no: :no:


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Re: Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe - CITES statement

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I can't even read or look at this stuff anymore...too depressing! :no:


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Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe - CITES Statement

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Mr President: Selling wild-caught baby elephants to China is just plain evil

4 January, 2018 by Simon Espley in Opinion Editorial, Wildlife

Opinion post: Written by Simon Espley, CEO of Africa Geographic
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF ZIMBABWE – EMMERSON MNANGAGWA


As another shipment of wild-caught baby elephants from Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe jets out of Victoria Falls airport on Ethiopian Airlines to zoos and private collections in China, it’s surely time to call this for what it is: Just plain evil.

This is not a conservation or ‘sustainable utilisation’ issue – the removal of this quantity of elephants will certainly not impact significantly on wild elephant populations, or alleviate the claimed pressure from ‘too many’ elephants on vegetation in Hwange. This is also not about what is permissible under CITES regulations.

No, this is quite simply about people in positions of authority abusing their power to do each other favours. This is about return favours between high level people in Zimbabwe and China – “you approve this transaction and I will throw in a few baby elephants for your entertainment” sort of thing. These baby elephants are trinkets on the arms of people who do not care about brand Zimbabwe or the dignity or well-being of individual creatures.

For further information about the impact of this practise on individual baby elephants, read this post: Helpless baby elephants to head for Chinese zoos.

If you are not well-advised on how elephants fare in zoos, this quote is from Peter Stroud, the former curator of the Melbourne Zoo from 1998-2003, who was involved in sourcing elephants from Thailand:

“There is now abundant evidence that elephants do not and cannot thrive in zoos,” Stroud says. “Young elephants will never develop naturally as socially and ecologically functioning beings in zoos. They will face a very long and very slow process of mental and physiological breakdown resulting inevitably in chronic physical and mental abnormality, disease and premature death.”

Moving aside from the moral issue, does it make business sense to endanger your tourism industry, just to keep this barbaric practise going? Zimbabwe is a beautiful and diverse country, with good wildlife populations, fantastic lodges and warm, welcoming people. If you have any doubt about how the world of safari goers feels about this practise of selling baby elephants to zoos, why not ask them? Use social media to reach out – and ask them. Then get clever people to quantify the negative response into likely ongoing loss of tourism business. You decide if the cost is worth the supposed benefit.

If hugely important commercial and political agreements between Zimbabwe and China are dependent on baby elephants being tossed in as by-products, then perhaps you need to ask yourself just how serious China is about Zimbabwe in the first place.

Mr President, your recent rise to power provides a unique opportunity to rid Zimbabwe of this cancer – this morally bankrupt notion that everything is for sale – even baby elephants. Perhaps it’s time to give this issue your attention, and to take action? Zimbabwe’s tourism industry would certainly benefit if you took action and drew a line in the sand. Please, Mr President.


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Re: Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe - CITES Statement

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Good luck, Simon, seriously! :yes:

The new Pres is just as creepy as the last one, but let's see! 0()


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Re: Trade in live elephants from Zimbabwe -

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Confusion as Zimbabwe promises review of elephant exports amidst global condemnation

BY ADAM CRUISE AND CHRISTINA RUSSO - 23 JANUARY 2018 - TRAVELLER24

Three weeks after 31 young elephants were exported, presumedly to China, Zimbabwe’s office of the president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, announced the nation would examine its conservation policies.

“In light of the recent export of elephants from Zimbabwe, the government is reviewing conservation decisions of the previous dispensation and formulating a policy to move forward,” said Christopher Mutsvangwa, the Chief Advisor to the President.

A media report in the Zimbabwe’s Daily News claims that the new president actually went further than a review: the news story says the president fully banned the export of live elephants, as well as the export of rhinoceros, pangolin and lion.

This unconfirmed information has now been extensively quoted on social media.

However, no official statement from the President’s office or any other official Zimbabwean source has confirmed this. Nor could any confirmation of the source of the Daily News article be obtained from the newspaper, who’s editor suggested it came from the initial statement. This clearly did not say the practice would be ‘banned’, only that conservation policies would be ‘reviewed’.

At least, five other well-informed Zimbabwean sources were unable to corroborate the existence of a ban. Yesterday, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the body that governs the international export of live elephants, tweeted the Daily News article announcing the ban but John Scanlon, the CITES Secretary General, was also unable to confirm its validity.

For those who are familiar with Zimbabwe politics, contradictory messages aren’t entirely out of character. “Whilst I am grateful to read of President Mnangagwa’s commitment to preserving Zimbabwe’s wildlife, it is clear that there is often a disconnect between the Zimbabwe’s government’s rhetoric and what happens on the ground,” says former Senator David Coltart, based in Bulawayo. “It is time for actions rather than words. We need new policies to be implemented to address the very serious concerns raised by environmentalists…”

Zimbabwe’s export of elephants, which has seen almost 100 elephant calves exported from Zimbabwe to Chinese zoos since 2012, is becoming increasingly controversial around the globe. A Care2Petition petition to stop the trade garnered almost 280,000 supporters.

Humane Society International (HSI) submitted a letter last week, co-signed by 33 global conservation groups as well as prominent elephant scientists and biologists urging the Zimbabwean president “to immediately halt the further capture and export of young, wild elephants from Zimbabwe’s parks to captive facilities overseas.”

The letter referred especially to a recent Guardian exposé which showed undercover footage of the capture process, including graphic video of a 5-year old female elephant being repeatedly hit and kicked in the head by her captors. The letter further noted that the negative ecological and conservation issues of the live elephant trade which was highlighted in a paper presented at a meeting of the Standing Committee of CITES in Geneva.

“Zimbabwe, and any country that might consider selling elephants to zoos, need to alter their stance and instead see the importance of elephants to their country, its environment and its tourism,” says Rob Brandford, Executive Director of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya. “People will travel to a country to witness elephants being elephants, living wild…they will pay for themselves through the tourists they bring.”

Brandford calls the capture of wild elephant inherently cruel: “We must hope, beyond hope, that the new President of Zimbabwe acts for elephants, which means not allowing their capture from the wild, not selling them to zoos and not allowing them to be hunted – none of those acts will save elephants and the trauma it causes to individuals is unimaginable.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species (IUCN) Survival Commission African Elephant Specialist Group opposes the removal of African elephants from the wild for any captive use, declaring that there is no direct benefit for their conservation in the wild. South Africa has banned the capture of elephants from the wild for permanent captivity in 2008.

Damien Mander, Founder of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF), believes the recent statement from the office of the President will “begin to shape Zimbabwe’s future position and the government’s willingness to work with the global community.”

“There is still much baggage to be shed,” he admits, but “discussions with the new leadership leave me confident that Zimbabwe and its conservation policies are moving in the right direction, step by step.”

But, while Mnangagwa hailed Zimbabwe’s current progress with regards to the conservation of pangolins and the IAPF’s introduction of an all-female anti-poaching unit, he made no further mention whether his government would continue with the capture and export of live wild elephants.

In the meantime, the Chinese foreign ministry replied: “We do not know of such circumstances” when questioned on the last round of export of elephants to China in December last year, including when they arrived and their condition.

Animal welfare advocates sent photos of an Ethiopian Airways cargo flight which they claimed transported the elephants from Victoria Falls to China.

Flight analysts at FlightAware, a global flight tracking system, identified an Ethiopian Airways Boeing 777 Cargo aircraft, that departed near Victoria Falls on December 29. The aircraft appears to have stopped for fuel near Mumbai India and was tracked until it ultimately arrived near Guangzhou, China.

Requests for comment from Ethiopian Airlines were also not responded to at the time of this writing.

Read original article: http://www.traveller24.com/Explore/Gree ... n-20180123


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