Elephant Management and Poaching in South Africa

Discussion on Elephant Management and poaching topics
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Re: Elephant poached in South Africa

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Ivory now on poachers’ shopping list

May 24 2013 at 09:01am
By Tony Carnie


Durban - An elephant has been gunned down in the Tembe Elephant Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, an ominous signal that Mozambique-based rhino horn syndicates have added ivory to their shopping list.

The killing was the first confirmed case of ivory poaching in Tembe and other South African government reserves in the past several years and has heightened concern in conservation circles that elephants will soon be targeted actively in this region because of surging black market prices for ivory.

The adult elephant cow was shot several times on Monday by eight poachers armed with at least one AK-47 assault rifle. Before they fled into Mozambique under cover of darkness, the gang hacked out both tusks and also chopped off part of the elephant’s trunk and tail.

The killing comes just a month after the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) warned that South Africa’s elephants – largely safe from the current ivory massacres in central and eastern Africa – could be next as ivory prices have doubled over the past three years.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife confirmed that patrolling rangers heard the sound of shots and tried to give chase. They had to give up because it was too dark to follow the poachers’ tracks.

The search resumed at first light the next day but the gang had already crossed the border into Mozambique.

“Evidence points to a group of eight poachers using an AK-47 to kill the elephant with six shots, and cutting the tusks out using sharp instruments,” Ezemvelo officials said.

There are about 250 elephants in the 30 000-hectare Tembe Elephant reserve, which is on the province’s northern border with Mozambique.

Recent statistics presented to a wildlife trade meeting suggest that no elephants had been poached in the Kruger National Park or other local parks for the past five years, with very low poaching rates for the past decade.


The last serious elephant poaching threat in Kruger was in 1981, when 102 elephants were killed for their ivory. SanParks spokesman Ike Phaahla dismissed reports that a number of elephant had been poached in Kruger over the past month.

“To my knowledge, we have not lost any elephants this year to poaching.

“We have not had a problem for a long time now, but we have taken a long-term view that the new protection measures for rhino apply to all other species of wildlife.”

Nevertheless, Wessa said the southward migration of ivory poaching was likely to mirror the threat that was experienced by rhinos in other parts of the continent.

“The scramble for Africa’s natural resources is expanding exponentially, not only in terms of area, but also in terms of products, including wildlife, the society said. - The Mercury


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Elephant poaching returns

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0/* Could it be possible to make a new topic in the SanParks & Government Idiocracies section with the titel: Elephant Poaching.......this problem seems to return :evil:

Elephant poachers return
25 May 2013
Elise Tempelhoff

For the first time in decades, an elephant was shot for its tusks in South Africa this week.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesman Musa Mnthabo said yesterday an adult cow was poached in the Tembe Elephant Park in the far north of KZN.
It is believed the poachers came over the border from Mozambique. Tracks indicated there were six to eight people involved, Mnthabo said.
He said rangers patrolling on foot heard shots at dusk on Tuesday. They investigated, but in the thick bush and rapidly falling darkness they could find nothing. The following day they returned to the area and found the carcass of the elephant cow. The tusks had been removed.
Rangers followed the tracks “up to a point” and it seemed the poachers had fled into Mozambique.
“We regard it as an isolated incident,” said Mnthabo.
SANParks spokesman Rey Thakhuli said everyone involved with South Africa’s national parks was on alert.
Thakhuli said SANParks was aware of the threat of elephant poaching, which is rife in central Africa, but it was the first incident in South Africa in two decades “or even longer”.
A report tabled at the recent Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species meeting in Thailand said that since 2011, 25 000 elephants had been poached in Africa.
South Africa has so far avoided the onslaught, but the Wildlife and Environment Society (Wessa) recently warned that the country must prepare for elephant poachers moving south since most of central Africa’s elephants have been wiped out already.

Wessa said South Africa was being stripped of minerals and rhinos. “The next target will be elephants.”
The International Fund for Animal Welfare said in a statement earlier this week that a shipment of 259 African elephant tusks had been seized at Dubai.
At least five tons of ivory had been seized this year, including one ton in Hong Kong, two tons in Mombasa, Kenya, and more than 1,8 tons in Singapore.
Some of it was packed in sacks marked “red beans”. Most ivory is destined for China, where it is regarded as “white gold”.
The onslaught on Africa’s elephants began in 1970 and led to a ban on ivory sales in 1989. Between 1970 and 1980, the continent’s elephant population fell from about 1,2 million to 600 000.

source: http://www.witness.co.za/


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Re: Elephant poaching returns

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vinkie wrote:0/* Could it be possible to make a new topic in the SanParks & Government Idiocracies section with the titel: Elephant Poaching.......this problem seems to return :evil:
We are looking at it, vinkie...not really a SanParks issue yet! -O- Stay tuned! \O


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Re: Elephant poaching returns

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Richprins wrote: We are looking at it, vinkie...not really a SanParks issue yet! -O- Stay tuned! \O
True but I meant a new Topic, doesnt have to be SANParks....it concerns the whole of "South"Africa :evil: O/


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Re: Elephant poaching returns

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vinkie wrote:
Richprins wrote: We are looking at it, vinkie...not really a SanParks issue yet! -O- Stay tuned! \O
True but I meant a new Topic, doesnt have to be SANParks....it concerns the whole of "South"Africa :evil: O/
\O I'm with you on this one! ;-)


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Re: Elephant poached in South Africa

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Here you are vinkie, we aim to please \O


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Re: Elephant poached in South Africa

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iNdlovu wrote:Here you are vinkie, we aim to please \O

0/* iNdlovu thank you \O O0

The subject elephant poaching needs all the attention it can get, glad we have Forum section concerning this matter now. \Ot


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Re: Elephant Poaching in South Africa

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Parliamentary Questions
Reply received: August 2013

QUESTION NO.1959 NW2311E

INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 24 of 2013

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 02 August 2013

Mr N J J van R Koornhof to ask the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs:

How many elephants were poached in the Kruger National Park in the 2012-2013 financial year?

1959. THE MINISTER OF WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS REPLIES:

One suspected incident Pafuri, KNP – 1 adult elephant carcass approximately 2 months old found on the Pafuri Section by Rangers on the 28 April, 2013.


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Tanzania and Kenya:The world’s worst elephant slaughter hous

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BY APOLINARI TAIRO / ETN AFRICA CORRESPONDENT , TANZANIA/DAR ES SALAAM | SEP 08, 2013

Recent report by the United Nations on organized crime had implicated
Tanzania and Kenya as being the leading elephant slaughter houses in
the world, holding 70 percent of global ivory trade.

Released last week, the report that has been coordinated and compiled
by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime warned the two East African
nations over the killing of the elephants, saying the trend would
jeorpadize regional tourism.

The report revealed that almost 70 per cent of the bloody ivory
consignments intercepted at different ports in the world during the
past four years originated from East Africa, mostly Tanzania and Kenya
which are the only elephant keeping nations.

According to this report, Tanzania stood the leading elephant
slaughter house with 37 percent of confiscated bloody ivory, while
Kenya holding 27 percent of the seized ivory.

From this report, Tanzania and Kenya are the biggest elephant
slaughter houses in East Africa, leading to decimation of the African
jumbo population.

Other East African countries have been reported to have marginal
percentage of bloody ivory by three percent and zero percent. Uganda
counted just three percent while Rwanda and Burundi had zero percent
of the ivory seizures.

The report had documented ivory confiscations originating from East
Africa, saying bloody ivory seizures rose from 11 in between 2000 and
2008 to 17 between 2009 to 201, an indication that poaching of
tuskers was at an alarming pace.

Other African elephant keeping countries of West and Central Africa
had a significant drop from 11 seized ivory consignments between 2000
and 2008 to three between 2009 and 2011, the UN report said.

“The African elephant is not currently deemed ‘endangered’ as a
species, but its decimation in Eastern Africa could be devastating.
Its loss could seriously undermine local tourist revenue, a key source
of foreign exchange for many of the countries of the region,” part of
the UN report said.

Tourism already contributes the largest share of Kenya’s foreign
earnings and comes second in Tanzania after gold.

New statistics in Tanzania indicate that there is a likely possibility
of tourism overtaking gold as the country’s major foreign currency
earner.

East Africa is home to the largest elephant population in Africa where
more than 140,000 tuskers in Eastern Africa are living today. This
number constitutes about one-third of the African elephant population.

“An estimated 73 per cent of the elephants are located in Tanzania,
and adding populations in Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda would cover
99 per cent. These four countries are the source of most of the
illicit ivory harvested in the continent,” the report added.

Conservationists estimate that between four and 11 per cent of the
elephant population in Eastern Africa was killed in 2011; this would
amount to between 5,600 and 15,400 elephants which produced between 56
and 154 metric tons of ivory originating in Eastern Africa.

Tanzania’s biggest wildlife park, Selous Game Reserve, harbors the
biggest population of elephants in East Africa with more than 50,000
animals (elephants).

Ruaha, Katavi and Mkomazi National Parks in Tanzania had big
percentages of elephant poaching. Ruaha had recorded 94 percent and
Mkomazi 100 per cent of the elephants killed by poachers during the
years mentioned in the UN report.

The bloody ivory from poached elephants is smuggled to China, Vietnam
and other Asian countries through Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar in
Tanzania and the port of Mombasa in Kenya, all accounting for two
thirds of the global market ivory shipments.

In November 2012, Hong Kong authorities seized US dollars 1.4 million
worth of smuggled ivory in a container from Tanzania. The 569 tusks
were found buried under hundreds of bags of sunflower seeds.

Corruption within security operatives and political spheres in both
Kenya Tanzania is said to have been fuelling elephant poaching and
trade in bloody ivory.

In Tanzania, top politicians and leaders from the ruling Chama Cha
Mapinduzi (CCM) Party have been implicated with trade in bloody ivory.
Tanzania’s ruling Communist manifestoed CCM party has its grassroots
leaders located in every corner of Tanzania, but conservationists
blamed them for collaboration with elephant poachers.

Tanzanian minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr. Khamis
Kagasheki, once said in Parliament that some politicians were involved
in the bloody ivory trade.

“It is very unfortunate that this illicit business involves some rich
people and politicians who have formed a very sophisticated network,”
Mr. Kagasheki once said.


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Re: Elephant Poaching in South Africa

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Are Kruger's ellies safe?

December 23, 2013, 8:01 AM
Public concern for rhinos is very high, but elephants may face as big a threat from poachers. It's a matter that is of serious concern for SANParks.
By Sharon van Wyk

South African National Parks (SANParks) has been warned that the scourge of ivory poaching currently affecting the rest of Africa is likely to hit South Africa in 2014 according to Dr Hector Magome, SANParks Managing Executive: Conservation Services.

“At CITES (Convention for The Trade in Endangered Species) held in Bangkok in March we were warned that elephant poaching is going to hit us like an avalanche as early as January next year,” says Magome. “As such, at our rhino poaching strategy meeting in September we adopted a dual strategy approach focusing on both rhino and elephant poaching in order to properly prepare.”

The recent cyanide poisoning of elephants in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park has done much to alert the world to out-of-control ivory poaching, which is currently killing as many as 100 elephants a day – one every 15 minutes or an estimated 32 000 elephants per annum. Closer to home, it has focused SANParks on the need to adequately protect the elephants in its care from a similar fate, given the rhino losses it is currently experiencing.

Reeling from the onslaught of rhino poaching syndicates, which has seen rhino numbers decimated in its flagship property, the Kruger National Park, SANParks has beefed up its anti-poaching unit in Kruger under the leadership of Major General Johan Jooste. But while the eyes and ears of the park are focussed on protecting rhino, are Kruger’s elephants – among them the last remaining huge tuskers – tempting targets for ivory poachers?

The northern reaches of Kruger abut Zimbabwe and Mozambique, both countries where ivory poaching is out of control. From the Limpopo River down through swathes of seemingly endless mopane to the regional ranger station at the Phalaborwa Gate, there are fewer roads than in the park’s tourist-intensive south, which makes the task of patrolling all the more difficult for Kruger’s custodians.

Crook’s Corner is positioned at the confluence of the Limpopo and Luvuvhu rivers, where South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique meet. It used to be a haven for gun-runners and poachers at the turn of the 20th century and it was here that legendary ivory poacher Cecil Barnard took refuge from the authorities in the 1920s. Some believe that this is where modern ivory poachers will start targeting the huge elephant herds that often congregate in this part of the Kruger Park, as well as along the open border with Mozambique that has proved so problematic in the battle against rhino poaching.

“Our Mozambican counterparts are apparently losing three elephants a day to poachers at the moment,” says Magome, acknowledging that the actual losses could be much higher. “Given what is going on in the rest of Africa, it is inevitable that South Africa’s elephants will eventually be targeted.”

Magome says that there is little to prevent ivory poachers from entering Kruger in search of what he describes as a “double hit” – targeting both elephant and rhino in a single foray. And should poachers resort to using cyanide to poison water sources and salt-licks, particularly in the far north of the park, the consequences would be an ecological disaster of unparalleled proportions. The deadly chemical is not as obvious as a weapon, and may be easier to smuggle into the park as a result.

“We are planning well ahead and are prepared for what may come,” says Magome. “The last thing we want is for Kruger’s elephants to suffer the same fate as those in Hwange.”


Sharon van Wyk is an award-winning conservation writer and wildlife documentary maker and works with the Conservation Action Trust


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