Elephant Management and Poaching in African Countries

[Lisbeth]

It's a very expensive affair.

I wonder if SANParks has been asked to participate

[Lisbeth]

Battle lines drawn over the future of elephants


A herd of elephants cross the Crocodile River on 29 May 2013 near the Melalane gate in Kruger National Park, South Africa. There were crocodiles in the river, but the elephants chased them away. (Photo by Gallo Images / Foto24 / Craig Nieuwenhuizen)

By Don Pinnock | 14 Nov 2022

Are elephants global treasures in urgent need of protection, or a commodity on the world market? According to positions being taken at the UN wildlife trade organisation Cites meeting in Panama, they cannot be both.
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This week, 183 countries at the Cites Congress of Parties (CoP) meeting in Panama will consider more than 100 proposals on the trade and protection of wild animals and plants. High on the agenda are elephants and sparks are sure to fly.

In 1980, the African elephant population was estimated at 1.3 million. Following a census in 2015, only 415,428 remained. An African Elephant Status Report calculated an overall decline of 68% in the past 30 years, with a catastrophic drop of 86% for forest elephants.



Protection status

Five countries (Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Syria) will propose listing all African elephants as Appendix 1 — the highest protection. This is a direct challenge to Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe where, under special dispensation, their elephants were listed as Appendix 2 and tradeable.

The proposal notes that elephants in Africa are not nationally owned and that 76% are found in transboundary populations. These include the populations of Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Therefore elephant conservation can only be addressed effectively at the continental level.

The current split listing, they say, has caused legal anomalies, with signatory parties adopting different interpretations. This has caused inconsistency and confusion in the way Cites is applied to African elephants. Uplisting would provide this common framework for all elephants and the basis for coordinated action and unified protection for elephants across the continent.

Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe will submit a counter proposal which will seek to ensure the trade of ivory from government stockpiles. They will argue, as they have at precious CoPs, that Cites has discounted “the importance of the southern African elephant population and its conservation needs against other regions in Africa.”

Arguments against this are that previous one-off sales stimulated demand for ivory in China and other Asian markets, exacerbating elephant poaching and ivory trafficking. The one-off sale in 2008, according to the Max Weber Foundation, resulted in “the greatest illicit ivory trade flows out of Africa.”

Stockpiles

On the issue of national stockpiles of ivory, 10 African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia, Niger, Senegal and Togo) will propose their total destruction.

This is because, they say, stockpiles are growing worldwide, are costly to maintain and are inadequately monitored.

“This presents a serious threat to elephants through leakage of ivory into illegal trade, which perpetuates demand and ongoing markets for ivory.” Reports of ivory disappearing or being stolen from stockpiles are routine. Their continued presence, says the submission, sends the signal that future ivory sales are anticipated.

“Destruction of ivory and putting ivory stockpiles beyond commercial use will help to neutralise expectations of future trade in ivory and will discourage future markets.”

In a separate submission, Kenya will propose setting up a fund to compensate for the destruction of stockpiles. A recent study found that ivory thought to be from stockpiles showed up in 2017 to 2019 seizures.

Close the markets

The same 10 countries proposing the destruction of stockpiles will also call for the closure of domestic ivory markets. Many countries, says their proposal, have taken steps to close or nearly close their ivory markets, including the US, China, Hong Kong, Israel, the UK, EU and Singapore. But open ivory markets persist in several countries that continue to threaten the conservation of elephants.

They highlight Japan as a non-range ivory market with large stockpiles and porous controls. The country continues to be a source of illegal ivory exports, undermining market closures by other countries. “Non-range States with open domestic markets should be prioritised for closure, since their markets can only be maintained by importing ivory from elephant range countries.”

The 10 African countries will also propose an end to the trade in wild-caught elephants. They will express particular concern about their continued export from Zimbabwe and Namibia, which has generated widespread condemnation. A number of these elephants have been confirmed or are believed to have died in the destination countries. Others died during capture and preparation for export.

Cites recognises that elephants are highly social animals and that their removal from their social groups has detrimental effects on their physical and social wellbeing and disrupts the breeding herds.

The bigger picture

Cites was established in 1973 and accords varying degrees of protection to more than 35,000 species of wild animals and plants. Currently, 184 countries are Parties to the Convention. The organisation is often accused of inefficiency and, though it makes internationally agreed-on rules around trade, it has no policing function to ensure they’re carried out.

The space for wildlife on earth and their numbers are shrinking dramatically in the face of the relentless human onslaught on their bodies and rangelands.

A quarter of the world’s mammals are threatened with extinction, particularly those in the tropics, with the largest mammals at the greatest risk of extinction. Poaching has led to a dramatic decline in elephant populations, with all species now critically endangered or endangered with extinction. Wild mammal biomass has declined by 85% since the rise of human civilisations, mainly driven by overhunting and habitat loss.

Wild animals make up only 4% of the world’s mammals. Humans account for 34% and our livestock for 62%. The scale is best understood through graphics. DM

[Lisbeth]

Cites places temporary ban on the export of live elephants from African countries


An African elephant, Alfonso Nqunjana

Lenin Ndebele 24.11.2022

The ongoing Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), in Panama, placed a temporary ban on live elephant exports from Africa and shut the door on the ivory trade.

The brief ban has compromised countries, such as Zimbabwe and Namibia, who have been trading in live elephants.

On 6 March this year, Namibia announced that 22 live, wild-caught elephants had been exported to the United Arab Emirates, in what it called a private transaction, amid an outcry by animal activists.

In 2019, Zimbabwe sold more than 90 elephants to China and Dubai.

The government said the money raised would be used for conservation efforts.

Foundation Franz Weber (FFW), which has been working for the protection of African elephants since 1975, and is an observer at the Cites meeting, said: "The African countries will now enter into a dialogue to try to find common ground on the issue."

The 18th Conference of the Parties voted in 2019 to restrict live elephant exports to conservation sites within the species' natural range, except in exceptional cases.

At the time, it was agreed that exporting elephants to zoos across the world had a negative impact on conservation.

But Zimbabwe and Namibia took advantage of legal uncertainties and continued to capture wild elephants.

The moratorium

To address this lack of legal clarity that Namibia and Zimbabwe capitalised on, many members of the African Elephant Coalition (AEC), an association of more than 30 African nations, made a proposal at the Cites meeting.

The European Union (EU), also at the Cites meeting, proposed to establish a dialogue between the AEC and those southern African countries who want to sell their elephants.

The EU suggestion was taken up and this means a brief ban as countries engage on the matter.

"This landmark decision will temporarily protect elephants – at least until the Cites parties make a final decision," said FFW.

No to the ivory trade

Zimbabwe went to the Cites meeting with a proposal to allow countries, with stockpiles of ivory, to be allowed to auction them.

But Kenya went there with another idea - to create a fund for countries with stockpiles to be compensated for burning the ivory.

In 2016, Kenya burnt a stockpile of ivory, worth about R2 billion, to show their commitment to saving Africa's elephants.

While the suggestion for a fund by Kenya is being looked into, Zimbabwe's plea was outright rejected.

FFW said:

• The Cites Conference of the Parties largely rejected all attempts by southern African countries to reopen international trade in elephant ivory. While just a few years ago, such proposals found support among Cites member countries, it now seems clear that ivory belongs to elephants and the trade should remain banned.
  According to Zimbabwe's bid, "Cites has acted as an inhibitor and not an enabler of progress".

The country also noted that Cites has "repeatedly discounted the importance of the southern African elephant population and its conservation needs against other regions in Africa".

For the first time, India abstained from voting on the proposal to allow the commercial sale of ivory from African elephants.

India has long been against the ivory trade.

The stance by India came amid claims that Namibia sought India's help to reverse the ban on the global ivory trade as part of its deal to transfer African cheetahs.

[Richprins]

If there is an overpopulation of elephants, why not export them?

The money is very much needed for conservation, as they say.

[Lisbeth]

It all depends on where? Certainly not to Chinese zoos

[Lisbeth]

Mapping a future and sustainable pathways for southern Africa’s wild elephants


Confinement to protected areas and the fragmentation of the once continuous population, scientists found, have adverse demographic and genetic consequences for elephants and urgent action is needed. (Photo: Supplied)

By Don Pinnock | 29 Nov 2022

If Africa’s elephants had the choice, as they once had for millions of years, where would they go and why? With telemetry, scientists can answer these questions and propose new routes for conservation.
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Most of the world’s savannah elephants live in southern Africa. They were once a nation of great travellers linked by well-worn paths, meeting and mixing across seven million square kilometres. Today they’re boxed into the equivalent of separate villages — national parks and private reserves — by human settlements and fences.

They have always shared land with humans, but human population growth and rapid land cover change across southern Africa over the past century have increased human-elephant conflict.

People now dominate 80% of the land elephants used to live on before colonial developments. Though their compression into defined areas has protected them up to now and provided a foundation, confinement is creating problems.


Several top elephant scientists have posed a challenging question and attempted to answer it: where today would elephants prefer to go if they were not restricted and to what degree could their wishes be granted? (Photo: Supplied)

Seeking solutions, several top elephant scientists have posed a challenging question and attempted to answer it: where today would elephants prefer to go if they were not restricted and to what degree could their wishes be granted?

Satellite telemetry data
The new study by researchers from South Africa, the US, Australia and Botswana used 1.2-million satellite telemetry data points to track 261 elephants across the region, highlighting what natural features limit or support their mobility.

Their reasoning is that restricting their movement is contrary to the first principles of conservation and out of step with the Global Deal for Nature, which aims to enhance the connectivity of protected areas and improve population viability, especially of large herbivores like elephants.

Confinement to protected areas and the fragmentation of the once continuous population, they found, have adverse demographic and genetic consequences for elephants and urgent action is needed.

The study focuses on Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia where around 80% of the world’s savannah elephants live, mostly within about 900,000 km2 of protected areas.

What are the prospects of opening up corridors and improving connections between protected areas? “Elephants are not demanding,” says the study. “They need space, water, grass and trees as well as freedom from harassment. However, savanna Africa is no longer theirs.”

Because unsuitable areas for elephants surround their habitats, their movement is restricted by artificial barriers, such as roads or fences. Long-term population stability will be difficult without their dispersal.

A solution
Reconnecting nature, say the researchers, offers a solution. “In cooperation with local communities and governments, protecting the connections for elephant dispersal may represent some of our best chances at a sustainable future for elephants.”


Southern African elephant corridors. (Map: Supplied)

The core clusters studied were Etosha and the Zambezia region in Namibia, Chobe in Botswana, parts of north-west Zimbabwe, Kafue in Zambia, Greater Limpopo, which includes Kruger National Park in South Africa and parts of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, Luangwa in Zambia and Malawi, Maputo in southern Mozambique and South Africa plus Niassa in Mozambique.

To build a dispersal plan, it was essential to know elephant preferences. “Once we understand the individual effects of the environment and human activity elephant preferences,” say the researchers, “we may synthesise these insights to map what areas are left to elephants.”

They associate with species like mopane, silver cluster leaf and russet bushwillow. Collared elephants with satellite uplinks — the study’s “pilots” — recorded a 94% preference for large rivers. In dry areas they can dig for water in dry river beds, enabling them to survive in what would otherwise be inhospitable terrain. They naturally prefer areas with low human populations.

Central to the dispersal map were the restrictions to movement. Highest on the list of impassable barriers was fences. The telemetry readings showed they blocked and bottlenecked movement, hindering trans-frontier movement.

The study points out the dangers of fencing off areas. When Kruger Park was entirely fenced, managers were so concerned by high elephant numbers that they culled some 17,000 animals over 27 years. “Fences concentrate individuals near them, depleting the vegetation. When barriers restrict animal movement, the consequences can be severe.”


Because unsuitable areas for elephants surround their habitats, their movement is restricted by artificial barriers, such as roads or fences. (Photo: Supplied)

In the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (Kaza) area, elephant dispersal is dependent on the permeability of human settlements along the Namibia-Zambia border and major rivers, the Chobe and the Zambezi.

International border fence
“Despite Kaza’s mission to facilitate trans-frontier dispersal, the international border fence is a hard barrier to movement between Namibia and Botswana. Elephants in Khaudum cannot easily reach elephants on the western banks of the Okavango Delta despite the proximity and suitable habitat.”

Low rainfall years in the area causes higher juvenile mortality for fenced than unfenced populations.

Movement northwards within Kaza towards Sioma Ngwezi and Kafue national parks in Zambia is hampered by extensive rangeland, though several proposed corridors would facilitate movement.

More than 30,000 elephants live in the 80,000km2 Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area which includes Kruger National Park, Limpopo National Park and Gonarezhou National Park. The area is vital for elephant conservation. According to the researchers, this area and that to the east towards Banhine and Zinave National parks are suitable for elephant movement because of low human activity.

In some areas, the movement of elephants is not possible, with connectivity broken by mountain ranges and human activity. Crossing Malawi or connecting northern and southern Mozambique are examples.


People now dominate 80% of the land elephants used to live on before colonial developments. (Photo: Supplied)

The largest potential for dispersion lies in the regions where moderate human impacts overlap with elephant preferences. Then there are suitable areas where elephants easily roam such as northern Namibia or the Botswana-Zimbabwe border, but there is conflict with local communities.

Feasibility
“While many of these regions represent the last opportunities to connect conservation clusters, what remains unknown is the feasibility of connections,” say the researchers. Many communities are amenable to compensation for relocations and many promising frameworks exist for sustainable coexistence. “It is this intersection of need and potential that should drive conservation efforts.

“For many parts of Africa,” says the study, “the answer of whether it is possible to reconnect elephant populations into a more robust metapopulation is not only dependent on environmental or anthropogenic limitations but rather on sociopolitical will. Will governments cooperate?

“If so, where and what are the constraints to be considered: fences, water, terrain, suitable and safe habitat, communities and cattle, open corridors or is it mainly sociopolitical will?

“These are undoubtedly difficult questions, but we must pose them when seeking connectivity across a continent.”

For elephants, answering those questions is vital for the future of their nation on African soil. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

African elephants are desperate for water, causing populations to decline


A family of African elephants drink at a waterhole in the Addo Elephant National Park. (Photo: EPA / Jon Hrusa)

By Rachael Gross and Rob Heinsohn | 17 Jan 2023

Ensuring African elephants survive drought will increasingly require new conservation strategies, lest already dwindling populations continue to decline.
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African elephant numbers have dropped from about 26 million in the 1800s to 415,000 today. While this is largely due to European colonisation, poaching and habitat loss, these majestic animals now face another grave challenge.

Climate change is causing droughts in much of Africa to become longer and more severe. This damages elephant habitats and denies them the water they need. Due to their unique physiology, African elephants need hundreds of litres of water each day to survive.

The African savanna elephant is listed as endangered. If the situation doesn’t change, Africa – indeed, the world – may lose one of its most iconic animal species.

A tragic plight

Elephants are not just important for their ecological, cultural and economic value. They are also a keystone species – that is, they help hold ecosystems together. This means their decline has far-reaching consequences.

Many African ecosystems pivot around the lives of elephants. Elephant feeding habits, such as pushing over trees and peeling off bark, can turn woody vegetation into grasslands. This makes room for smaller species to move in. Their digging for water in dry riverbeds creates water holes other animals can use. And as they migrate, elephants help spread seeds in their dung.

Under climate change, long, intense droughts across southern and eastern Africa are escalating. Some have lasted more than 20 years.

The conditions have left many elephants desperate for water. Research as far back as 2003 shows elephants in Zimbabwe were dying during drought. And in 2016, when a drying El Nino weather pattern hit southern Africa, there were reports of more elephant deaths, prompting a local conservation group to drill bore holes to provide relief.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Battle lines drawn over the future of elephants”

Drought can also reduce the availability of food, causing elephants to starve. It can also mean young elephants die or don’t develop properly, because their parched mothers produce less milk.

A unique physiology

So, why do elephants struggle in drought and heat?

When elephants experience high internal temperatures, it can disrupt the function of cells, tissues and organs such as the liver and cause them to become sick and die.

Humans and other animals also suffer heat stress. But elephants are particularly vulnerable because they can’t sweat it off.

The graphic below shows how heat accumulates and dissipates in elephants.

Heat accumulates through an elephants’ natural metabolism and physical activity, as well as being absorbed from the environment.

But it does not always effectively dissipate. Elephants’ thick skin slows heat loss – and their lack of sweat glands exacerbates this.


The sources of heat gain in elephants, how heat is retained, and how they dissipate heat.
What’s more, elephants are the largest of all land mammals, weighing up to eight tonnes. They also have a large body volume – which generates heat – but a relatively small surface area (their skin) from which to lose this heat.

Water is essential for elephants to cope with heat. They swim and spray their skin with mud and water; the subsequent evaporation mimics sweating and cools them down.

And elephants cool themselves internally by drinking several hundred litres of water a day.

Let elephants roam free

Creating artificial water sources is a common management intervention when elephants need water. This includes the use of pipes, bores and pumps.

But this measure can be problematic. Sometimes, the water is sourced from supplies needed by local people. And large numbers of elephants congregating around water can permanently damage the local environment and reduce food availability for other animals.

Historically, elephants migrated to water during drought. But the introduction of fenced areas in the landscape has disrupted this movement.

Fences were constructed to mark out colonial land ownership, separate people from large animals and deter poachers.

But as climate change worsens in Africa, elephants and other wildlife must be able to move freely between connected habitats.

Wildlife corridors may provide an answer. These are protected channels of vegetation that enable animals to move between fragmented patches of habitat. Wildlife corridors work well for megafauna in India and the United States and would likely increase mobility for much of Africa’s wildlife.

Introducing more wildlife corridors, especially in southern and eastern Africa, would require removing fences. This change would have repercussions.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Jozini Dam: Twenty-five slaughtered elephants later, tourists in a viewing boat come under poachers’ gunfire”

Nearby communities – which have not coexisted with elephants since colonisation – would have to adjust to the change. The removal of fences may also lead to an increase in poaching. And letting elephants roam the landscape may make them less accessible to tourists, which could reduce tourism revenue.

But communities have coexisted with elephants in the past. And community-based projects have been shown to reduce conflict between humans and wildlife. In some cases, they’ve also led to lower poaching rates and increased quality of life for communities.

Community management projects, such as in Northern Kgalagadi in Botswana, show how local expertise – drawn from millennia of experience and knowledge – can guide wildlife management. Research has shown successful outcomes – both socially and ecologically – in places where elephants share landscapes with people.

Protecting a keystone species

Ensuring African elephants survive drought will increasingly require new conservation strategies, including community-based management. Without this, already dwindling elephant populations will continue to decline.

This would be bad news for the health and stability of natural ecosystems in Africa – and a blow to Africa’s people. DM/OBP

Rachael Gross, PhD Scholar in Applied Conservation Ecology, Australian National University and Rob Heinsohn, Professor of Evolutionary and Conservation Biology, Australian National University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence.

[Lisbeth]

20.10.2023 Africa Geographic

....Meanwhile my sources tell me that elephant poaching is on the rise again in northern Botswana. Apparently the Zambian syndicates that have stripped Botswana of her rhino population have taken many tons of raw ivory in the last few months - including one of the few remaining tuskers (giant elephants with tusks that weigh 100 pounds each side). Northern Kruger National Park is also under siege, with lions and vultures being targeted. Perhaps one day our governments will protect their revenue-producing, job-creating wildlife with as much passion as they do their salaries and errant colleagues …

Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO

[Lisbeth]

Hundreds of elephants suddenly fell and died – now the cause has been found
About 350 elephants mysteriously died in 2020.

OLIVIA EMMA ESPERSEN, Journalist, Wednesday the 25. October 2023, 22.12

In 2020, 350 elephants mysteriously died in Botswana, while another 35 died in similar circumstances in Zimbabwe. Now researchers believe that they have found the cause.


Photo: EPA/Ritzau Scanpix

In May-June 2020, 350 elephants of all ages and of both sexes died in Botswana.
The elephants walked around in circles before they suddenly fell.


Two months later, another 35 elephants died in northwest Zimbabwe.

This sparked global speculation about what had caused the deaths of the elephants. At that time, the sudden deaths were attributed to an unspecified toxin, government officials said, but no further details were published.



Now tests on the elephants that died in Zimbabwe have come back – and they show that a bacterium called Bisgaard taxon 45 resulted in blood poisoning. The Guardian writes.

According to the journal Nature Communications, bacterial infection has not previously been associated with elephant deaths.
Scientists believe that the bacterium may be the same that is responsible for deaths in neighbouring countries.

This is worrying about the lives of endangered elephants, writes an international team of scientists from the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, the University of Surrey, laboratories in South Africa and the British government's Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

Endangered species

The population of African savanna elephants is decreasing by eight per cent a year, mainly due to poaching.
There are only 350,000 left in nature.

Scientists suggest that infectious diseases should be added to the list of threats to the survival of the endangered species.
It is not described how the bacterium has found its way into the elephants. Pasteurella bacteria such as Bisgaard taxon 45 have previously been associated with the sudden death of about 200,000 saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan.

Scientists believe that the Pasteurella bacterium generally lives harmlessly in the tonsils of some, if not all, antelopes. However, an unusual increase in temperature caused the bacteria to pass into the bloodstream of the animals, causing blood poisoning.

Bisgaard taxon 45 according to the Guardian, has also previously been found to exist in lions, tigers, ground squirrels and birds.

The experts also tested the elephants for cyanide, which some people use to poison elephants, but there was no trace of poison either in the elephants or near the ponds.

Poaching was quickly ruled out because the elephants continued to have their tusks, which the illegal fighters typically slaughter the elephants to get hold of.

https://www.berlingske.dk/international ... nu-har-man

[Richprins]

Interesting!