Circus Elephants Rush to Help Friend Who Fell During Stunt.
Getting the chance to see an elephant up close and personal in the circus is something that many animal lovers dream of doing. Sadly, however, many don’t realize the enormous amount of cruelty that happens behind the scenes at circuses. While elephants are extremely intelligent animals, the feats that they perform in these spectacles are never done at the elephant’s own will. These animals are broken down and ruthlessly trained to perform unnatural behaviors at the behest of their owners, usually this is accomplished through starvation, physical abuse and other cruel methods.
There are many reasons why elephants don’t belong in the circus, but this video is ultimate proof to this fact. When the elephant falls to the ground, not only do his trainers rush to right the animal, but the other elephants in the show also come to lend a hand. These elephants demonstrate their deep ability to feel compassion for one another and their swift action just goes to show that these complex animals have no business being reduced to spectacles for human entertainment.
We can all help elephants by boycotting circuses and zoos that hold them in captivity for profit. Elephants belong in the wild, not on display for the sake of people.
3 Things Captive Elephants Never Experience. The concern surrounding the welfare of elephants in captivity is nothing new. The more we learn about these self-aware animals, the harder it becomes to justify keeping them in captivity. While many “new” zoos have come a long way in comparison to the zoos we knew years ago, the animals in their care still suffer tremendously both physically and psychologically.
1. Family Relationships
2. Exercise
3. Natural Behaviors
This is the video to witness the minute of reunion Mebai - Mae Yui mother and daughter who separated for many year. See how much joy they are. Over three years apart they have a lots stories to tell to each others. Follow full story soon
Oh boy, get ready for some elephant sized happy tears!
At three years old, Me-Bai the elephant was ripped from her mother’s side and sold into the Thai tourism industry. The poor calf was subjected to a brutal “breaking” period and forced to give rides to paying customers day in and day out. This trauma and stress took a serious toll on Me-Bai’s well-being and she grew too weak to carry tourists.
Lucky for this young elephant, her owner took pity on her and retired her to Elephant Nature Park. Once she was released to Elephant Nature Park, Me-Bai’s new caretakers set out on a mission to find this little elephant’s mother. Within a matter of weeks, they located Mae Yum, Me-Bai’s mom and set their glorious reunion into motion.
In this video, Mae Yum and Me-Bai are finally reunited! It has been three years since this mother/daughter pair have seen one another. The joy and love that they exude is sure to warm your heart.
A big thank you to all the kind people at Elephant Nature Park who made this reunion possible! Enjoy your life together, Me-Bai and Mae Yum!
Help Elephants Forced to Give Rides at Southwick’s Zoo.
Will Powell spent the past 20 years training dogs to sniff out land mines and bombs in Afghanistan and other war zones. Now his dogs have a new target: ivory smugglers.
Powell, director of canine conservation for the African Wildlife Foundation, has spent the past two months training a team of eight dogs and 14 human handlers to sniff out wildlife crime in Kenya and Tanzania. The team—the first of its kind—graduated Friday morning and will be deployed to the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, where they will work to block illegal ivory shipments from leaving the country. More than 60,000 of Tanzania’s elephants have been slaughtered over the past five years. At the same time, the ivory of elephants from many other countries often travels through Kenya and Tanzania on its way to markets in Asia. Both ports have been identified as high-traffic areas for these illegal goods.
“The elephants are in such a bad state here,” Powell said from Kenya. “It’s so tragic. We’re not going to be able to fix that with this team, but we can make it much harder for these smugglers.”
The dogs came to Africa from breeders in Hungary and the Netherlands. Their handlers are veteran rangers employed by the Kenya Wildlife Service and Tanzania’s Wildlife Division. They spent the past two months working with Powell, developing relationships with the dogs and learning how to care for them, something that doesn’t come naturally in countries where pet dogs are not common.
“We spent about two weeks in the beginning of the course just focusing on communicating with the dogs,” Powell said. “It’s a new approach for them, a new way of dealing with animals that involves being fair and kind and not forcing anybody to do anything. That’s pretty cool when they get that.”
After that, the dogs trained with small pieces of ivory and other wildlife products, learning how to sniff out the forbidden substances.
“The skills acquired by both the rangers and the canines that have completed the training program are of immeasurable importance to both Kenya and Tanzania, and we look forward to utilizing those excellent and rare skills,” Robert Muasya, Kenya Wildlife Service’s deputy director of security, said in a statement.
Friday’s graduation ceremony will be followed by a brief period of acclimation at the ports to get the dogs ready for work. Once the teams are deployed, Powell will visit them every few weeks as part of a “cradle to maturity” approach that will help ensure the dogs have long, productive careers. The African Wildlife Foundation has also embedded experienced trainers in each country to support the rangers and the dogs on an ongoing basis. “These are ex–dog handlers, a Kenyan and a Tanzanian, who I trained before and who worked for me or for clients in Afghanistan as bomb-dog handlers,” Powell said.
“This is just the first step of the journey together,” he added. “I’m going to be excited when we start finding stuff.” The smugglers, on the other hand, may not be so happy.
Saving Africa's Elephants—in the United States. With the animal heading toward extinction, conservationists want it declared an endangered species to shut down ivory imports into the U.S.
We need to do more to save the African elephant from extinction. Much more. That was the message from conservation organizations, which on Wednesday filed a petition with the United States government to fully protect African elephants under the Endangered Species Act.
African elephants have been listed as a threatened species—one step below endangered—since 1978. Today’s petition from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Humane Society International, and the Fund for Animals argues that this hasn’t been enough. According to the petition, African elephant populations have declined by 60 percent during that time, mostly due to habitat loss and rampant slaughter for their valuable ivory.
At least 96 elephants die a day at the hands of poachers. Their ivory tusks are then shipped all over the world. The U.S. is reportedly the second largest market for ivory carvings, the vast majority of which are illegal under federal and international law.
“American consumers are confused about where ivory comes from, what’s legal and what’s not,” Jeff Flocken, IFAW North American regional director, said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Listing the elephant as endangered would effectively ban all ivory imports as well as the import of trophies from legal elephant hunts and products made from elephant skins. The U.S. is a major market for all of those products. According to Teresa Telecky, director of wildlife for Humane Society International, the U.S. imported 15,000 African elephant skins and hunting trophies from 7,500 elephants between 2003 and 2012.
At least 11 metric tons of ivory carvings were also imported to the U.S. during this same period.
“The U.S. must bring greater scrutiny to the import of African elephant parts and the negative impact it has on wild populations,” Telecky said. “The U.S. should further assure that Americans are not contributing to the disappearance of one of the world’s most beloved animals,” she said.
The petition, filed today with the Department of the Interior, is the first step in a long process. The government has 90 days to respond to the petition and determine that the scientific evidence presented by the three organizations is sufficient. If that is the case, the government will then begin a one-year review process to gather additional information and make its own recommendation. “The good news is that the U.S. government is already moving on a number of fronts to address the crisis,” Flocken said in an interview. “Right now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing new regulations to tighten up loopholes related to ivory sales.”
The agency also last year banned trophy imports from Tanzania and Zimbabwe, two countries that have been deemed to have management issues with their wild elephants.
States are also taking action. New Jersey and New York recently passed legislation to ban all ivory sales. Hawaii, Washington state, California, Iowa, and Connecticut are considering similar legislation. “There’s a real wave of support coming at the state level,” Flocken said.
More action federal action took place on Wednesday, the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration’s National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking. The departments of the interior, justice, and state today announced the implementation plan for strategy. One of the steps in the plan is described as “continuing efforts to implement and enforce administrative actions to strengthen controls over trade in elephant ivory in the United States.”
Conservation groups praised the plan. Cristián Samper, president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, called it “groundbreaking.”
Flocken said people are working on a lot of fronts to save the African elephant, but a lot more needs to be done.
“This is the time when everybody needs to band together to save elephants,” he said.
Meet African Elephants’ Worst Nightmare: You!~Poachers pushing elephants to extinction have found a lucrative market for illegal ivory in California.
For a state that prides itself on leading the world in environmental regulations, California has missed the boat when it comes to preventing the illegal trade in ivory that is driving African elephants to extinction.
An investigation by the Natural Resources Defense Council has found that up to 90 percent of the ivory products sold in stores in Los Angeles are likely illegal, as are 80 percent of sales in San Francisco. That has helped make the United States the second-largest market for ivory products, behind China.
California merchants exploit a loophole in the state law that only allows the sale of so-called antique ivory imported before 1977.
Most of the jewelry and figurines sold as antique ivory today are made to look old but come from elephants that were killed recently in Africa, according to the NRDC report, which was released Wednesday.
Poachers slaughtered more than 100,000 elephants between 2010 and 2012, and biologists fear the species could be extinct within two decades.
“California has had an enforcement problem when it comes to ivory, and the current law is largely to blame for that, since it does not specify who should enforce the law, which has led to a lot of confusion and pretty minimal enforcement,” said Elly Pepper, an NRDC wildlife policy advocate.
NRDC unveiled the results of its investigation on the day California State Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins and state Sen. Ricardo Lara introduced A.B. 96, a bill that would close the loophole and ban the import, sale, and purchase of ivory. The only exceptions are if the ivory is used for limited scientific purposes or is part of a musical instrument.
The bill follows the lead of New York—the country’s largest ivory market—which banned ivory sales last August.
“With A.B. 96, Californians have the opportunity to protect the elephants and rhinos from poachers,” Pepper said.
Who buys all this ivory?
The No. 1 market for ivory doodads is China, along with Hong Kong and Thailand. The price for ivory tusks has tripled in recent years, making it a lucrative trade for poachers in Africa. It’s also the reason why so many Asian tourists frequent shops in California, where the same ivory products are often much cheaper.
“Even though ivory goes from Africa to China, where it’s carved, it’s cheaper in the U.S. than in Asia,” Pepper said. “And some people just don’t know or understand the crisis that elephants are in right now and how this ivory is obtained.”
One key finding in the NRDC report is even more alarming—California’s illegal ivory trade has doubled since 2006, when the report’s authors conducted their previous survey of U.S. ivory markets.
“If we are going to take other countries to task to stop wildlife trafficking, then we need to do it here at home,” Pepper said.
Obama in Kenya: What the President Can Do This Weekend to Help End Poaching. Nobody is better at combating illegal wildlife trade than the U.S. Here’s how it can stem the crisis. The streets of Nairobi, Kenya, have been repaved, painted, and planted with flowers in anticipation of President Barack Obama’s visit this weekend. While in the country of his father’s birth, the president will appear at the 6th Global Entrepreneurship Summit, where he will discuss job opportunities with investors, business owners, and African leaders. He will also hold a press conference with President Uhuru Kenyatta and, later, address the Kenyan people, using the opportunities to speak about economic growth and development, security, and religious extremism in the region.
Obama is also expected to discuss a topic that ties all those others together: wildlife trafficking. Half of Africa’s elephants have been killed over the past 10 years to feed demand, chiefly in Asia, for ivory. Rhino poaching, which was nearly nonexistent nine years ago, was up 21 percent in South Africa in 2014. More than a million pangolins have been poached from Africa and Asia over the past decade. Criminal gangs and terrorist groups funded by the illegal trade threaten the stability of Kenya and other African countries.
As the world’s most influential and effective player in combating the scourge of many of the planet’s most iconic, charismatic, and ecologically significant species, the U.S. can do plenty to help Kenya, and other countries where poaching occurs, to fight it.
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Recent research at the University of Washington linked the DNA from seized ivory with DNA sampled from elephant dung across Africa to identify poaching hot spots. Though 15 countries were identified as sources, a great deal of the ivory seized over the last decade, represented by the blue circles, came from Kenya. Crosses mark the locations of Kenyan ivory seized. (Map: Marc Fusco; data: courtesy University of Washington and Science.)
The themes of wildlife and entrepreneurship fit together nicely. “Ecotourism brings in billions of dollars to Africa every year,” said Jeffrey Flocken, regional director, North America, for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. (The entire tourism sector contributed about $36 billion in sub-Saharan Africa alone in 2012, according to the World Bank.) In many countries, including Kenya, that tourism “is entirely generated by wildlife,” said M. Sanjayan, executive vice president and senior scientist at Conservation International.
As the son of a Kenyan, Obama enjoys wide admiration and corresponding influence in the country and the region. Any talk from the president about poaching while he is in Kenya will be heard beyond its borders. “Using Kenya as a platform to talk about regional or continent-wide conservation issues has to be the goal,” said Adam Roberts, chief executive officer of Born Free USA. “The rest of Africa, or least East Africa, is listening.”
Supply and Demand
The war against the illegal trade in wildlife occurs on two fronts: the supply side and the demand side. Help on either would no doubt be welcome, but with East Africa being the point of origin of so many trafficked animals, announcing new and increased measures to reduce supply would make the most sense during Obama’s weekend in Kenya.
The first place to do that is in the field—that is, to stop poaching where it’s happening. “Effective on-the-ground protection requires suitable operational support, including trained rangers; knowledge of patrol tactics; access to equipment and transportation; and adaptive management systems,” Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of the World Wildlife Fund, told the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health during a hearing last week. The Kenya Wildlife Service has increased its anti-poaching activities since 2012 and seen some success, according to George Wittemyer, a biology professor at Colorado State University and chairman of the scientific board for Save the Elephants. But Kenya is a poor country, and KWS is not well-funded: Wittemyer told the senators that anti-poaching vehicles in Amboseli National Park would run out of fuel in the first few days of each month were it not for the grant KWS receives from the Elephant Crisis Fund, a zero-overhead joint effort of Save the Elephants, Wildlife Conservation Network, and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.
For the most part, it’s not African people buying the wildlife products that come from African animals; tusks and rhino horns and the rest must leave Africa to reach their market. Seaports and airports are therefore a potential chokepoint in stopping the wildlife trade, said Roberts. The U.S. could have a major impact by helping African countries intercept such products: Allocating resources for X-ray machines and sniffer dogs at ports such as Mombasa in Kenya, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia would be a good start, Roberts said, as research by Born Free and the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington has shown that many of the wildlife products shipped out of Africa go through these three ports.
Community-based efforts are often the strongest forms by which people put eyes and ears on the ground. With them it’s more likely that poaching is going to die down.
- M. Sanjayan, executive vice president, Conservation International
Engaging on these issues requires diplomacy and a gentle hand. Experts said Kenya welcomes the support of the United States but doesn’t want to be told what to do by outside interests. (Kenyatta, for one, seems receptive: On Tuesday Kenya joined the Elephant Protection Initiative, a program founded in 2014 by leaders of six African countries.) Governments and NGOs have a history of coming to Africa, starting programs and then leaving. Corruption exists on many levels, and wildlife trafficking creates even more temptation. In many rural communities in East Africa and elsewhere, some don’t even view wildlife as something worth saving; they see it as a threat to their crops or their safety and view conservation as a foreign concept.
Toward that last point, Sanjayan said the U.S. could play a lead role in supporting community-based conservation efforts, which are crucial to the long-term success of wildlife preservation and defense against poaching in Kenya and throughout Africa. Community-based approaches generally try to establish ways for local people to become stewards of—and profit from—their natural environment. Programs throughout Africa have trained people to farm or raise bees instead of hunt, protect wildlife instead of poach it, or operate facilities for tourists seeking to view native fauna. Sanjayan pointed to the conservancies operated under the aegis of the Northern Rangelands Trust—which was established in 2004 by the U.S. Agency for International Development and Kenya’s Lewa Wildlife Conservancy—as examples of systems that help local people to see wildlife as assets worth protecting. “These community-based efforts are often the strongest forms by which people put eyes and ears on the ground,” Sanjayan said. “The community is involved, they’re getting support, and with them it’s more likely that poaching is going to die down.”
Kenyans in the Laikipia-Samburu region help Save the Elephants and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species monitor illegal wildlife killings in protected and non-protected areas near their homes. (Photo: Courtesy Save the Elephants)
Flocken and others, without prompting, praised the people in Africa who are already doing the hard work—even laying down their lives—to protect the continent’s wildlife. “These people are incredibly committed,” said Flocken. “They need more resources and tools, and the U.S. can help with that.”
The demand side of the wildlife trade can be even more complicated. Conservation experts said that if President Obama is to address demand for illegal wildlife products during his visit, the two most important steps would involve elephant ivory. The first, Flocken said, would be to unveil new regulations “to close the legal loopholes that have allowed the ivory trade in the U.S. to flourish.” Such regulations have been in the works for a while, and Flocken said the president’s appearance in Kenya would be the perfect time to formally announce them. “It would be a missed opportunity” otherwise, he said.
The second would be to fully protect elephants under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which only recognizes them as “threatened.” That's part of the inconsistency that allows antique ivory to be legally bought and sold in the U.S., which increases demand for poached ivory. (One of the other animals people come to Kenya to see, the African lion, is also being considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act and other mechanisms.)
Such actions would send a powerful signal to China, the single biggest driver of demand for ivory, which experts say is closely watching every move that Washington, Albany, and Sacramento make regarding ivory. For example, in November 2013 the U.S. crushed six tons of illegal, seized ivory. Within two months, China crushed 6.1 tons of ivory it had confiscated. “I thought that [amount] was a very interesting choice,” said John F. Calvelli, executive vice president for public affairs at Wildlife Conservation Society.
A Long History of Leadership
Any announcements of new or stepped-up initiatives undertaken by President Obama this weekend would be building on a long history of U.S. involvement, up to and including this past May, in combating the wildlife trade.
Secretary of State John Kerry visits the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a home for elephants orphaned by the ivory trade, at Nairobi National Park, outside the Kenyan capital, in May. (Photo: Courtesy WildlifeDirect.org)
Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, in 2012 called on countries to join the U.S. in setting up a worldwide system of regionally based networks to coordinate enforcement. When Obama visited Tanzania in July 2013, he said at a press conference that he and President Jakaya Kikwete had discussed “an issue that’s inseparable from Africa’s identity and prosperity, and that’s its wildlife,” adding that “the entire world has a stake in making sure that we preserve Africa’s beauty for future generations.”
Obama did more than just talk, announcing $10 million in funding from the Department of State to provide technical and training assistance to combat poaching throughout Africa. Nearly a third of that money was earmarked for Kenya.
That same day, Obama issued an executive order establishing a Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, combining the efforts of the Interior, Justice, and State Departments. The Task Force published a national strategy for combating wildlife trafficking in 2014 and earlier this year released its implementation plan, which includes a broad focus on enforcing existing laws, steps to reduce worldwide demand for illegal wildlife products, and building a coalition of public-private partnerships. Several sources indicated that numerous programs stemming from this national strategy, which they would not disclose, will be announced soon, and the Tanzania precedent of 2013 suggests it could come this weekend.
U.S. leadership in protecting endangered species didn’t start three years ago. The Lacey Act of 1900 protected a wide range of fish, wildlife and plants. Airborne species got their own boost from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The year 1973 brought both the Endangered Species Act as well as the establishment of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The entire world has a stake in making sure that we preserve Africa’s beauty for future generations.
- President Barack Obama
When these laws and conventions didn’t prevent the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants for their ivory between 1979 and 1989 (revealed through a continent-wide aerial census of elephants taken by the founder of Save the Elephants, Iain Douglas-Hamilton), the U.S. took two important steps, banning the import of all ivory in 1989, then, as a delegate to CITES, voting to ban ivory trade worldwide. That effectively stopped the ivory trade and poaching crisis until CITES, against the advice of many conservationists including Douglas-Hamilton, allowed sales of ivory to Japan in 2000, and again to dealers in China and Japan in 2008, acts which many say fostered the current poaching crisis by stoking Asian demand for ivory.
Even if President Obama doesn’t mention lions, elephants, or any other species while in Africa this week, the weeks and months ahead could see a great deal of movement on the poaching front, at both the state and federal levels.
Elephants continue to work their way through the ESA process, and California and Washington have ivory bills before their state legislatures, the latter of which enjoys campaign support from Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen (who is concurrently funding a new continent-wide elephant census).
Meanwhile, several government agencies are in the fight. The budget for combating wildlife trafficking at USAID has increased to more than $50 million in fiscal year 2014, up from $13 million in fiscal year 2012, reports Mary Rowen, the agency’s senior biodiversity policy advisor. She said the agency is working with the private sector to help transport companies limit the flow of illegal goods and supports conservancies in many areas of Africa.
The State Department, another key player, supports hands-on training efforts and offers foreign assistance funds to help partner nations. It just started a pilot program with the Department of Justice and KWS to expand aerial surveillance in conservation efforts.
Save the Elephants and the Tsavo Trust finance an anti-poaching Super Cub aircraft that flies over Tsavo National Park, the Kenyan home of around 12,000 elephants, including more than 10 percent of Africa’s surviving “great tuskers,” which are prime targets for poachers. (Photo: Courtesy Save the Elephants)
“It’s a joint counterterrorism and conservation program,” explained Susan Driano, Kenya desk officer with the State Department. State also engages in a lot of outreach work, including hosting screenings of documentaries such as Gardeners of Eden (which was produced by TakePart’s parent company, Participant Media).
Some members of Congress have been active in this area. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., has been speaking out about the global poaching crisis for years, and bills before the House and the Senate would raise the profile of wildlife trafficking as a federal crime and give law enforcement the same tools to fight it as they employ against major drug dealers.
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Perhaps one of the most important messages President Obama could send this weekend, Sanjayan said, is that “Kenya is open for business.” Fears that tourists face threats from terrorism or armed poachers are overblown, he said, considering country is the size of Texas and the recent violence has been directed against Kenyans.
The nation’s business community concurs. “With last year’s instabilities in some remote parts of Kenya, many tourists now have a perception that Kenya is not the ideal holiday destination,” said Robert Breare, chief operating officer of Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a private wildlife reserve covering 90,000 acres in central Kenya. “President Obama’s trip to Kenya will help us tremendously as people around the world will see Kenya as a safe and recommended place to visit,” he said. The re-opening of the Westgate Mall on Monday, two years after a terrorist attack killed 67 people there, was an important milestone.
Breare’s message will be difficult to get through, however, as the State Department two weeks ago issued a travel alert warning that the very Global Entrepreneurship Summit at which President Obama will be speaking could be a “a target for terrorists.” That seems to contrast with the tone of much of Obama’s African visit, but it reflects the complexity of the issues facing the continent.
Relocate the Virginia Zoo Elephants to a Sanctuary (Click Here To Help!)
These 2 Wild Elephant Calves Love Frolicking in the Mud!
Are you in the mood for another super-sweet baby elephant video, Green Monsters? Of course we are, I hear you say! Fear not, because in this particular clip, uploaded by Vimeo user Chris Gansen, the “aw” factor is almost too much to handle.
The two baby elephants featured in this romp – both of whom are residents of Tarangire National Park in Tanzania – seem to love nothing more than a good run in their favorite mud pool. You will be carried away by their infectious joy as they slide through the mud, splash one another, and trumpet at the top of their voices!
After a while, one of the babies seems to get bored of all the splashing and wanders off to drier land, but it isn’t long before he is drawn back to the mud pool. And when he and his friend lie down side by side and hold onto one another’s trunks … your hearts will melt.
Image Source: blieusong/Flickr
There are many reasons why elephants don’t belong in the circus, but this video is ultimate proof to this fact. When the elephant falls to the ground, not only do his trainers rush to right the animal, but the other elephants in the show also come to lend a hand. These elephants demonstrate their deep ability to feel compassion for one another and their swift action just goes to show that these complex animals have no business being reduced to spectacles for human entertainment.
We can all help elephants by boycotting circuses and zoos that hold them in captivity for profit. Elephants belong in the wild, not on display for the sake of people.
3 Things Captive Elephants Never Experience. The concern surrounding the welfare of elephants in captivity is nothing new. The more we learn about these self-aware animals, the harder it becomes to justify keeping them in captivity. While many “new” zoos have come a long way in comparison to the zoos we knew years ago, the animals in their care still suffer tremendously both physically and psychologically.
Elephants in captivity are frequently observed displaying stereotypic behaviors, indicative of stress and anxiety, in fact a recent study found that a startling two-thirds of all elephants in captive environments exhibit these behaviors. Weaving, as it’s commonly referred to, is when an elephant is seen exhibiting one of many unnatural movements including head bobbing, swaying and neck twisting.
Stress in captivity for elephants can originate from a variety of sources including (but certainly not limited to): a lack of stimulation, inactivity, or the inability to have physical contact with a fellow elephant due to restraints.
In the past few years, we’ve seen how greatly the public’s perception of captivity has changed. One of the biggest changes, and potentially most influential, came from an announcement by Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. For over a century the exploitation of elephants has played a crucial role in their acts but in March of this year, the circus announced it would be eliminating all elephant acts by 2018.
Newsleader
Newsleader
While there has been some positive progress for captive elephants in recent years, there is still a long way to go. When we examine how life in captivity compares to life in the wild, we can truly see how devastating captivity is for these magnificent animals.
Here are just a few of many things that captive elephants will never experience.
1. Family Relationships
Elephant Nature Park
In the wild, elephants live in herds. Herd groups are extremely complex and the elephant relationships closely resemble that of a human family.
The oldest living female, or the matriarch, is typically the leader of the group and she guides her family with great wisdom. Studies suggest that elephant herds with older matriarchs have more reproductive success. This is attributed to the amount of experience the elder has accumulated through the years and the number of family members she has passed her knowledge on to. The matriarch makes decisions for the herd, including when the family will eat, and where and for how long they’ll spend time in a specific area.
A female dominated society, elephant herds are incredibly tight-knit. Female elephants embrace motherhood in a way comparable to humans. After 20-22 months of gestation, an elephant calf is entirely dependent on their mother for the first 3-4 years of their life.
As they grow, males will often depart from the herd around the age of 12 and live solitary lives, coming together only to mate. Female calves, on the other hand, will almost always remain with the herd for life. That is, a female elephant will never go a day without her mother until she passes away.
Like humans, elephants develop deep emotional connections with their families, they have been known to demonstrate deep love for one another and hold mourning rituals when one passes away. Elephants in captivity rarely get to experience this sort of deep familial bonding.
Elephants that have been captured from the wild and forced into captivity often lead solitary existences. For those that are captured and brought to a facility with more than one elephant, their companions are merely strangers in comparison to the family they once knew. In some cases, the elephants aren’t compatible, creating stress for all animals involved.
Standards requiring a facility to house more than one elephant are, without a doubt, an improvement; but because Association of Zoological and Aquarium (AZA) standards do not apply to non-accredited facilities, many roadside zoos and backyard menageries are able to get away with keeping just one elephant in an exhibit.
Interestingly, studies have also shown that the experience of losing a calf when they are taken and sold into captivity creates an extreme amount of stress for the wild herd, proving that captivity is a traumatizing experience for more than just the individual animal itself.
2. Exercise
Geoff Wilson/Flickr
In the wild elephants travel in response to changes in their environment, primarily to seek out alternative food and water sources. They’ve been known to cover 50 miles daily.
While elephants face many dangers living in the wild, including poachers, the alternative of living in captivity has been nothing short of a failure. Despite their best efforts, zoos lack the space and funding necessary to recreate a remotely natural environment for elephants. Many elephants in captivity are overweight, due in large part to their lack of movement in such confined spaces. This, along with many exhibits housing the elephants on hard surfaces, leads to arthritis and foot disease.
3. Natural Behaviors
IFAW
Elephants have evolved over the course of thousands of years to be able to thrive within their natural habitats. As a result, they have developed a number of instinctual natural behaviors to help them thrive. Some of these behaviors include dust bathing, rubbing bark off trees with their tusks, and foraging for natural vegetation. While these might seem like trivial activities, they are very important to an elephant’s physical and mental well-being. Dust bathing helps to coat and protect the elephant’s skin from the harsh sun and lock in much-needed moisture. Foraging for food and rubbing the bark off trees is not only beneficial to the elephant, but it also helps to keep the elephant’s environment in check; elephant’s are known as the architects of the savannah because their eating habits literally help to shape the local plants and ecosystem.
In captivity, elephants are fed a diet that is not always akin to the one they would eat in the wild, further they need not forage when it is delivered on a routine schedule every day. Theclimate of the zoo or circus where elephants are held vary depending on the location, making the need to dust bath obsolete in cold climates – although this is hardly the only concern associated with housing elephants in these regions. Captive facilities may attempt to replicate the elephant’s natural environment, but nothing can compare to the wild.
It is thought that the inability to perform these natural behaviors in a captive setting adds to an elephant’s stress levels and adds to stereotypic behaviors. These little things might appear menial, but they help to make an elephant, well an elephant. If you were deprived of the ability to do the basic things you love, you’d be pretty frustrated too!
What Can You Do?
Many AZA-accredited institutions have made great strides to improve their animal exhibits and for that we’re grateful, but elephants simply don’t fare well in captivity. Since 1991, almost two dozen zoos have closed their elephant exhibits, with the remaining living animals transferred to facilities capable of providing them with a healthier environment to improve both their physical and psychological well-being.
If a zoo (accredited or not) is not capable of expanding their exhibit to provide a number of elephants a natural and stimulating environment, urge them to consider relinquishing their elephants to a sanctuary.
The bottom line, however, is that life in captivity will never be able to compare to life in the wild for an elephant. If you are truly concerned about the well-being of these magnificent animals, the best thing to do is to refuse to support their sufferings. Avoid zoos and other animal attractions that house wild elephants and share what you’ve learned with others!
Lead image source: Benh LIEU SONG/Flickr
Baby Elephant Reunited With Mother After Being Separated by the Tourism Industry for 3 Years!Oh boy, get ready for some elephant sized happy tears!
At three years old, Me-Bai the elephant was ripped from her mother’s side and sold into the Thai tourism industry. The poor calf was subjected to a brutal “breaking” period and forced to give rides to paying customers day in and day out. This trauma and stress took a serious toll on Me-Bai’s well-being and she grew too weak to carry tourists.
Lucky for this young elephant, her owner took pity on her and retired her to Elephant Nature Park. Once she was released to Elephant Nature Park, Me-Bai’s new caretakers set out on a mission to find this little elephant’s mother. Within a matter of weeks, they located Mae Yum, Me-Bai’s mom and set their glorious reunion into motion.
In this video, Mae Yum and Me-Bai are finally reunited! It has been three years since this mother/daughter pair have seen one another. The joy and love that they exude is sure to warm your heart.
A big thank you to all the kind people at Elephant Nature Park who made this reunion possible! Enjoy your life together, Me-Bai and Mae Yum!
Help Elephants Forced to Give Rides at Southwick’s Zoo.
Southwick's Zoo in Massachusetts is hosting notorious elephant exploiter Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT), which is providing rides at the zoo throughout the summer. After being hauled across the country, two of HTWT's elephants are now being forced to give zoogoers rides in the stifling summer heat for hours on end. Please join us in urging Southwick's Zoo to stop these cruel rides TODAY!
Trainers with HTWT, a California-based company, have been caught using electric prods andbullhooks to strike and jab elephants on their sensitive feet, legs, bellies, and mouths, causing them to scream in pain. One trainer even jabbed a bullhook into a baby elephant's mouth.Pain and fear are used to force elephants such as those being used at Southwick's Zoo to plod in mundane circles for hours at a time with children on their backs. Elephant rides are also extremely dangerous to the public. For example, in 2009, at least 15 children and one adult were injured when an elephant who was being forced to give rides at the Murat Shrine Circus became startled and knocked over the stairway leading to the elephant ride scaffolding.
Canine Cops Target Ivory Smugglers in Africa. An international team of police dogs will try to protect elephants by guarding ports and border crossings in Tanzania and Kenya.Powell, director of canine conservation for the African Wildlife Foundation, has spent the past two months training a team of eight dogs and 14 human handlers to sniff out wildlife crime in Kenya and Tanzania. The team—the first of its kind—graduated Friday morning and will be deployed to the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, where they will work to block illegal ivory shipments from leaving the country. More than 60,000 of Tanzania’s elephants have been slaughtered over the past five years. At the same time, the ivory of elephants from many other countries often travels through Kenya and Tanzania on its way to markets in Asia. Both ports have been identified as high-traffic areas for these illegal goods.
“The elephants are in such a bad state here,” Powell said from Kenya. “It’s so tragic. We’re not going to be able to fix that with this team, but we can make it much harder for these smugglers.”
The dogs came to Africa from breeders in Hungary and the Netherlands. Their handlers are veteran rangers employed by the Kenya Wildlife Service and Tanzania’s Wildlife Division. They spent the past two months working with Powell, developing relationships with the dogs and learning how to care for them, something that doesn’t come naturally in countries where pet dogs are not common.
“We spent about two weeks in the beginning of the course just focusing on communicating with the dogs,” Powell said. “It’s a new approach for them, a new way of dealing with animals that involves being fair and kind and not forcing anybody to do anything. That’s pretty cool when they get that.”
After that, the dogs trained with small pieces of ivory and other wildlife products, learning how to sniff out the forbidden substances.
“The skills acquired by both the rangers and the canines that have completed the training program are of immeasurable importance to both Kenya and Tanzania, and we look forward to utilizing those excellent and rare skills,” Robert Muasya, Kenya Wildlife Service’s deputy director of security, said in a statement.
Friday’s graduation ceremony will be followed by a brief period of acclimation at the ports to get the dogs ready for work. Once the teams are deployed, Powell will visit them every few weeks as part of a “cradle to maturity” approach that will help ensure the dogs have long, productive careers. The African Wildlife Foundation has also embedded experienced trainers in each country to support the rangers and the dogs on an ongoing basis. “These are ex–dog handlers, a Kenyan and a Tanzanian, who I trained before and who worked for me or for clients in Afghanistan as bomb-dog handlers,” Powell said.
“This is just the first step of the journey together,” he added. “I’m going to be excited when we start finding stuff.” The smugglers, on the other hand, may not be so happy.
Saving Africa's Elephants—in the United States. With the animal heading toward extinction, conservationists want it declared an endangered species to shut down ivory imports into the U.S.
We need to do more to save the African elephant from extinction. Much more. That was the message from conservation organizations, which on Wednesday filed a petition with the United States government to fully protect African elephants under the Endangered Species Act.
African elephants have been listed as a threatened species—one step below endangered—since 1978. Today’s petition from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Humane Society International, and the Fund for Animals argues that this hasn’t been enough. According to the petition, African elephant populations have declined by 60 percent during that time, mostly due to habitat loss and rampant slaughter for their valuable ivory.
At least 96 elephants die a day at the hands of poachers. Their ivory tusks are then shipped all over the world. The U.S. is reportedly the second largest market for ivory carvings, the vast majority of which are illegal under federal and international law.
“American consumers are confused about where ivory comes from, what’s legal and what’s not,” Jeff Flocken, IFAW North American regional director, said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Listing the elephant as endangered would effectively ban all ivory imports as well as the import of trophies from legal elephant hunts and products made from elephant skins. The U.S. is a major market for all of those products. According to Teresa Telecky, director of wildlife for Humane Society International, the U.S. imported 15,000 African elephant skins and hunting trophies from 7,500 elephants between 2003 and 2012.
At least 11 metric tons of ivory carvings were also imported to the U.S. during this same period.
“The U.S. must bring greater scrutiny to the import of African elephant parts and the negative impact it has on wild populations,” Telecky said. “The U.S. should further assure that Americans are not contributing to the disappearance of one of the world’s most beloved animals,” she said.
The petition, filed today with the Department of the Interior, is the first step in a long process. The government has 90 days to respond to the petition and determine that the scientific evidence presented by the three organizations is sufficient. If that is the case, the government will then begin a one-year review process to gather additional information and make its own recommendation. “The good news is that the U.S. government is already moving on a number of fronts to address the crisis,” Flocken said in an interview. “Right now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing new regulations to tighten up loopholes related to ivory sales.”
The agency also last year banned trophy imports from Tanzania and Zimbabwe, two countries that have been deemed to have management issues with their wild elephants.
States are also taking action. New Jersey and New York recently passed legislation to ban all ivory sales. Hawaii, Washington state, California, Iowa, and Connecticut are considering similar legislation. “There’s a real wave of support coming at the state level,” Flocken said.
More action federal action took place on Wednesday, the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration’s National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking. The departments of the interior, justice, and state today announced the implementation plan for strategy. One of the steps in the plan is described as “continuing efforts to implement and enforce administrative actions to strengthen controls over trade in elephant ivory in the United States.”
Conservation groups praised the plan. Cristián Samper, president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, called it “groundbreaking.”
Flocken said people are working on a lot of fronts to save the African elephant, but a lot more needs to be done.
“This is the time when everybody needs to band together to save elephants,” he said.
Meet African Elephants’ Worst Nightmare: You!~Poachers pushing elephants to extinction have found a lucrative market for illegal ivory in California.
For a state that prides itself on leading the world in environmental regulations, California has missed the boat when it comes to preventing the illegal trade in ivory that is driving African elephants to extinction.
An investigation by the Natural Resources Defense Council has found that up to 90 percent of the ivory products sold in stores in Los Angeles are likely illegal, as are 80 percent of sales in San Francisco. That has helped make the United States the second-largest market for ivory products, behind China.
California merchants exploit a loophole in the state law that only allows the sale of so-called antique ivory imported before 1977.
Most of the jewelry and figurines sold as antique ivory today are made to look old but come from elephants that were killed recently in Africa, according to the NRDC report, which was released Wednesday.
Poachers slaughtered more than 100,000 elephants between 2010 and 2012, and biologists fear the species could be extinct within two decades.
“California has had an enforcement problem when it comes to ivory, and the current law is largely to blame for that, since it does not specify who should enforce the law, which has led to a lot of confusion and pretty minimal enforcement,” said Elly Pepper, an NRDC wildlife policy advocate.
NRDC unveiled the results of its investigation on the day California State Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins and state Sen. Ricardo Lara introduced A.B. 96, a bill that would close the loophole and ban the import, sale, and purchase of ivory. The only exceptions are if the ivory is used for limited scientific purposes or is part of a musical instrument.
The bill follows the lead of New York—the country’s largest ivory market—which banned ivory sales last August.
“With A.B. 96, Californians have the opportunity to protect the elephants and rhinos from poachers,” Pepper said.
Who buys all this ivory?
The No. 1 market for ivory doodads is China, along with Hong Kong and Thailand. The price for ivory tusks has tripled in recent years, making it a lucrative trade for poachers in Africa. It’s also the reason why so many Asian tourists frequent shops in California, where the same ivory products are often much cheaper.
“Even though ivory goes from Africa to China, where it’s carved, it’s cheaper in the U.S. than in Asia,” Pepper said. “And some people just don’t know or understand the crisis that elephants are in right now and how this ivory is obtained.”
One key finding in the NRDC report is even more alarming—California’s illegal ivory trade has doubled since 2006, when the report’s authors conducted their previous survey of U.S. ivory markets.
“If we are going to take other countries to task to stop wildlife trafficking, then we need to do it here at home,” Pepper said.
Obama is also expected to discuss a topic that ties all those others together: wildlife trafficking. Half of Africa’s elephants have been killed over the past 10 years to feed demand, chiefly in Asia, for ivory. Rhino poaching, which was nearly nonexistent nine years ago, was up 21 percent in South Africa in 2014. More than a million pangolins have been poached from Africa and Asia over the past decade. Criminal gangs and terrorist groups funded by the illegal trade threaten the stability of Kenya and other African countries.
As the world’s most influential and effective player in combating the scourge of many of the planet’s most iconic, charismatic, and ecologically significant species, the U.S. can do plenty to help Kenya, and other countries where poaching occurs, to fight it.
. The themes of wildlife and entrepreneurship fit together nicely. “Ecotourism brings in billions of dollars to Africa every year,” said Jeffrey Flocken, regional director, North America, for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. (The entire tourism sector contributed about $36 billion in sub-Saharan Africa alone in 2012, according to the World Bank.) In many countries, including Kenya, that tourism “is entirely generated by wildlife,” said M. Sanjayan, executive vice president and senior scientist at Conservation International.
As the son of a Kenyan, Obama enjoys wide admiration and corresponding influence in the country and the region. Any talk from the president about poaching while he is in Kenya will be heard beyond its borders. “Using Kenya as a platform to talk about regional or continent-wide conservation issues has to be the goal,” said Adam Roberts, chief executive officer of Born Free USA. “The rest of Africa, or least East Africa, is listening.”
Supply and Demand
The war against the illegal trade in wildlife occurs on two fronts: the supply side and the demand side. Help on either would no doubt be welcome, but with East Africa being the point of origin of so many trafficked animals, announcing new and increased measures to reduce supply would make the most sense during Obama’s weekend in Kenya.
The first place to do that is in the field—that is, to stop poaching where it’s happening. “Effective on-the-ground protection requires suitable operational support, including trained rangers; knowledge of patrol tactics; access to equipment and transportation; and adaptive management systems,” Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of the World Wildlife Fund, told the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health during a hearing last week. The Kenya Wildlife Service has increased its anti-poaching activities since 2012 and seen some success, according to George Wittemyer, a biology professor at Colorado State University and chairman of the scientific board for Save the Elephants. But Kenya is a poor country, and KWS is not well-funded: Wittemyer told the senators that anti-poaching vehicles in Amboseli National Park would run out of fuel in the first few days of each month were it not for the grant KWS receives from the Elephant Crisis Fund, a zero-overhead joint effort of Save the Elephants, Wildlife Conservation Network, and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.
For the most part, it’s not African people buying the wildlife products that come from African animals; tusks and rhino horns and the rest must leave Africa to reach their market. Seaports and airports are therefore a potential chokepoint in stopping the wildlife trade, said Roberts. The U.S. could have a major impact by helping African countries intercept such products: Allocating resources for X-ray machines and sniffer dogs at ports such as Mombasa in Kenya, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia would be a good start, Roberts said, as research by Born Free and the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington has shown that many of the wildlife products shipped out of Africa go through these three ports.
Community-based efforts are often the strongest forms by which people put eyes and ears on the ground. With them it’s more likely that poaching is going to die down.
- M. Sanjayan, executive vice president, Conservation International
Engaging on these issues requires diplomacy and a gentle hand. Experts said Kenya welcomes the support of the United States but doesn’t want to be told what to do by outside interests. (Kenyatta, for one, seems receptive: On Tuesday Kenya joined the Elephant Protection Initiative, a program founded in 2014 by leaders of six African countries.) Governments and NGOs have a history of coming to Africa, starting programs and then leaving. Corruption exists on many levels, and wildlife trafficking creates even more temptation. In many rural communities in East Africa and elsewhere, some don’t even view wildlife as something worth saving; they see it as a threat to their crops or their safety and view conservation as a foreign concept.
Toward that last point, Sanjayan said the U.S. could play a lead role in supporting community-based conservation efforts, which are crucial to the long-term success of wildlife preservation and defense against poaching in Kenya and throughout Africa. Community-based approaches generally try to establish ways for local people to become stewards of—and profit from—their natural environment. Programs throughout Africa have trained people to farm or raise bees instead of hunt, protect wildlife instead of poach it, or operate facilities for tourists seeking to view native fauna. Sanjayan pointed to the conservancies operated under the aegis of the Northern Rangelands Trust—which was established in 2004 by the U.S. Agency for International Development and Kenya’s Lewa Wildlife Conservancy—as examples of systems that help local people to see wildlife as assets worth protecting. “These community-based efforts are often the strongest forms by which people put eyes and ears on the ground,” Sanjayan said. “The community is involved, they’re getting support, and with them it’s more likely that poaching is going to die down.”
Kenyans in the Laikipia-Samburu region help Save the Elephants and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species monitor illegal wildlife killings in protected and non-protected areas near their homes. (Photo: Courtesy Save the Elephants)
Flocken and others, without prompting, praised the people in Africa who are already doing the hard work—even laying down their lives—to protect the continent’s wildlife. “These people are incredibly committed,” said Flocken. “They need more resources and tools, and the U.S. can help with that.”
The demand side of the wildlife trade can be even more complicated. Conservation experts said that if President Obama is to address demand for illegal wildlife products during his visit, the two most important steps would involve elephant ivory. The first, Flocken said, would be to unveil new regulations “to close the legal loopholes that have allowed the ivory trade in the U.S. to flourish.” Such regulations have been in the works for a while, and Flocken said the president’s appearance in Kenya would be the perfect time to formally announce them. “It would be a missed opportunity” otherwise, he said.
The second would be to fully protect elephants under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which only recognizes them as “threatened.” That's part of the inconsistency that allows antique ivory to be legally bought and sold in the U.S., which increases demand for poached ivory. (One of the other animals people come to Kenya to see, the African lion, is also being considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act and other mechanisms.)
Such actions would send a powerful signal to China, the single biggest driver of demand for ivory, which experts say is closely watching every move that Washington, Albany, and Sacramento make regarding ivory. For example, in November 2013 the U.S. crushed six tons of illegal, seized ivory. Within two months, China crushed 6.1 tons of ivory it had confiscated. “I thought that [amount] was a very interesting choice,” said John F. Calvelli, executive vice president for public affairs at Wildlife Conservation Society.
A Long History of Leadership
Any announcements of new or stepped-up initiatives undertaken by President Obama this weekend would be building on a long history of U.S. involvement, up to and including this past May, in combating the wildlife trade.
Secretary of State John Kerry visits the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a home for elephants orphaned by the ivory trade, at Nairobi National Park, outside the Kenyan capital, in May. (Photo: Courtesy WildlifeDirect.org)
Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, in 2012 called on countries to join the U.S. in setting up a worldwide system of regionally based networks to coordinate enforcement. When Obama visited Tanzania in July 2013, he said at a press conference that he and President Jakaya Kikwete had discussed “an issue that’s inseparable from Africa’s identity and prosperity, and that’s its wildlife,” adding that “the entire world has a stake in making sure that we preserve Africa’s beauty for future generations.”
Obama did more than just talk, announcing $10 million in funding from the Department of State to provide technical and training assistance to combat poaching throughout Africa. Nearly a third of that money was earmarked for Kenya.
That same day, Obama issued an executive order establishing a Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, combining the efforts of the Interior, Justice, and State Departments. The Task Force published a national strategy for combating wildlife trafficking in 2014 and earlier this year released its implementation plan, which includes a broad focus on enforcing existing laws, steps to reduce worldwide demand for illegal wildlife products, and building a coalition of public-private partnerships. Several sources indicated that numerous programs stemming from this national strategy, which they would not disclose, will be announced soon, and the Tanzania precedent of 2013 suggests it could come this weekend.
U.S. leadership in protecting endangered species didn’t start three years ago. The Lacey Act of 1900 protected a wide range of fish, wildlife and plants. Airborne species got their own boost from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The year 1973 brought both the Endangered Species Act as well as the establishment of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The entire world has a stake in making sure that we preserve Africa’s beauty for future generations.
- President Barack Obama
When these laws and conventions didn’t prevent the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants for their ivory between 1979 and 1989 (revealed through a continent-wide aerial census of elephants taken by the founder of Save the Elephants, Iain Douglas-Hamilton), the U.S. took two important steps, banning the import of all ivory in 1989, then, as a delegate to CITES, voting to ban ivory trade worldwide. That effectively stopped the ivory trade and poaching crisis until CITES, against the advice of many conservationists including Douglas-Hamilton, allowed sales of ivory to Japan in 2000, and again to dealers in China and Japan in 2008, acts which many say fostered the current poaching crisis by stoking Asian demand for ivory.
Even if President Obama doesn’t mention lions, elephants, or any other species while in Africa this week, the weeks and months ahead could see a great deal of movement on the poaching front, at both the state and federal levels.
Elephants continue to work their way through the ESA process, and California and Washington have ivory bills before their state legislatures, the latter of which enjoys campaign support from Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen (who is concurrently funding a new continent-wide elephant census).
Meanwhile, several government agencies are in the fight. The budget for combating wildlife trafficking at USAID has increased to more than $50 million in fiscal year 2014, up from $13 million in fiscal year 2012, reports Mary Rowen, the agency’s senior biodiversity policy advisor. She said the agency is working with the private sector to help transport companies limit the flow of illegal goods and supports conservancies in many areas of Africa.
The State Department, another key player, supports hands-on training efforts and offers foreign assistance funds to help partner nations. It just started a pilot program with the Department of Justice and KWS to expand aerial surveillance in conservation efforts.
Save the Elephants and the Tsavo Trust finance an anti-poaching Super Cub aircraft that flies over Tsavo National Park, the Kenyan home of around 12,000 elephants, including more than 10 percent of Africa’s surviving “great tuskers,” which are prime targets for poachers. (Photo: Courtesy Save the Elephants)
“It’s a joint counterterrorism and conservation program,” explained Susan Driano, Kenya desk officer with the State Department. State also engages in a lot of outreach work, including hosting screenings of documentaries such as Gardeners of Eden (which was produced by TakePart’s parent company, Participant Media).
Some members of Congress have been active in this area. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., has been speaking out about the global poaching crisis for years, and bills before the House and the Senate would raise the profile of wildlife trafficking as a federal crime and give law enforcement the same tools to fight it as they employ against major drug dealers.
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Perhaps one of the most important messages President Obama could send this weekend, Sanjayan said, is that “Kenya is open for business.” Fears that tourists face threats from terrorism or armed poachers are overblown, he said, considering country is the size of Texas and the recent violence has been directed against Kenyans.
The nation’s business community concurs. “With last year’s instabilities in some remote parts of Kenya, many tourists now have a perception that Kenya is not the ideal holiday destination,” said Robert Breare, chief operating officer of Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a private wildlife reserve covering 90,000 acres in central Kenya. “President Obama’s trip to Kenya will help us tremendously as people around the world will see Kenya as a safe and recommended place to visit,” he said. The re-opening of the Westgate Mall on Monday, two years after a terrorist attack killed 67 people there, was an important milestone.
Breare’s message will be difficult to get through, however, as the State Department two weeks ago issued a travel alert warning that the very Global Entrepreneurship Summit at which President Obama will be speaking could be a “a target for terrorists.” That seems to contrast with the tone of much of Obama’s African visit, but it reflects the complexity of the issues facing the continent.
Relocate the Virginia Zoo Elephants to a Sanctuary (Click Here To Help!)
New standards regarding the keeping of elephants were recently passed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the accrediting organization for American wildlife institutions. Among their recommendations was that elephants be held in groups of three or more, as they are highly social creatures. Now, zoos around the country are scrambling to comply with the regulations by AZA’s 2016 deadline. One of them is the Virginia Zoo in the city of Norfolk, which, since the death of Monica the elephant in 2011, only has two pachyderms.
Because of these new regulations, VA Zoo has declared that it will be relocating its two female elephants instead of acquiring a third. We want 42 year-old Lisa and 47 year-old Cita to be retired and relocated together, to an animal sanctuary or refuge where they can finally get the quality of life they deserve.
I started this online petition to move the Virginia Zoo elephants to a sanctuary because they have served the public for so many years, and this is finally their chance to live like elephants truly should. In the wild, elephants walk up to 50 miles per day. The Virginia Zoo has never been able to provide that type of space for these two beautiful creatures.These girls deserve to stretch their legs and live out the rest of their lives in peace. A sanctuary ensures that they will be out of the public eye and free to just be elephants for the first time in their lives.
The two baby elephants featured in this romp – both of whom are residents of Tarangire National Park in Tanzania – seem to love nothing more than a good run in their favorite mud pool. You will be carried away by their infectious joy as they slide through the mud, splash one another, and trumpet at the top of their voices!
After a while, one of the babies seems to get bored of all the splashing and wanders off to drier land, but it isn’t long before he is drawn back to the mud pool. And when he and his friend lie down side by side and hold onto one another’s trunks … your hearts will melt.
Image Source: blieusong/Flickr
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Help
stop elephant extinction in its tracks!
Unless
we act now, African and Asian elephants will slide towards
extinction.
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If
you love elephants, this will break your heart.
Reports
have just come in showing that Tanzania, once the African elephant capital of
the world, has lost two-thirds of its elephants to poachers in just four
years.
"I
had never seen anything like that – there were carcasses everywhere," reported
one observer.
Can you imagine a world without
elephants? That’s where we’re headed if we don’t act with the greatest possible
urgency.
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Its Tracks" bumper sticker, free. This sticker will show your support
and help bring attention to this critically important issue!
You
might be surprised to know that the United States is the second largest importer
of illegal ivory in the world. The Obama Administration has taken some
important steps to block illegal ivory imports and sales. But at the same time,
the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) and its cronies are pressuring in
Congress to make it easier to import ivory and other
elephant "trophies." It’s almost too shocking to believe.
As
Americans, you and I must do our part to end the demand for ivory, stop the
importation of illegal blood ivory into the U.S. and aid the elephant nations in
their efforts to end the killing.
An
elephant is ruthlessly killed for its ivory tusks roughly every 15 minutes.
Unless we act now to stop it, both Asian and African elephants will continue to
slide towards extinction.
