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Elephant Hunting in Africa

Hunting Elephant

Hunting Elephant

The Elephants of the genus Loxodonta, known collectively as African Elephants, are currently found in 37 countries in Africa.

African Elephants are distinguished from Asian Elephants in several ways, the most noticeable being their ears which are much larger. The African Elephant is typically larger than the Asian Elephant and has a concave back. Both African males and females have external tusks and are usually less hairy than their Asian cousins.

African Elephants have traditionally been classified as a single species comprising two distinct subspecies, namely the savanna Elephant (Loxodonta africana africana) and the forest Elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis), but recent DNA analysis suggests that these may actually constitute distinct species. This split is not universally accepted by experts and a third species of African Elephant has also been proposed.

This reclassification has important implications for conservation, because it means that where previously it was assumed that a single and endangered species comprised two small populations, if in reality these are two separate species, then as a consequence, both could be more gravely endangered than a more numerous and wide-ranging single species might have been. There is also a potential danger in that, if the forest Elephant is not explicitly listed as an endangered species, poachers and smugglers might be able to evade the law forbidding trade in endangered animals and their body parts.

The Forest Elephant and the Savanna Elephant can also hybridise – that is, breed together – successfully, though their preferences for different terrains reduce such opportunities. As the African Elephant has only recently been recognized to comprise two separate species, groups of captive Elephants have not been comprehensively classified and some could well be hybrids.

Under the new two species classification, Loxodonta africana refers specifically to the Savanna Elephant, the largest of all Elephants. In fact, it is the largest land animal in the world, with the males standing 3.2 metres (10 ft) to 4 metres (13 ft) at the shoulder and weighing 3,500 kilograms (7,700 lb) to a reported 12,000 kilograms (26,000 lb). The female is smaller, standing about 3 metres (9.8 ft) at the shoulder. Most often, Savanna Elephants are found in open grasslands, marshes, and lakeshores. They range over much of the savanna zone south of the Sahara.

The other putative species, the Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), is usually smaller and rounder, and its tusks thinner and straighter compared with the Savanna Elephant. The Forest Elephant can weigh up to 4,500 kilograms (9,900 lb) and stand about 3 metres (10 ft) tall. Much less is known about these animals than their savanna cousins, because environmental and political obstacles make them difficult to study. Normally, they inhabit the dense African rain forests of central and western Africa, although occasionally they roam the edges of forests, thus overlapping the Savanna Elephant territories and hybridizing. In 1979, Iain Douglas-Hamilton estimated the continental population of African Elephants at around 1.3 million animals. This estimate is controversial and is believed to be a gross overestimate, but it is very widely cited and has become a de facto baseline that continues to be incorrectly used to quantify downward population trends in the species. Through the 1980s, Loxodonta received worldwide attention due to the dwindling numbers of major populations in East Africa, largely as a result of poaching. Today, according to IUCN’s African Elephant Status Report 2007 there are approximately between 470,000 and 690,000 African Elephants in the wild. Although this estimate only covers about half of the total Elephant range, experts do not believe the true figure to be much higher, as it is unlikely that large populations remain to be discovered. By far the largest populations are now found in Southern and Eastern Africa, which together account for the majority of the continental population. According to a recent analysis by IUCN experts, most major populations in Eastern and Southern Africa are stable or have been steadily increasing since the mid-1990s, at an average rate of 4.5% per year.

Elephant populations in West Africa, on the other hand, are generally small and fragmented, and only account for a small proportion of the continental total. Much uncertainty remains as to the size of the Elephant population in Central Africa, where the prevalence of forest makes population surveys difficult, but poaching for ivory and bushmeat is believed to be intense through much of the region. South Africa Elephant population more than doubled, rising from 8,000 to over 20,000, in the thirteen years after a 1995 ban on killing the animals. The ban was lifted in February 2008, sparking controversy among environmental groups.

Effect On The Environment

Elephants are a species which many other organisms depend on. One particular example of that are termites mounds: termites eat Elephant feces and often begin building their mounds under piles of Elephant feces.

Elephants' foraging activities can sometimes greatly affect the areas in which they live. By pulling down trees to eat leaves, breaking branches, and pulling out roots they create clearings in which new young trees and other vegetation can establish itself. During the dry season, Elephants use their tusks to dig into dry river beds to reach underground sources of water. These newly dug water holes may then become the only source of water in the area. Elephants make pathways through their environment which are also used by other animals to access areas normally out of reach. This pathways have sometimes been used by several generations of Elephants and today are converted by humans to paved roads.

Hunting Elephant

The threat to the African Elephant presented by the ivory trade is unique to the species. Larger, long-lived, slow-breeding animals, like the Elephant, are more susceptible to overhunting than other animals. They cannot hide, and it takes many years for an Elephant to grow and reproduce. An Elephant needs an average of 140 kg (300 lb) of vegetation a day to survive. As large predators are hunted, the local small grazer populations (the Elephant's food competitors) find themselves on the rise. The increased number of herbivores ravage the local trees, shrubs, and grasses. Elephants themselves have few natural predators besides man and, occasionally, lions.

Habitat Loss

Another threat to Elephant's survival in general is the ongoing cultivation of their habitats with increasing risk of conflicts of interest with human cohabitants. These conflicts kill 150 Elephants and up to 100 people per year in Sri Lanka. Lacking the massive tusks of its African cousins, the Asian Elephant's demise can be attributed mostly to loss of its habitat.

As larger patches of forest disappear, the ecosystem is affected in profound ways. The trees are responsible for anchoring soil and absorbing water runoff. Floods and massive erosion are common results of deforestation. Elephants need massive tracts of land because, much like the slash-and-burn farmers, they are used to crashing through the forest, tearing down trees and shrubs for food and then cycling back later on, when the area has regrown. As forests are reduced to small pockets, Elephants become part of the problem, quickly destroying all the vegetation in an area, eliminating all their resources.

National Parks

Africa's first official reserve, Kruger National Park, eventually became one of the world's most famous and successful national parks. There are, however, many problems associated with the establishment of these reserves. For example, Elephants range through a wide tract of land with little regard for national borders. Once a reserve is established and fence erected, many animals find themselves cut off from their winter feeding grounds or spring breeding areas. Some animals may die as a result, while others, like the Elephants, may just trample over the fences, wreaking havoc in nearby fields. When confined to small territories, Elephants can inflict an enormous amount of damage to the local landscapes.

Additionally, some reserves, such as Kruger National Park has, in the opinion of wildlife managers, suffered from Elephant overcrowding, at the expense of other species of wildlife within the reserve. On 25 February 2008, the South Africa announced that they would reintroduce culling for the first time since 1994 to control Elephant numbers.[56] Nevertheless, as scientists learn more about nature and the environment, it becomes very clear that these parks may be the Elephant's last hope against the rapidly changing world around them.