Since the mid-eighties, giraffes have been on a steady decline. Population numbers have dwindled by 40 per cent, leaving around 68,000 mature adults in the wild. To put it in context, there is reportedly one giraffe for every four African elephants, which themselves are considered a vulnerable species. Despite giraffes’ precarious status, dubbed a “silent […]
Tag: African elephant
A taste of honey: how bees mend fences between farmers and elephants
Watchtowers in trees, tripwire alarms, radio collars, chilli smoke and beehive fences: scientists and conservationists across Asia and Africa are coming up with safe and humane ways to keep elephants at bay and reduce conflict with humans. In early June, the agonising death of a pregnant wild elephant that ate an explosives-filled pineapple in India […]
‘Filthy bloody business:’ Poachers kill more animals as coronavirus crushes tourism to Africa
Ryan Tate is supposed to be in South Africa right now helping to fight off poachers who hack horns off rhinos and kill elephants for their ivory tusks. But since the country announced a national lockdown in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Tate is stuck in the U.S. He can’t join his […]
Petition: Boycott these 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants in North America!
The many heartbreaking ways zoos are causing more harm than good for elephants has been exposed yet again by In Defense of Animals, which recently released its annual list of the 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants in North America. “Our 2019 list of the 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants exposes many tragic examples of how […]
Elephants, lions and leopards: 13 countries where rich people hunt endangered animals
I ran into some Americans having an issue at customs at the airport in Lusaka, Zambia, last summer. Craig and Amy (last names withheld), from Western Michigan, and two friends were in the country to go hunting and were stuck at customs until the rifles and crossbows they brought from home were cleared. “We won […]
Despite Criticism, Canada Moves Forward with Auction for First-Ever Elephant Hunt for Ivory in Botswana
No one needs ivory but the animal born with it. Humans do not need an elephants’ tusks or the horn of a rhino. Yet, they feel entitled to it, and they go to devastating lengths to acquire it. The ivory trade operates because of hunters and poachers who brutally kill elephants in the wild for […]
Zimbabwe Exports Over 30 Wild Caught Baby Elephants to Chinese Zoos
Two months ago, at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) conference, the export of wild elephants from Africa to zoos. It was a monumental decision expected to protect many elephants from suffering in captivity. Elephants don’t belong in zoos. They belong in the wild in their natural […]
Petition: Protect Elephants in India From Being Struck by Trains
Elephants are large, beautiful, majestic creatures that almost every child will love from the minute they see a stuffed elephant, an illustration of one in a storybook, or maybe even one in person. But as we get older we realize that elephants suffer so much at the hands of humans. African elephants are threatened by […]
