In an undisturbed ecosystem, elephants move across the landscape in response to the availability of food and water and the type of habitat or competition. But according to a continent-wide study coordinated by Save the Elephants and recently published in Current Biology, elephants’ range is now predominantly defined by human activities and the boundaries of […]
Tag: Etosha National Park
Iconic Namibian elephant ‘Voortrekker’ killed by trophy hunter
Namibia’s most famous elephant bull known as Voortrekker (“Pioneer”) to thousands of tourists was shot last week by a trophy hunter, ten years after he first escaped the hunter’s bullet. The elephant was shot on a “problem elephant “permit, however it appears that this was false, as a letter from three communal conservancies opposing the […]
POLL: Should the export of “legal ivory” be made illegal?
The United Kingdom ships more legal ivory beyond its borders than any other country, according to an analysis released today by the London-based NGO Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). The announcement comes two days before World Elephant Day on Saturday. Globally, elephant numbers are falling, down 30 percent between 2007 and 2014 — a decline driven largely […]
Elephant refugees flee to last stronghold in Africa
Chobe National Park, Botswana – The elephants swim across the river in a straight line, trunks jutting out of the water like snorkels. With low, guttural bellows, they push their bodies together, forming a living raft to bolster a calf too tiny to stay afloat on its own. This pachyderm flotilla has a dangerous destination […]
Take me to the place where the white boys dance…
To kick off this post, I have to apologise to the band “The Killers”, whose song title made a perfect title for this photo and its resulting blog post. As you may know, we recently returned from an amazing family safari-camping-roadtrip through some of the most iconic places in Namibia. One of the destinations was […]
Returning to Namibia
For someone who feasibly lives merely a day’s hard drive from the glorious expanse that is Namibia, I visit very seldom. I suppose that’s the way it is – life gets in the way, other destinations beckon…but that will change soon. We will be embarking on a 24-day camping adventure, with families in tow, across […]
POLL: Should the sale of elephant ivory be legalized?
World Elephant Day was not necessarily good news for Africa’s elephants: Pressure is mounting in southern Africa to lift the ban on the sale of ivory. In the mid-1980s, during the last great elephant poaching crisis, Africa lost nearly half its elephant population, roughly 600,000 animals, in a decade. But the world responded in 1989 […]
POLL: Is Trophy Hunting Helping Save African Elephants?
African elephants are in trouble. Their numbers have fallen from as many as ten million a hundred years ago to as few as 400,000 today. Recent losses are largely from poaching for the illegal ivory trade (some 30,000 elephants a year), but also because of the shrinking habitat for elephants, as people open up land […]