
New elephant study shows catastrophic decline in Africa - adamnemecek
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/africa/great-elephant-census/
======
adamnemecek
You guys should consider donating to the International Anti-Poaching
Foundation[0][1] which fights these poachers. The founder, Damien Mander[2],
is an Australian ex spec-ops sniper who is using his military experience to
train the park rangers since they, unlike the poachers, tend to be poorly
equipped and trained as well as understaffed.

There is also the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust[3][4] which takes care of
elephant and rhino orphans (most of them are orphans due to poaching). For $50
a year, you can become a sponsor of a particular orphan and they'll send you
photos and updates about how your sponsored animal is doing. You can for
example sponsor this little fella [5][6]. It's a great gift.

You can also participate in an upcoming hackathon this October 7-9 in London,
San Diego, Seattle, Sydney and DC that will aim to fight poaching. [7]

[0] [http://www.iapf.org/](http://www.iapf.org/)

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Anti-
Poaching_Fo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Anti-
Poaching_Foundation)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Mander](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Mander)

[3]
[http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org](http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org)

[4]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sheldrick_Wildlife_Trust](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sheldrick_Wildlife_Trust)

[5]
[http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/asp/orphan_profile.asp...](http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/asp/orphan_profile.asp?N=318)

[6] [http://instagram.com/p/sigT3IAUKb](http://instagram.com/p/sigT3IAUKb)

[7] [http://www.zoohackathon.com/](http://www.zoohackathon.com/)

P.S. You should subscribe to
[http://reddit.com/r/babyelephantgifs](http://reddit.com/r/babyelephantgifs)
and [http://reddit.com/r/babyrhinogifs](http://reddit.com/r/babyrhinogifs) for
a daily dose of adorable pachyderm content.

~~~
dforrestwilson1
Alternatively, attack the buyer mentality? Promote awareness of the issue to
problem countries.

~~~
adamnemecek
A lot of organizations are trying to do that. Yao Ming is also trying to work
on this [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ex-rocket-yao-ming-
aims...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ex-rocket-yao-ming-aims-to-save-
africas-elephants--with-china-
campaign/2014/09/03/87ebbe2a-d3e1-4283-964e-8d87dea397d6_story.html)

His previous shark fin campaign was successful the demand dropped by like 80%
IIRC.

------
giarc
>elephants are actually far more valuable alive than dead...Every elephant
killed will earn a poacher just a few hundred dollars...a live elephant can
earn more than a million dollars for communities involved in eco-tourism...

Poachers are driven by money, why not hire them as eco-tourism guides. For
them they get a stable income and no threat of death by soldier. I guess when
you hire one poacher, another 10 are waiting to begin poaching...?

~~~
FreedomToCreate
People who are willing to brutally kill an animal for a few hundred dollars,
may not make the best eco-tourism guides. They obviously don't actually care
about the environment and animals to begin with.

~~~
giarc
Sorry for the bad source, I just did a quick search but Naples hired ex-cons,
well versed in the trade of scamming tourists to help tourists avoid getting
scammed.

[http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-
news/33773898#33773898](http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-
news/33773898#33773898)

My thinking is they hire a bunch of poachers, basically become informants to
learn the poaching trade. Lure them out with money, more than they could earn
as a poacher and try to get ahead of these guys.

~~~
raincom
Thats the best strategy. An elder told me of his distant relative, who was
producing counterfeit coins like 100 years ago. When he got caught, instead of
sentencing him to prison, they hired him in the coin minting place.

------
panglott
If Africa cannot establish a safe habitat for these creatures, we need to
establish a breeding reserve for them in the US.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_rewilding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_rewilding)

~~~
adamnemecek
One issue with that is that elephants tend to roam over thousands of miles and
this could be tricky in the US if an elephant herd came to town. Fun fact,
they actually have a 'built-in gps', one elephant can tell another elephant
about a location thousands of miles away and the other elephant is able to
locate it, [https://www.thedodo.com/elephants-travel-humans-
help-1353631...](https://www.thedodo.com/elephants-travel-humans-
help-1353631970.html)

Also it's not just about saving the species but also about the fact that
elephants are super important for the ecosystem. Like some of the ecosystems
could collapse without elephants.

~~~
dTal
TIL I have a built-in GPS. Neat.

------
ralfruns
Who buys ivory? Are the customers mainly in Asia, and for aphrodisiac
purposes, or is this a stereotyp?

~~~
adamnemecek
Yes, it's mainly in Asia but it's not uncommon in the US either (one of the
biggest opponents of total ban is, surprise surprise, the NRA). China is
number one, US is number two.

It's not bought as an aphrodisiac (you are thinking of rhino horn), ivory is
mostly to make decorative trinkets.

~~~
castis
just as a heads up, the aphrodisiac thing is a long-running myth.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros#Horn_trade_and_use](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros#Horn_trade_and_use)

~~~
zeroer
Anything people believe strongly is an aphrodisiac is one via the placebo
effect.

~~~
castis
Except they don't believe that. It is said to cure illnesses and is in some
cases a status symbol. Belief that it is used as an aphrodisiac was supposedly
fabricated.

------
Alex3917
As interesting trivia, the reason why elephants went extinct in northern
Africa is largely because of the massive number that were brought to Rome and
killed in gladiatorial games.

------
matt_wulfeck
Why not legalize the trade and sale of ivory and have states become the sole
monopoly of their sale? where so you think the money is coming from?

Once it's legal you can start to squeeze the black market through legislation
and regulation. If it's illegal then you're completely powerless.

There's so many parallels here of drug legalization.

~~~
adamnemecek
This will not work. What will happen is that

a.) the legal market will serve as a cover for the illegal market

b.) you have no way of determining origin of ivory

c.) where would this 'legal' ivory come from in the first place?

d.) enforcement of these rules is impossible or difficult at best. Currently,
there are are 6 Fish and Wildlife service employees that are supposed to
monitor all incoming cargo to NY and NJ ports for illegal wildlife products.
That's very few people for the job.

> There's so many parallels here of drug legalization.

Upon closer inspection there actually aren't. The process of manufacturing
drugs isn't actually all that bad (if you ignore the distribution and
consumption).

~~~
matt_wulfeck
This shifts the issue from elephants being killed indiscriminately for their
tusks to an issue of state collected taxes and fees. In the long term it's
much better to have the latter.

You determine the origin by creating a system that leaves paper trails
everywhere, from those that collect to those that sell, to exporters. The
beauty of a legal system is that everything is recorded and on the books.

Enforcement is easy when your project is self-funded through the internal and
legal trade of ivory.

~~~
adamnemecek
You didn't answer the question where the legal ivory comes from.

~~~
matt_wulfeck
Did you know that a Rhino's horn and an elephant's tusk can be safely removed
by trained zoologist without harming the animal? In fact they do it to
elephants in captivity that destroy fences[0].

[0]
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24614538](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24614538)

~~~
adamnemecek
AFAIK, they can't remove the whole tusk. For one thing and for another, even
if we ignore the morality of this, how do you ensure who removed the tusk?

------
rusabd
meantime, people are hunting mammoth tusk

recent report (Russian):

[http://www.currenttime.tv/a/tusk-
hunters/27948066.html](http://www.currenttime.tv/a/tusk-hunters/27948066.html)

quote: ``Оборот слоновой кости тщательно контролируется, поэтому особым
спросом сейчас пользуются бивни мамонта '' The ivory market is tightly
controlled therefore mammoth tusk is in high demand right now

quote: ``Этот 65-килограммовый бивень только что извлекли из вечной мерзлоты.
Впоследствии его продали за 34 тысячи долларов.'' \- This 65 kg tusk was sold
later for 34 thousands dollars.

old report (2013 English):
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/125-mammoth-
tusks/...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/125-mammoth-tusks/larmer-
text)

------
vegabook
let's not mince words. The catastrophic acceleration in decline of elephant
populations is directly correlated to the rise in wealth of China and Asia in
general. For countries with such advanced IQ and engineering skills, this is a
massive stain on their reputation. They need to address this massively.

Now I'm fully aware that _most_ of the decline in the Elephant (and other)
species in general in the past 200 years can be blamed squarely on the West.
But this does not excuse snuffing out these absolutely priceless brethren of
humanity for the most base of barbaric reasons, now that there are so few of
them left.

Asia needs to sort this out, like, yesterday. The West has huge historic
baggage on this and thankfully was able to turn itself around at the last
minute. Now china and Asia seriously need to do the same, pronto. PRONTO.

------
mrfusion
We should introduce them in Texas and Mexico as invasive species. I know it
sounds silly but they'd probably really thrive.

~~~
blisterpeanuts
At one time, during the late Pleistocene epoch, woolly mammoths roamed North
America. They were close cousins of the Asian elephant, and so you could argue
that elephants would not be invasive, any more than horses (current North
American horses are from Eurasia, original North American horse species is
extinct...).

~~~
adamnemecek
An angry elephant is a lot more dangerous than an angry horse.

