Imagine you are at a store, walking around, looking for something to buy. You walk past the jewelry counter and can’t help but notice the pretty bracelet sitting in the glass case. It is white ivory with a beautiful red and gold design. You ask the lady to take it out of the case for you, and when you try it on it’s a perfect fit! But before you decide to buy this beautiful piece of jewelry, think about where it came from. This ivory bracelet you are holding in your hand most likely came from a poached elephant somewhere in the Middle East. Poaching has become a huge problem there, and buying this bracelet is supporting it. The ivory trade has caused elephants to become critically endangered, and if people keep buying items that were made with …show more content…
The World Wildlife Fund is an organization that helps to protect and preserve the endangered Sumatran elephants. One way they are helping is by sending ‘rangers’ to Indonesia to set up fences to keep the elephants out of the harm of villages and back into their habitats. In 2004, they established the Elephant Flying Squad, which is “made up of rangers, noise and light-making devices, a truck, and four trained elephants that would drive wild elephants back into the forests if they threatened to enter villages” (Elephant). In addition to physically moving the elephants away from villages and away from human contact, the WWF also did some research on the Sumatran elephants to find a way to make sure humans and elephants can coexist (Elephant). As the WWF has been helping to keep elephants away from the harm of people, they have also teamed up with TRAFFIC, the “international wildlife trade monitoring network, to reduce the major threat that illegal and illicit domestic ivory markets pose to wild elephants” (Elephant). TRAFFIC, in addition to reducing the ivory threat to elephants, pinpoints specific routes of ivory trades and stops them. This is very important to the Sumatran elephants because the ivory trade is one of the main issues that they deal with and with TRAFFIC trying to stop it, they may actually have a
Have you ever wondered how animals interact and work together to get a job done? Many times, animals put their minds together to complete a task. But what many people do not realize is that animals interact with one another just as humans would. In many instances, people don’t realize the amount of intelligence and common sense that animals, such as the elephant, possess. The study of elephant’s thoughts and thinking were explained and backed up through three different mediums. This information was explained through articles, videos, and passages. Combined, these pieces of work clarified what the experiment was, what it was testing, the purpose behind it, and how the different pieces were
Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk is a passage about a study preformed to test elephants' abilities to collaborate. It explains the basic process of the experiment, and provided in-depth analysis of the results. It made many comparisons between the study and other studies and research and noted the opinions of numerous professionals, which helped show the significance of the test's findings. The purpose of this passage was to primarily to be an entertaining article, and secondarily to inform the reader about the experiment. It was very similar to Elephants Console Each Other in tone and style, but differed more from Elephants Know When They Need a Helping Trunk, mainly because it was less informational, and more enjoyable.
So far this book was a nice little surprise. Like previously stated, upon picking this book up one would think that the author is crazy for writing about the lifestyles of elephants. But when it is actually explored and read its written style and messages make for this book to be taken in very easily and fluently. This language used is at the perfect level, and the subject level is complex enough that the reader has to make connections themselves or else they will become confused almost guaranteed.
Each author has the same purpose in writing about the elephant studies and there are many similarities and differences in which the elephants behaved.
It is the highest rank that an elephant capturer can attain (Worall). This “power” has never been scientifically studied, but the people of both Burma and Thailand believe that this phenomenon exists. There are not many Khru Ba Yai left, it is said that there are a few still alive in both Burma and Thailand (Worall). These individuals became incredibly important when elephants went into “musth.” Several times a year, bull elephants go into a period called musth, a period of temporary madness. When in this state, bull elephant’s aggressiveness, testosterone levels, and mating drive spikes tremendously (Ogden). Studies have found that bull elephants are flooded with up to ten times as much testosterone as usual causing them to attack other elephants, mahouts, or anything else they may see as a threat (Ogden). In Elephant Run, Nick is given a first-hand look at how horrifying an encounter with a bull elephant in musth can be. “…The bull had uprooted every plant within reach and had plowed the ground around him into soft loam with his heavy tusks. As they approached, he started straining against his ropes in an effort to get to them” (Smith 59). However, something incredible transpired soon after Nick witnessed the roped up and infuriated bull elephant. “The monk stepped closer to the mad bull. He put his hands on one of his tusks and he leaned his old shaved head toward the bull’s ear, as if he were saying something to him” (Smith 61). The bull then relaxed after the monk named ‘Hilltop’ spoke to it. The Khru Ba Yai are a mysterious group with very few numbers in existence. It is a practice that seems utterly impossible but is ingrained in the Burmese culture as reality. The mahout tradition and practice is something so unique and utterly incredible, they risk life and limb to train and work with these magnificent animals. Interestingly enough, the mahouts of Burma actually helped in
In “Roars, Snorts, and Infrasounds there are two main ideas: you should not kill elephants for their tusks and ivory and you can tell when elephants are talking and tell them to get away from villages using infrasounds. Many scientists like Katy Payne have very hard jobs; they have to trudge through mud, tolerate the excruciating heat, and have the stomach for the sweat bees crawling all over them. From high platforms scientists observe elephants in their natural habitat. They stay there for hours on end. The scientists spend lots of time listening through ARU’s. An ARU is autonomous recording unit. Payne was one of the first scientists to discover how to communicate with elephants through infrasounds. As a result of hunters of elephants the
The Ivory game is a documentary about the illegal poaching that is going on in Africa. It is aimed at bringing awareness to the black market business of ivory that is running rampant in China and the danger that it poses on elephants and even people who want to help against poaching. The producers of the movie are Kief Davidson, Wolfgang Knopfler, and Walter Kohler. These people worked together to bring the movie that has information about the illegal ivory trading in China and Africa and released the movie in the year 2016. The documentary did an amazing job at conveying it’s message with the logos and pathos fields, although it needed to strengthen the ethos section of the triangle.
The exotic pet trade is a booming industry, raking in millions of dollars every year. Everything from harmless leopard geckos to hyenas can be found in 30 of the 50 states. Of those 30 states, only 21 require permits to own these animals (Webber 2010). Indiana has just recently withdrawn its own requirement for permits, making 10 states that allow any kind of exotics without documentation (Kelly 2015). It is estimated that 15,000 big cats are being kept as pets in the United States alone, with more captive tigers in Texas than there are in India. Approximately 15,000 primates and 7.3 million reptiles are also being kept in the US (Webber 2010). What does all of this mean and, more importantly, what can be done about it?
Wildlife conservationists are constantly working to supervise the rivers, forest, and other natural resources of Africa in order to preserve and protect them through prudent management. In Kenya, laws against trophy hunting has assisted these conservationists in maintaining wildlife populations. However, park rangers face a huge battle against the illegal poaching of these rare trophy animals, such as lions and elephants. In Asia, the demand for ivory continues to surge, despite the long-time ban on its international trade. The demand is so high that the Tanzanian government has developed plans to construct a commercial highway through the Serengeti in order to more efficiently trade goods with Asia (“The Need for Serengeti Watch”). However, the highway will also provide a faster route to the coast for ivory smugglers. The controversy surrounding the highway and its positive or negative effects on the economy, Tanzania as a whole, and the Serengeti is countless. Despite the debate over its benefits and...
The second half of the 20th century has seen the continent of Africa in continuous turmoil. Civil wars, the AIDS epidemic, deforestation, and desertification are just a few of the problems facing Africa. A more recent threat to this ancient and fragile environment has emerged and is quickly gaining strength at devouring life – the bush meat trade. “Bush meat” refers to the smoked carcasses of various wild, and often endangered species that are sold illegally at rural markets of undeveloped countries and even at ethnic markets in developed nations. The meat of gorillas, chimpanzees, and elephants are considered delicacies and the demand for these endangered species is increasingly high. Countries at the center of this crisis are Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya, Zimbabwe, the Congo, Cameroon, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania. Bush meat plays a crucial socio-economic role to many in Africa, and as such epitomizes the need to balance protection against such factors as poverty, health, and food security. Certain key issues are necessary to understand the bush meat trade:
For a long time Asian ivory was used, because it was much easier to obtain, though the ivory was harder to shape, more likely to break, and less attractive. The Asian ivory came from tusks of elephants that were largely different from African elephants. For starters, they had a smaller build and differently shaped tusks. The African elephants had an average tusk size of about sixty pounds to the Asian elephant’s forty. The African elephants lived in the tropical jungles of Africa’s east coast, while the Asian elephant lived in a far different environment. As it happened, it was the African elephant that man desired but had a difficult time getting to Africa. Believing that the danger of a trip to Africa outweighed the potential profits of the voyage merchants and consumers settled for the lower quality ivory.
A safari in southern Botswana is home to a warm sun. It radiates onto broad elephants that soak their hides in the Khwai River. These same elephants compete with the large, speckled giraffes for high-hanging leaves while chacma baboons lumber through the native trees. Lions’ canter, lope and shake their manes as another day passes in the African safari. These animals know no fence. They are unfamiliar with the morning routine of being fed through a wire cage or giving birth while surrounded by cameras and people prodding at them. So these exotic animals, why are they being bred into wanna-be domestic creatures? The fact of the matter is that they shouldn’t be. Exotic animals, such as chimpanzees and tigers, should not be kept as pets. In order to combat the patchwork laws currently in place, we must uncover the truth behind the ownership of wild animals, the dangers of owning said animals, and why we must take a stand.
Elephants are an endangered species and they should not be killed for their ivory or they will become extinct. In the article The Poaching Problem the author writes” elephant populations have declined to dangerously low levels.” At the rate that poachers are killing these innocent animal the entire species of elephants will be extinct in the year 2030! That is only twenty five years, I know that does not seem like a long time but it is going to go by fast and every one will regret killing all those poor innocent gentle creatures. In case study 483 they author writes “ During the 1970s and 1980s elephant poaching had included about 1.3 million elephants killed for their tusks.” It is hard to distinguish between legal and illegal ivory so it is sold easily.
The African elephant’s range has declined by over 50 percent since 1979 – and their populations are breaking up
The number of African and Asian elephants in North American zoos is declining as a result of many medical issues. A new disease has recently been discovered that is now hindering elephant’s ability to survive even further. This is a major problem because according to Science Magazine, as of 1997, there are only an estimated 291 Asian elephants and 193 African elephants left in North American zoos. Since this survey was conducted, this number has severely declined. It is now estimated that for every elephant that is born in a zoo another three die.