Elephant: Encyclopedia II - Elephant - Habitat loss

Elephant - Habitat loss

The threat to the elephant presented by the ivory trade is unique to the species. However, the second critical, and perhaps more complicated, threat to the elephant's survival is one affecting wildlife throughout the planet. The earth is a living biomass and can support only a limited amount of life. As one species increases, typically another must give way somewhere in the world. The human species has expanded at a rate unprecedented in the history of our planet. As of 2005, there are about 6.5 billion people on the planet, and the human population is continuing to grow. As a result, of this human expansion, an equally unprecedented number of plant and animal species are losing their habitats and disappearing.

As the most successful animal species, adapted to just about any environment, humans compete with other animals for space and resources. Humans' increased intelligence also gave them the foresight to realize in modern times that many neighbouring species were on their way toward extinction. Some people began to take measures in an effort to slow this trend. One of the most effective ways to give other species a fighting chance is to preserve and protect large tracts of undeveloped land.

Elephant - National Parks

The IUCN recognizes several categories of protected land. A reserve is an area of land set aside by any local district, corporation, or even an individual. Since this land can be privately owned and controlled, its status can be overturned very easily. A national park on the other hand, can only be established by the highest authority in the nation, usually by legislation, and is much harder to override. To date, no national park in the world has ever been deproclaimed (though some have been reduced in size).

Africa's first official reserve eventually became one of the world's most famous and successful national parks. Kruger National Park in South Africa first became a reserve against great opposition in 1898 (then Sabi Reserve). It was deproclaimed and reproclaimed several times before it was renamed and granted national park status in 1926. It was to be the first of many.

Of course, there were many problems in establishing these reserves. For example, elephants range through a wide tract of land with little regard for national borders. however, when most parks were created, the boundaries were drawn at the man-made borders of individual countries. Once a fence was erected, many animals found themselves cut off from their winter feeding grounds or spring breeding areas. Some animals died as a result, while some, like the elephants, just trampled through the fences. This did little to belie their image as a crop-raiding pest. The more often an elephant wandered off its reserve, the more trouble it got into, and the more chance it had of being shot by an angry farmer. When confined to small territories, elephants can inflict an enormous amount of damge to the local landscapes. Today there are still many problems associated with these parks and reserves, but there is now little question as to whether or not they are necessary. 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.

Elephant - Deforestation

For hundreds, if not thousands, of years, local people have used a method of farming known as "slash and burn". An area of forest is simply burned to the ground so that its ashes provide fertilizer, enriching the soil for planting crops. After a few seasons, however, the soil is leached of its nutrients and is of poor quality for growing anything. At this point, farmers move on to burn down another tract of land, leaving the original spot to replenish itself over the years. When the earth's human population was smaller, this method worked well. Left untouched, the abandoned fields would once again become overgrown with forest life. The original farmers' descendants would then cycle back through these patches of forest in the years to come.

With the population growth comes increased demand for land. The cycle between clearing and regrowth becomes shorter and shorter. During the 20th century, the human population has increased to such a point that plots of land must be reused when nothing but short grass has had a chance to return. Obviously, the soil in these burned fields is not very rich and is useful for an even shorter amount of time, causing farmers to move on to new territory at an alarming rate.

In the last few years, deforestation has been an even bigger problem with increased demands for timber. Worldwide, huge areas of forest are being cleared for the cash value of their trees. Many of the native trees that are felled take hundreds of years to regrow, so reforestation plans often involve the planting of fast-growth trees, like pine and eucalyptus. These trees will fill in the area quickly, but they are not native species and will not usually support any indigenous wildlife. Zoologists J. and K. MacKinnon refer to these new forests as "zoological deserts" because they are nearly barren of all life.

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. This process, unfortunately, can be irreversible and always has long-term consequences.

Elephant - Overgrazing

Meeting the agricultural demands of an ever-increasing Third World population takes its toll on the land in more ways than one. Overgrazing has caused severe land degradation in Africa and Asia. As more cattle and livestock farms appear in these areas, larger and larger stretches of pasture are needed to feed them. After an area has been overgrazed by cattle, it can still support sheep. After it has become too poor to support sheep, goats can still survive on it. Goats will eat just about anything and are often seen as a practical way to utilize poor-quality, overgrazed land. Unfortunately, goats strip the land to the bone, consuming any vegetation, including shrubs and trees, right down to the bark. What's left behind is of no use to an army of ants, much less a herd of elephants.

Elephant - Overhunting

Humankind is the only species capable of overhunting another species to extinction. Most carnivorous animals' survival is limited by the number of prey animals available. As prey items begin to decrease, many local predators go hungry and their numbers will thin out as well. Living in this constant state of checks and balances, many species of wild animals have survived for hundreds of thousands of years. If humans' prey dies off, on the other hand, they can move on to alternate animals or simply supplement their omnivorous diets with less protein and more vegetation. As the human species seeks to control its environment, it continues to overhunt across nearly every landscape in the world.

The larger, long-lived, slow-breeding animals, like the elephant, are most susceptible to this overhunting. They cannot hide, and it takes many years for an elephant to grow and reproduce. Also, as other smaller species (including trees and plants) are overharvested, the ecosystem is severely disturbed. The repercussions of this flow up and down the food chain. Again, the elephant usually suffers severely from the situation. An elephant needs an average of three hundred pounds 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 cannot survive on what remains.

Elephant - Asia's dwindling habitat

Lacking the massive tusks of its African cousins, the Asian elephant's demise can be attributed mostly to loss of its habitat. J. C. Daniel, researcher and head of Bombay's Nation History Society, says, "Loss of its habitat is the crux of the problem of the elephant's declining numbers, its endangered status, and threats to its survival." Elephants are found in many parts of Asia, but they are perhaps most commonly associated with the subcontinent of India.

In 1947, when india became an independent nation, its population was approximately 500 million. The same landmass now supports almost a billion people. At the turn of the twentieth century, it is estimated that about 40% of the country was covered in forest. Today, due to clear-cutting for commercial planting, as well as overgrazing by limitless livestock, the forest remains over only 15% of the land. Approximately one-third of this remaining forest has been set aside as wildlife preserves.

Like most developing nations, India has very severe domestic concerns and a lack of funds with which to deal with these problems. There has been much heated debate over whether the nation's limited resources should be put toward habitat protection when many of its human inhabitants do not have sufficient food or even running water. As in most countries, the war to save the elephant is fought, to a large extent, by politicians. India's wildlife is afforded as much protection as its government can afford, but each year there are proposals to reduce the amount spent on conservation. Fortunately for wildlife, conservation still has many staunch supporters. Ullas Karanth, an outspoken preservationist and researcher of Indian wildlife, is of the opinion that "97% of this country is earmarked for people. On the other 3% there must be no compromise.... It is primarily a policing job." Voices like Karanth's have made headway: Thirty years ago there were eighty national parks in India. Today there are over 450 and more on the way. Of course, a serious lack of funds means that many of these parks are protected on paper only. Without money for rangers and equipment, patrols for these areas are sadly lacking. Once set aside as a reserve, the success of the parks depends on cooperation from many different levels. Local people have to be willing to relocate or stop poaching and overgrazing the preserves. The government then has to be willing to pay for these relocations and farmer subsidies.

Elephant - Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, the island nation off the southeast coast of India, was at one time home to more than twelve thousand elephants. They were an important part of the culture - used as war mounts, captured and exported, and used in private herds as work animals. In the early nineteenth century, as a British colony, Ceylon was the site of massive coffee plantations. As the plantations increased, elephants became a significant pest and bounties were placed on their heads. Elephants were slaughtered by the thousands. One man during the mid-ninteenth century was reported to have killed over thirteen hundred himself. By 1981 people began to be concerned about dwindling elephant populations, and laws were passed to stop the uncontrolled hunting. Pressures on crops from the elephants then increased again, so hunting still continued to a certain extent. According to the IUCN's specialist groups, there are just over three thousand wild elephants left in Sri Lanka today. These elephants all live in one of three national parks: Ruhunu, Wilpattu, and Gal Oya. These parks offer less than guaranteed protection. For example, Ruhunu and Gal Oya are in areas that have a severe dry season. The elephants cannot find food and water during these times, so they migrate to nearby wetlands. These elephants have been making this seasonal migration for centuries, as is evidenced by the existence of very old trails that they still follow. Today, however, the wetlands are crowded with tea and coffee plantations, which the elephants see as a tasty buffet. Compounding the problem is the fact that plantations now exist all along the route they use to reach the wetlands. So, of course, the elephants eat and do more crop damage all along the migration route. People depend on these cash crops for their livelihood, and there are laws to protect humans as well as elephants. Farmers in these areas are legally permitted to shoot elephants who endanger their crops and settlements.

Elephant - Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is home to many isolated elephant populations. Unfortunately, many countries in this part of the world are undergoing extreme political upheaval and do not allow Western researchers in very often. One man, Robert Olivier, has been able to penetrate the political and natural blockades of these areas on several occasions. Olivier's research into myanmar (formerly Burma) showed no officially protected nature preserves at all but lots of remaining forest habitat. In fact, he estimated that there are 149000 square miles of intact forest in this country. His estimate of the number of elephants in Myanmar remains at about five thousand. In Thailand, elephants have been protected for centuries, at least in theory if not always in practice. The forests of Thailand once convered 80% of the country. Today less that 30% of the region is forested, and remaining forest is reduced by 13% each year. The elephants of Thailand have been used for many years as domestic animals for agriculture and for war. In 1884 there were reportedly 20000 domesticated elephants throughout the country. The encroachment of expanding human populations has taken its toll through habitat loss, poaching, and political upheavel. In 1950 there were only 14000 domesticated elephants there, and today the estimate is between 2500 and 4000 individuals. All island elephants are considered more seriously threatened than their mainland neighbours. They are isolated and have only a limited amount of space to migrate away from human pressures. They cannot depend on immigration to restock their gene pool, and they are more susceptible to the rapid spread of disease. There is currently some debate as to whether elephants were ever indigenous to the island of Borneo. The ones that remain today seem to have descended from an imported domestic stock, once belonging to the sultan of Sulu in 1750. Estimates of the Bornean population are sketchy at best. The most recent accurate survey, which was conducted in 1968 indicates that the island of Sumatra fares no better. This country does have a few wildlife reserves, but they are very poorly policed. The laws are not enforced, and hunting licenses are easily obtained from local officials. In addition, the populations within the island are extremely fragmented. In 1929 there were up to three thousand elephants in Sumatra; the latest estimates report about three hundred individuals.

Elephant - The Malayan Elephant

Records indicate that one thousand years ago, the country of Malaya was one of the strongholds of the Asian elephant population. Thriving trade in both ivory and live domesticated elephants occurred between Malaya and other countries. The elephants were revered in this country and were well cared for. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, Malaya's ancient traditional economy was transformed by the rubber industry. For about thirty years, Malaya's forests were torn down and replanted with rubber trees. This became a big-money industry for the Malayans, and the elephant, having turned to the rubber trees for food, became a major problem. The result, as in many other places throughout the world, was large-scale eradication. Elephants were said to have caused about $30000 worth of damage to the rubber trees between 1910 and 1930 (a king's ransom to an impoverished nation at the turn of the century). The elepahnts ended up retreating to isolated pockets of forest in the eastern part of the peninsula. A new chief game warden in Malaya, Mohammed Khan bin Momin Khan, took up the cause of protecting the herds in 1970. Their numbers had been so signnificantly reduced that his efforts, while valiant, may not be enough to save the Malayan elephant. Estimates today are, again, unreliable at best. Two separate studies were carried out in the 1970s: one reported 556 elephants; the other study estimated between 3000 and 6000. There are still many Southeast Asian countries isolated from Western research, including Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It may be years before new studies are permitted.

Elephant - Eastern Africa

Eastern and central Africa have had perhaps the most turbulent recent history with regard to their elephant populations. Most of the countries in this region are poor in comparison with the countries of southern Africa. They have very limited resources, and their citizens are perennially faced with starvation and disease. The lack of funds in these areas has also made them the prime target of ivory poachers. During the last two decades, poachers decimated the local elephant populations. Toady, thanks to the CITES ban and increased efforts on the part of several local governments, poaching has nearly come to a standstill. It will, however, take many generations for the elephants of this region to reestablish their numbers. In light of the current African population growth, this may never happen. According to a newsletter put out by the WWF, when Africa had ten million elephants, there were only sixteen million people there. Today Africa's human population is over 500 million, and the elephant range has been reduced to less than one-quarter of the continent's surface. Kenya, for example, has an average human growth of four percent every year. This trend shows no signs of slowing and will obviously mean less territory for the elephant, as well as all of Africa's other wild animals. One of the more well known reserves in the region is Kenya's Tsavo National Park. In the 1950s, shortly after Tsavo had been established, there were reports of severe damage to its baobab trees. The elepahnts were ripping off the bark to get at the fleshy interior of the trunk. The new protection afforded these animals allowed their numbers to climb, perhaps too fast. In 1957 the elephant population was estimated at 3000. Just nine years later, in 1966, an aerial survey reported about 15000 individuals. Some researchers believe that the 1957 count was in error. However, by 1969 there were 20000 elephants. The population was swelling well beyond the capacity of the park. The elephants could not leave the grounds because they would be shot by farmers or poached. The inflated population took its toll on Tsavo. Forested areas were being systematically destroyed or reduced to grassland. A new and radical approach was suggested by some: Perhaps the elephants should be culled. Controlled killing to reduce their numbers was not a popular option. Opponents said that this would only be a short-term solution, and there was evidence showing that somehow the elephants were beginning to regulate themselves to some extent. Females were not reaching reproductive maturity until a later age than normal. Some scientists suggested that this could have been due to nutritional deficiencies or hormonal imbalances caused by overcrowding. In 1969 researcher Richard Laws presented the report of the Tsavo Research Project, in which he stated that culling would be necessary to ensure the park's survival. A long and heated debate ensued, but eventually the government decided against culling, in hopes that the elephants would continue to regulate their own numbers. This turned out to be a very fortunate decision. In 1970-71 there was a devastating drought in the area. Over six thousand elephants died. If culling had also taken place a year or two earlier, the local elephant population might have been too decimated to recover.

Elephant - West Africa

Less is known about the elephant population in the Congo Basin than in any other part of the continent. Dense, nearly impenetrable forests and unstable political situations have kept most researchers from getting a handle on the forest elephant's current situation. One of the few countries that has been studied is Gabon. During the early 1980s, there was a large amount of ivory coming out of the forests of Gabon. This could either mean that the elephant population was being reduced to small numbers or that there was a large sustainable healthy population. Richard and Karen Barnes found the political climate of Gabon to be fairly stable and consequently were able to conduct detailed research in the area. In the rain forest, it is impossible to count elephants from a jeep or a plane, the way it is done on the savannas. Instead, the Barneses had to rely on taking an inventory of droppings and correlating this to approximate herd sizes. What they discovered was very encouraging 76% of Gabon is still covered by rain forest. The human population in this country is only a little over one million. Rural farmers typically live on the outskirts of the forest, along major roads. The forest elephant is more wary of human contact than its savanna cousins and consequently stays away from these major roads. Decreased contact means decreased friction between humans and elephants. Also, the recent discovery of oil off the coast of Gabon has lured large numbers of rural farmers away from the forest to seek out high-paying jobs in coastal cities. Not only does this cause less human conflict in the area, but increased revenue from the oil industry has taken the pressure off forest exploitation, such as timber and mineral extraction. The Barneses' data indicate there may be more than seventy thousand wild elephants in Gabon alone. Unfortunately, the rest of equatorial Africa's forest elephant population may not be faring as well. Studies in Zaire and other neighbouring countries suggest that ivory poachers using automatic weapons have still been operating in the deepest regions of the forest, even since the ban in 1989.

Elephant - Southern Africa

The countries of southern Africa have traditionally been wealthier than their northern neighbours. As a result, most of these countries have a well-designed, well-equipped, and well-patrolled system of national parks. Perhaps the most successful and frequently visited park in Africa, Kruger National Park, is still growing. Located in the northeast corner of South Africa, Kruger is an enormous park. It is about 230 miles long and 35 to 40 miles wide along most of its length. But as vast as it is, even Kruger National Park is only a fraction of its inhabitants' former range. As in any other part of the world, elephants confined to small areas can do major damage. Well-known journalist and elephants researcher Douglas Chadwick sums it up: "As long as elephants are free to wander, they only stir the habitat they use. But they can hammer an environment when confined." Kruer holds 80% of the nation's elephants. The park's carrying capacity has been set at 7500 elephants. To maintain this, rangers typically cull 300 to 400 a year. Often the first to be culled are known crop raiders. Many parts of Kruger are surrounded by fences. However, even South Africa cannot afford elephant-proof fencing. A hungry and determined elephant will plow right through any barriers to raid nearby crops.

Elephant - Involving the Local Community

The park is trying to change with the times. According to Chris Marais, a park employee, "The old idea of how to run a park was: put up a big fence, get big guns and keep the neighbours and their cattle out." This obviously fosters contempt from local people. So today steps are being taken to make sure that the park's neighbours have a vested interest in it. Hiring local people as guides and caretakers was the first step. In addition, park funds have established medical clinics and helped out with irrigation projects, and native people are allowed to sell their crafts to tourists with the park.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Habitat loss", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki