“The carcasses of 87 elephants have been discovered near a
Botswana protected sanctuary, killed and stripped for their tusks.
“The elephants were
discovered by Elephants Without Borders, a conservation nonprofit. The organization said they ‘discovered the alarming
rate while flying the Botswana government aerial [elephant] census.’
“‘I'm shocked, I'm
completely astounded,’ Mike Chase of Elephants Without Borders told the BBC. ‘The scale of elephant poaching is by far
the largest I've seen or read about anywhere in Africa to date.’
“Many of the elephants
were killed within the last few weeks and three white rhinos in the same area
were poached and killed within the last three months, according to an Elephant
Poaching Incident Report Reference written by Chase and obtained by NPR.
“‘All carcasses [were] presumed to be poached, because all of
them had their skulls chopped to remove their tusks,’ writes Chase. ‘Poachers
tried to hide their crimes by concealing the mounds of rotting flesh with
drying bushes.’
“‘The varying classification and age of carcasses is indicative
of a poaching frenzy which has been ongoing in the same area for a long time,’
the report says.
“Botswana is home to the
largest elephant population in the world, according to the Great
Elephant Census, a report conducted by Elephants Without Borders and
the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. The country holds 37 percent of its
continent's endangered elephant population. Elephant populations in Africa
declined by 30 percent — around 144,000 elephants — from 2007 to 2014.
“The same report says 84 percent of all elephants in the
continent were sighted in legally protected areas, like the ones the 87
elephants were poached in. The carcasses were found near the Okavango Delta
wildlife sanctuary, a biodiverse international tourist destination of over
22,000 square kilometers.
“Botswana disarmed its
anti-poaching unit in May, one month after President Mokgweetsi Masisi took
office. The country previously had a shoot-to-kill policy against
poachers. The BBC reports a ‘senior official in the president's office, Carter
Morupisi, told journalists in Botswana at the time that the 'government has
decided to withdraw military weapons and equipment from the Department of
Wildlife and National Parks', but he did not explain why.’
“Large-scale poaching was
rare before the policy was rescinded, reports the BBC. ‘The poachers are now turning their guns to Botswana. We have
the world's largest elephant population, and it is open season for poachers,’
Chase told the BBC” (National Public Radio, September 3, 2018).
Hi Glen, I love animals too.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read about things like this I can't sleep, make me sick to my stomach.
Even if I hear about a stray cat I want to run and find it and bring it home.
Thanks for exposing this monstrous action but I really can't read it or look at the photos but I know it must be done so people know these terrible things have happened.
Lost, Departed, Late by Sandy Solomon
ReplyDeleteIn the Serengeti four elephants rest without heads,
bodies rising like boulders from the plain,
their slight, curling trunks uprooted beside them
as buzzards fall and, greedy, rend,
and day spreads, red, automatic, rifled.
Watch for a long time the great, gray hulls
hacked at the neck, intimate loads of muscle
and blood overflowing the ground, a rose
that shocks the drab olive-brown scrub
and ground and glistens on the moving beaks.
Oh, where are the long, bony foreheads,
thin wings of ears, mouths that seemed to smile
while chewing acacia leaves or grass,
debonair tusks jutting like stiff, white mustaches?
Where the bag men, where the keepers?
Ask the horizon, empty of gesture.
Ask the browsing chorus that always arrives in time.