Poaching

Definition of Poaching

From the elephant glossary Section: hunting

Relevant Literature about Poaching
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Africa

African elephant numbers

1989: 1 million
2008: fewer than 470,000

Deaths from poaching in Africa

1989: 7.4 percent of the population
2008: 8 percent of the population

Wholesale price of ivory

1990s: $100 per kilogram
2004: $200 per kilogram
2006: to $750 per kilogram
2007: to $850 per kilogram

Source: Sam Wasser

Africa

Recently the percentage of African elephants that do not develop Tusks has been steadily increasing in many regions, suggesting that some varieties of the African elephant are losing the tusk as an evolutionary mechanism against poaching. (Christina Larson)

South Africa

South Africa has a legal export of 60 elephant trophies a year. The cost of shooting an elephant is about 20 000 US$, money which partly is financing protection against poaching.

Tanzania

In 2009, the national census estimated the total abundance of elephants in Tanzania was 109,051 individuals, which increased since the late 1980s population of 55,000 individuals. This was likely due in part to anti-poaching actions (Tanzania Elephant Management Plan 2010-2015).

Asia

China

in 1995, four people were executed for poaching elephants for their Tusks. Since then, no poaching cases have been reported. (Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2010)

India

Home to ca 60 percent of Asias elephants, India (read more on the link) has the highest death rate from human-elephant conflict, with 200-250 people and 100 elephants killed annually. Habitat fragmentation, poaching of tusked males, and patchy forest law enforcement are problems, but numbers are rebounding.

South India

During the eighties and nighties, A criminal band leader, Verappan (known in this state as a"Robin Hood") from the state of Tamil Nadu in India, killed several hundreds of elephants, most of them Tuskers , and about 50 game wardens. So in the case of the Asian elephants, the poaching has not only reduced the population, but also disturbed the balance in the sex ratio of wild populations.

In southern India, poaching of male Tuskers has seriously upset the balance of the sexes, with 30 to 40 females to every male. The normal ratio is one male to four females.

Sri Lanka

A record number of elephants - 361 - have died in Sri Lanka during 2019, environmental Groups say.

It is highest figure of elephant deaths to be reported since Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, conservationists said. Most were killed by people.

There are an estimated 7,500 wild elephants in Sri Lanka. Killing them is illegal, but the animals often come into conflict with rural communities.

Sajeewa Chamikara, an environmentalist from the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform, told the BBC that some 85% of elephant deaths last year may have been caused by human activity.(Sri Lanka elephants: "Record number" of deaths in 2019, BBC)

Reference list Koehl, Dan, (2024). Poaching. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 20 September 2021 at https://www.elephant.se/index.php?id=15. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

Gobush, KS, BM Mutayoba, SK Wasser. 2008. Long-Term Impacts of Poaching on Relatedness, Stress Physiology, and Reproductive Output of Adult Female African Elephants. Conservation Biology 22: 1590-1599.
Professor Sam Wasser, director, Center for Conservation Biology, University of Washington
Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2010, China's elephants jostle for a little room, Barbara Demick and Nicole Liu, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/14/world/la-fg-china-elephants14-2010mar14
Sri Lanka elephants: "Record number" of deaths in 2019, BBC online at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51076898

Selected publications

Gobush, KS, B Kerr, SK Wasser. 2009. Genetic Relatedness and Disrupted Social Structure in a Poached Population of African Elephants. Molecular Ecology 18: 722-734.
Gobush, KS, BM Mutayoba, SK Wasser. 2008. Long-Term Impacts of Poaching on Relatedness, Stress Physiology, and Reproductive Output of Adult Female African Elephants. Conservation Biology 22: 1590-1599.

Links about Poaching

Selected external links for this article about Poaching:

University of Washington, Effects of poaching on African elephants, Kathleen Gobush, online at https://conservationbiology.uw.edu/research-programs/effects-of-poaching-on-african-elephants/
Gobush, KS and SK Wasser. 2009. Behavioural correlates of low relatedness in African elephant core groups of a poached population. Animal Behaviour 78: 1079-1086. Online at https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/uw-s3-cdn/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2008/12/23211422/2009AB_Gobush-and-Wasser.pdf

Poaching mentioned on our sister website www.elephant-news.com

2021-04-08

Cbi begins probe into death of elephants, poaching in forests of tamil nadu - Elephant News

External relevant search

Search more on the web for elephant+%22Poaching%22 (Opens in new window and the word elephant+%22Poaching%22 is already submitted into the link, just click on the link for relevant results)

Categories glossary | hunting

About this documentThis document was created: 2021-09-20. Latest update: 2021-10-22 04:31:42 included 3682 characters with valid HTML5