On March 14-15, 2013 on the southern area of Chad, a landlocked country in Africa, 86 elephants were shot and killed by poachers. Out of the total 86 killed, 15 were calves and 33 were pregnant female elephants. Automatic weapons were used to do the killing. These types of killings are happening way too often now in Africa. The Central African elephants are on the verge of being completely killed off as a result of mass poaching such as this. The issue is that there is a high demand for ivory in Asia, so to make large amounts of cash fast the criminal gangs are trafficking these huge quantities of ivory illegally from the elephants.
A possible solution could be to decrease the demand for ivory. Researchers could try to find an alternative to ivory that looks and feels the exact same or maybe even better. If the demand doesn’t stop then the killing won’t stop. This can only work if an alternative can be found. Another solution could be to limit the amount of ivory that is allowed to be marketed. Of course some people would still illegally sell it, but I think it would help at least a little bit. One last solution is to set detectors along the area where the elephants normally go to and detect when a human is there who shouldn’t. The detector could alert officials and they could come down to the scene before the poachers have a chance to get the ivory. This idea would not be an easy thing to actually put in place, but I think it can be done.
Personally, I do believe that this is a serious problem in Africa. Without the elephants, the ecosystem would be completely thrown off. Elephants are beautiful creatures that deserve the right to live just as much as any other creature. What's sad is that these poachers are murdering pregnant elephants with innocent babies in them that will never even get the chance to live.
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A possible solution could be to decrease the demand for ivory. Researchers could try to find an alternative to ivory that looks and feels the exact same or maybe even better. If the demand doesn’t stop then the killing won’t stop. This can only work if an alternative can be found. Another solution could be to limit the amount of ivory that is allowed to be marketed. Of course some people would still illegally sell it, but I think it would help at least a little bit. One last solution is to set detectors along the area where the elephants normally go to and detect when a human is there who shouldn’t. The detector could alert officials and they could come down to the scene before the poachers have a chance to get the ivory. This idea would not be an easy thing to actually put in place, but I think it can be done.
Personally, I do believe that this is a serious problem in Africa. Without the elephants, the ecosystem would be completely thrown off. Elephants are beautiful creatures that deserve the right to live just as much as any other creature. What's sad is that these poachers are murdering pregnant elephants with innocent babies in them that will never even get the chance to live.
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That's horrible, if all the elephants go extinct the price of ivory would sky rocket. Somebody undeserving will get filthy rich, that's just not right.
ReplyDeleteI did an article that was on this same exact thing. I think that this is horrible because these are beautifully created animals that did nothing wrong to humans. They shouldn't be killed just because they have something we want.
ReplyDeleteI agree, this is terrible. I also think that laws should be more strictly enforced, and people should start "save the elephants" organizations to stop this.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone want to be the cause of elephants going extinct?
ReplyDeleteI agree Craig, it is cruel and unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteIf the elephants would disappear from central Africa what would happen? How would the ecosystem be affected? Would predators increase or decrease and how the other organisms would react.
ReplyDeleteThis makes made me mad, and also very sad in the result of the poachers. How they have no heart honestly, I can’t believe they’d kill baby elephants, or female elephants that are pregnant. I wish there was something that could outlaw these horrible events. Elephants disappearing from central Africa would mess up a lot of different things.
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