tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/african-elephants-31644/articlesAfrican elephants – The Conversation2024-03-11T13:03:39Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220932024-03-11T13:03:39Z2024-03-11T13:03:39ZNigeria risks losing all its forest elephants – what we found when we went looking for them<p>Nigeria is one of <a href="https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/SSC-OP-060_A.pdf">37 African countries</a> where elephants are found in the wild. Savannah elephants (<em>Loxodonta africana</em>) can be found in the north and forest elephants (<em>Loxodonta cyclotis</em>) in the south.</p>
<p>It’s not clear how many elephants there are in Nigeria. Eighteen years ago, the <a href="https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/SSC-OP-060_A.pdf">African Elephant Study Report</a> estimated that there were just 94 elephants left in the country. In 2021, it was estimated that there could be about <a href="https://newsroom.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/16374/Last-Chance-for-Nigerias-Endangered-Elephants-Can-a-National-Elephant-Action-Plan-Help-Save-Them.aspx">400 elephants</a> in areas not systematically surveyed.</p>
<p>What we do know, however, is that the numbers and ranges of elephants in Nigeria have declined greatly over time. The main cause of this has been human activity, like logging and agriculture, which <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/elephants-invade-as-habitat-loss-soars-in-nigerian-forest-reserve/">threaten</a> their survival by reducing their natural habitat. Some elephant populations have been lost. Others exist only in small, fragmented areas. </p>
<p>Elephant surveys had not been carried out in southern Nigeria for over a decade, and sightings of forest elephants are rare. Forest elephants are of <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-decisions-by-global-conservation-group-bolster-efforts-to-save-africas-elephants-158157">particular interest</a> because they’re classified as <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/pdf/204404464">Critically Endangered</a> by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. </p>
<p>We carried out a <a href="http://urpr.unilag.edu.ng/index.php/ujmst/article/view/1010">study</a> to establish their presence and determine the factors affecting their conservation.</p>
<p>We visited four protected areas in two national parks and one forest reserve in southern Nigeria. We did find small populations, totalling 40 forest elephants. This is not a viable population in the long run as it has been <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1019047830364">suggested</a> that “viable” elephant populations may range from 400 to 6,000 individuals. </p>
<p>Their survival is being threatened for six reasons, in particular the impact of people’s activities. </p>
<h2>Presence and distribution of elephants</h2>
<p>We visited Okomu National Park; Omo Forest Reserve; and the Okwango and Oban Divisions of the Cross River National Park. </p>
<p>Elephants were caught on camera traps in the Omo Forest Reserve and Okomu National Park. They were sighted in the Okomu National Park and the Oban Division of the Cross River National Park. In the Omo Forest reserve, we found the charred bones of a poached elephant. </p>
<p>Of the 40 identified using micro-satellite markers, seven were in Omo Forest Reserve, 14 from Okomu National Park, 11 from Oban Divison and eight from Okwango Division.</p>
<p>The future of these elephants looks precarious for a number of reasons.</p>
<h2>The threats</h2>
<p>Firstly, our study found evidence that pressure from human activity and changes in land use were influencing elephant distribution in the study locations. These were also contributing to habitat fragmentation and forest degradation. </p>
<p>We found that land within and around the protected areas we studied had been converted to settlements. It is also used for farming and monoculture plantations, where elephant food is limited. This has resulted in habitat loss and forest fragmentation, restricting the ranges of the elephant populations.</p>
<p>Second, the presence of hunters’ sheds, spent cartridges, traps and hook snares showed that illegal hunting persisted in all the study locations. We found the carcass of an elephant during the study. Hunting, as a threat to biodiversity conservation, has already been proven in studies of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Henry-Ijeomah/publication/265843692_CHALLENGES_OF_WILDLIFE_MANAGEMENT_IN_KAINJI_LAKE_NATIONAL_PARK_NIGERIA/links/541cb7440cf241a65a150bff/CHALLENGES-OF-WILDLIFE-MANAGEMENT-IN-KAINJI-LAKE-NATIONAL-PARK-NIGERIA.pdf">Kainji National Park</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285521399_Wildlife_conservation_challenges_in_Okomu_National_Park_Nigeria">Okomu National Park</a> and the <a href="https://ijcs.ro/public/IJCS-14-49-Adetola.pdf">Cross River National Park</a>. Arrests don’t always deter offenders because the punitive measures aren’t heavy enough.</p>
<p>Thirdly, human-elephant conflict is pervasive. Elephants raided crops and destroyed property in and around the study locations. Most farmers in the surrounding communities lacked alternative sources of livelihood. Even <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/elephants-invade-as-habitat-loss-soars-in-nigerian-forest-reserve/">small losses</a> were of economic importance and led to negative attitudes towards conservation.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/conflict-between-humans-and-wildlife-in-tanzania-is-being-poorly-managed-and-climate-change-is-making-things-worse-210332">Conflict between humans and wildlife in Tanzania is being poorly managed – and climate change is making things worse</a>
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<p>In the Okomu National Park – which lacks a <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/nac/buffers/guidelines/2_biodiversity/8.html#:%7E:text=Buffer%20zones%20are%20designated%20areas,connect%20the%20buffered%20landscape%20patches.">buffer zone</a> – we detected elephant activity outside the protected areas.</p>
<p>Fourthly, the distribution of the elephants in small groups means that they face a high risk of local extinction. The populations in the Omo Forest Reserve and the Okomu National Park are completely isolated. The protected areas are surrounded by farmlands and human settlements and the elephants don’t intermingle with other populations.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-savannah-elephants-small-fortress-parks-arent-the-answer-they-need-room-to-roam-220723">Africa's savannah elephants: small 'fortress' parks aren't the answer – they need room to roam</a>
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<p>Fifth is the issue of forest degradation and shrinking of forest space. The Omo Forest Reserve is a <a href="https://www.worldheritagesite.org/connection/Strict+Nature+Reserve">Strict Nature Reserve</a> – meaning it’s not open to tourism – and is one of <a href="https://en.unesco.org/biosphere/africa/omo">Nigeria’s four biosphere reserves</a>. But most of the forest is degraded and has reduced in size. </p>
<p>The final threat to elephants is that farmers were not paid compensation for crop losses arising from elephant raids in the study locations. This contributed to a negative attitude towards conservation. The Federal Government of Nigeria has no <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322775865_Assessment_of_Human-Wildlife_Conflicts_In_Filinga_Range_of_Gashaka_Gumti_National_Park_Nigeria">policy provision</a> for compensation to farmers. The <a href="https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets">Aichi Biodiversity Targets</a> encourage incentives as a means of safeguarding biodiversity.</p>
<h2>Improving the conservation of elephants</h2>
<p>Ecologically, elephants are a keystone species which have a massive impact on the ecosystem. Their loss would have an impact on the environment. Economically, they are drivers of tourism, and culturally they are icons of the African continent. </p>
<p>There are several steps that can be taken to protect them. </p>
<p>Awareness programmes, livelihood opportunities and compensation should be introduced to farmers. Together with <a href="https://www.jsr.org/hs/index.php/path/article/view/4111">acoustic deterrents</a> and other mitigation methods used around the world, they could check losses due to crop raids.</p>
<p>Community conservation education and awareness programmes <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266945276_An_Empirical_Study_of_the_Effects_of_Personal_Factors_on_Environmental_Attitudes_of_Local_Communities_around_Nigeria's_Protected_Areas">work</a>. They should be rolled out to help change negative attitudes and get people to cooperate in conservation efforts. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-it-might-take-more-than-the-buzz-of-bees-to-ward-off-elephants-54255">Why it might take more than the buzz of bees to ward off elephants</a>
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<p>In our study we observed that elephants avoided harming cocoa farms. In cases where elephants passed through them, the cocoa was not eaten. This behaviour was also <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237297323_Forest_elephant_distribution_and_habitat_use_in_the_Bossematie_Forest_Reserve_Ivory_Coast">reported</a> at the Bossematié Forest Reserve, Côte d'Ivoire. This observation needs to be investigated to test whether cultivation of these crops could mitigate conflict between people and elephants. </p>
<p>Finally, a species management and monitoring plan should be put in place to help conserve Nigeria’s forest elephant populations. A nationwide survey, to assess the population of elephants in all ranges in Nigeria, should be top priority.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Queen Omoregie received funding from the 2015 S. L. Edu Memorial Research grant and the Graduate Fellow grant, School of Postgraduate Studies, University of Lagos to carry out this research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bola Oboh and Rosemary Iriowen Egonmwan do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Forest elephants are endangered in Nigeria. Habitat protection, community awareness campaigns, research and stronger regulations could save them from going extinct.Rosemary Iriowen Egonmwan, Professor of Environmental Physiology of Animals, University of LagosBola Oboh, Professor of Genetics, Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, University of LagosLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2165482023-12-26T08:48:13Z2023-12-26T08:48:13ZUnusual ancient elephant tracks had our team of fossil experts stumped – how we solved the mystery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559289/original/file-20231114-17-wm62rc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elephants communicate underground by generating seismic waves. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anadolu Agency</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past 15 years, through our scientific study of tracks and traces, we have identified more than 350 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.07.039">fossil vertebrate tracksites</a> from South Africa’s Cape south coast. Most are found in cemented sand dunes, called aeolianites, and all are from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Pleistocene-Epoch">Pleistocene Epoch</a>, ranging in age from about 35,000 to 400,000 years. </p>
<p>During that time we have honed our identification skills and have become used to finding and interpreting tracksites – a field called ichnology. And yet, every once in a while, we encounter something we immediately realise is so novel that it has been found nowhere else on Earth.</p>
<p>Such a moment of unexpected discovery happened in 2019 along the coastline of the De Hoop Nature Reserve, about 200km east of Cape Town. Less than two metres away from a cluster of fossil elephant tracks was a round feature, 57cm in diameter, containing concentric ring features. Another layer was exposed about 7cm below this surface. It contained at least 14 parallel groove features. Where the grooves approached the rings, they made a slight curve towards them. The two findings, we hypothesised, were connected with each other and appeared to have a common origin.</p>
<p>Elephants are the largest, heaviest land animals. They leave large, deep, easily recognisable tracks. We’ve documented 35 fossilised elephant track sites in our study area, as well as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2021.32">first evidence</a> of fossilised elephant trunk-drag impressions. </p>
<p>Elephants, like another group of massive land creatures, dinosaurs, can be viewed as geological engineers that create minor earth-moving forces on the ground they walk(ed) on. This can be related also to a remarkable ability that elephants possess: communicating by generating seismic waves. These are a form of energy that can travel under the surface of the Earth.</p>
<p>The feature we found in 2019 seemed to reflect just such a phenomenon: an elephant triggering waves that rippled outwards. After additional investigation and a thorough search for alternative explanations, we could report in a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016787823000792">recently published study</a> that we believe we’ve found the world’s first trace fossil signature of seismic, underground communication between elephants. </p>
<h2>Elephant seismicity</h2>
<p>Since the 1980s, an ever-increasing body of literature has documented “elephant seismicity” and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00300007">seismic communication through infrasound</a>. The lower threshold of human hearing is 20Hz; below that, low frequency sounds are known as infrasound. Elephant “rumbles”, originating in the larynx and transmitted into the ground through the limbs, fall within the infrasonic range. </p>
<p>Infrasound at high amplitude (it would seem very loud to us if at a slightly higher frequency) can travel further than high frequency sounds, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.03.062">over distances as great as 6km</a>. Elephants have an advantage here. Lighter creatures cannot <a href="https://doi.org/10.1152/physiol.00008.2007">generate low-frequency sound waves through vocalisation</a>. It is thought that long-distance seismic communication can allow elephant groups to interact over substantial distances, and it has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.03.062">been shown</a> that sandy terrain allows the communication to travel furthest.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/fossil-tracks-and-trunk-marks-reveal-signs-of-ancient-elephants-on-south-africas-coast-164306">Fossil tracks and trunk marks reveal signs of ancient elephants on South Africa's coast</a>
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<p>Continuing the elephant-dinosaur analogy, we considered the multitude of publications on dinosaur tracks. We are aware of only a single example that exhibits possible concentric rings within a track, from Korea, and none that involve parallel grooves. This suggests something unique about elephants that generates concentric rings within tracks and leads to the associated groove features. Elephant rumbling provides a plausible explanation.</p>
<p>In our scenario at De Hoop Nature Reserve, we postulate that vibrations from rumbling travelled down the elephant limb and created the concentric ring features. They are reminiscent of some of the patterns that become evident when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFAcYruShow">sprinkling sand onto a vibrating surface</a>. The surface on which the concentric rings appear must have been just below the dune surface at the time. The parallel grooves would then represent a trace fossil signature of subsurface communication. We’re not yet sure how old the trace fossil is; we’ve sent samples for testing.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A video showing sand vibrating when it’s exposed to sound.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Rumblings in rock art</h2>
<p>Elephant seismicity is a relatively new field of study for scientists. However, those who have lived close to elephants won’t be surprised at the idea of the animals communicating through vibration. Indeed, vibrations from elephant rumblings can sometimes be felt (rather than heard) by the astute observer. And it appears that this knowledge is not just recent. </p>
<p>The rock art experts on our team have identified and interpreted rock art that suggests the indigenous San people appreciated and celebrated this knowledge in southern Africa thousands of years ago. Elephants were of profound importance to the San and were prominently featured in <a href="https://www.archaeology.org.za/sites/default/files/attachments/publications/2019/09/02/ds_2018_december.pdf">their works of art</a>. Several rock art sites appear to contain paintings of elephants in relation to sound or vibration.</p>
<p>For example, at the Monte Cristo site in the Cederberg the artist has painted 31 elephants, in several groups. They are in a realistic arrangement. Fine red lines surround each elephant; zigzag lines touch the abdomen, groin, throat, trunk, and specifically the feet. Many zigzag lines link the elephant to the ground. The finest lines are closest to the elephants, and every elephant is connected to this set of lines. These are in turn connected to broader lines surrounding the elephant group, which radiate out and away from the elephants as concentric rings. </p>
<p>This is interpreted as the San artist’s probable illustration of seismic communication between elephants. The feeling of shaking and vibration, which the San call <em>thara n|om</em>, is vital to the San healing dances, including the <a href="https://www.archaeology.org.za/sites/default/files/attachments/publications/2019/09/02/ds_2018_december.pdf">elephant song and elephant dance</a>. Lines of energy, called <em>n|om</em>, are regarded as a vibrant life-giving force that animates all living beings and is the source of <a href="https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/view/28011/way-of-the-bushman">all inspired energy</a>.</p>
<p>We believe that an understanding of elephant seismicity requires the integration of three bodies of knowledge: research on extant elephant populations, ancestral knowledge (often manifested in rock art) and the trace fossil record. </p>
<p>That elephant seismic communication might leave a trace fossil record has never been reported before, or even postulated. Our findings may have the potential to stimulate multi-disciplinary research into this field. This could include a dedicated search for sub-surface patterns in the sand in the vicinity of modern rumbling elephants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216548/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Helm does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Elephants can be viewed as geological engineers that create minor tectonic forces on the substrate they walk on.Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973492023-01-11T11:41:24Z2023-01-11T11:41:24ZElephant poaching rates vary across Africa: 19 years of data from 64 sites suggest why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503583/original/file-20230109-13-53i5vz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s a grim and all too common sight for rangers at some of Africa’s nature reserves: the bullet-riddled carcass of an elephant, its tusks removed by poachers. African elephant populations have <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/2354/#table-2">fallen by about 30% since 2006</a>. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1403984111">Poaching</a> has driven the decline.</p>
<p>Some reserves, like Garamba in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Selous in Tanzania, have lost hundreds of elephants to poachers over the last decade. But others, like Etosha National Park in Namibia, have been targeted far less. What might explain this difference?</p>
<p>That’s what we set out to explore in our <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.2270">new paper</a>. We investigated why poaching rates vary so widely across Africa and what this might reveal about what drives, motivates and facilitates poaching. To do this, we used a statistical model to relate poaching levels from 64 African sites to various socio-economic factors. These included a country’s quality of governance and the level of human development in the area surrounding a park.</p>
<p>Our findings suggest that poaching rates are lower where there is strong national governance and where local levels of human development – especially wealth and health – are relatively high. Strong site-level law enforcement and reduced global ivory prices also keep poaching levels down.</p>
<p>Understanding these dynamics is crucial. The illegal wildlife trade is <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-environ-101718-033253">one of the highest value illicit trade sectors globally</a>, worth several billion dollars each year. It poses a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystems, which are <a href="https://www.unep.org/un-biodiversity-conference-cop-15">the bedrock of human well-being</a>. And elephants are more than just a culturally significant icon. They are “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0395-6">ecosystem engineers</a>” that can boost forest carbon stocks and <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.1557">diversify habitats</a> through their feeding. Their presence in national parks and reserves also has economic benefits, bringing in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13379">valuable tourism revenues</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/115/458/1/2195193">deaths of both poachers and rangers</a> in the continent’s violent biodiversity “war” also underscores our findings: when elephants lose, we all lose.</p>
<h2>Data collection</h2>
<p>We developed a statistical model using 19 years of data on 10,286 poached elephants at 64 sites in 30 African countries. These data were collected, mostly by wildlife rangers, as part of the global programme for <a href="https://citesmike.org/">Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE)</a>, administered by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). </p>
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<span class="caption">Rangers are the real champions of this research, working under difficult conditions to protect elephants and other biodiversity. Photo: Tim Kuiper.</span>
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<p>We then linked the poaching data to key socio-economic data related to areas around the parks, individual countries and global markets.</p>
<p>Poaching of high-value species like elephants and rhinos is driven primarily by <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/59/1/24/4967883">sophisticated criminal syndicates</a>. So we used criminology theory and evidence from the scientific literature to generate hypotheses about factors that might drive, facilitate or motivate the decisions of these syndicates and the local hunters they recruited. We then identified datasets representing these factors, such as the <a href="https://ucdp.uu.se/">Uppsala Armed Conflict Dataset</a> and the Global Data Lab’s <a href="https://globaldatalab.org/shdi/">Subnational Human Development index</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/statistical-models-and-ranger-insights-help-identify-patterns-in-elephant-poaching-137834">Statistical models and ranger insights help identify patterns in elephant poaching</a>
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<p>Our tailored statistical model allows us to test for the effect of one hypothesised driver of poaching while accounting for the others. It also means we can look at local, national, regional and global factors together.</p>
<h2>Key findings</h2>
<p>Parks with higher levels of human development (based on health and wealth metrics from household surveys) and stronger law enforcement suffered less poaching. Poaching was also lower in countries where there was strong national governance quality. We measured this using the <a href="https://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/">World Bank’s governance indicators</a>. </p>
<p>Socio-economic and political drivers were far more common than ecological ones. A park’s accessibility and size, the density of its vegetation and its elephant population did not affect its poaching levels. </p>
<p>The strong associations we found between poaching and factors like corruption and human development do not necessarily imply that these factors directly cause poaching. Correlation does not imply causation. Deeper research at particular sites will reveal what underlying processes are at play, and offer a better understanding of cause and effect. </p>
<p>But we do have some suggestions about what might lie behind the associations we found. These are rooted in <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12622">previous studies</a>.</p>
<h2>Solutions transcend biodiversity</h2>
<p>Why, for instance, would higher levels of local human well-being in an area be associated with lower poaching?</p>
<p>One explanation could be that, in areas of economic deprivation and in the absence of alternatives, local residents might participate in poaching to meet their basic needs or earn extra income.</p>
<p>Another interpretation might be that criminal ivory syndicates seeking to recruit local hunters target areas of lower human well-being because they can operate more effectively there.</p>
<p>A number of biodiversity conservation actors, like government wildlife departments or environmental NGOs, have already recognised the value in focusing on improving human well-being around parks and reserves. A stellar example is <a href="https://communityconservationnamibia.com/">Namibia’s conservancy model</a>. It achieves effective conservation through local communities governing and benefiting from wildlife. </p>
<p>Our study highlights that site-based conservation action alone cannot control illegal killing. A lot of what drives and facilitates elephant poaching is beyond conservationists’ remit or control.</p>
<p>Conservationists can’t be expected to solve local human development issues or hold governments accountable on their own. Wider societal action to address poverty is required. This could include empowering women, increasing access to basic education, and promoting resilience to climate change. Such action is valuable in its own right, but will likely deliver benefits for elephants too. </p>
<p>Finally, the positive relationship that we found between poaching and ivory prices suggests that tackling demand for illegal wildlife in end-markets is a key part of the puzzle.</p>
<p>We suggest that tackling elephant poaching, and indeed the broader illegal wildlife trade, requires dealing with the wider systemic challenges of human development, corruption and consumer demand. It is not enough to just focus on actions traditionally defined as “wildlife conservation”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197349/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Kuiper receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation and the University of Cape Town Research Council. This work arises from a consultancy from the UN CITES Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants programme, to E.J. Milner-Gulland and Tim Kuiper (CITES project S-598), which was funded by the European Union. The consultancy brief was to identify and analyse covariates of illegal killing across MIKE sites, and a peer-reviewed paper was one of the planned outputs</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work arises from a consultancy from the UN CITES Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants programme, to E.J. Milner-Gulland and Tim Kuiper (CITES project S-598), which was funded by the European Union. The consultancy brief was to identify and analyse covariates of illegal killing across MIKE sites, and a peer-reviewed paper was one of the planned outputs. Potentially relevant group memberships: I am currently a Trustee of WWF-UK and a member of the IUCN-SSC Sustainable Use and Livelihoods specialist group.</span></em></p>The findings suggest that poaching rates are lower where there is strong national governance and levels of local human development are higher.Timothy Kuiper, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Cape TownEleanor Jane Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1918442023-01-05T20:36:55Z2023-01-05T20:36:55ZClimate change is leaving African elephants desperate for water<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501240/original/file-20221215-18-uv4lpe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3988%2C2664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>African elephant numbers have dropped from about <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/history-ivory-trade">26 million</a> in the 1800s to <a href="https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/46878">415,000</a> today. While this is largely <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/species/202103/african-elephant-species-now-endangered-and-critically-endangered-iucn-red-list">due to</a> European colonisation, poaching and habitat loss, these majestic animals now face another grave challenge. </p>
<p>Climate change is causing droughts in much of Africa to become longer and more severe. This damages elephant habitats and denies them the water they need. Due to their unique physiology, African elephants need hundreds of litres of water each day to survive.</p>
<p>The African savanna elephant is listed as <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/species/202103/african-elephant-species-now-endangered-and-critically-endangered-iucn-red-list">endangered</a>. If the situation doesn’t change, Africa – indeed, the world – may lose one of its most iconic animal species.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="dead elephant under tree" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501235/original/file-20221215-12-4375ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501235/original/file-20221215-12-4375ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501235/original/file-20221215-12-4375ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501235/original/file-20221215-12-4375ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501235/original/file-20221215-12-4375ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501235/original/file-20221215-12-4375ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501235/original/file-20221215-12-4375ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The carcass of an elephant discovered this year. It is suspected to have died due to the ongoing drought in Kenya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">DANIEL IRUNGU/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A tragic plight</h2>
<p>Elephants are not just important for their ecological, cultural and economic value. They are also a <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-58001-7_11">keystone species</a> – that is, they help hold ecosystems together. This means their decline has far-reaching consequences. </p>
<p>Many African ecosystems pivot around the lives of elephants. Elephant feeding habits, such as pushing over trees and peeling off bark, can turn woody vegetation into grasslands. This <a href="https://www.awf.org/blog/elephants-are-pillars-africas-ecosystems-and-they-need-our-support">makes room</a> for smaller species to move in. Their digging for water in dry riverbeds creates water holes other animals can use. And as they migrate, elephants help spread seeds in their dung. </p>
<p>Under climate change, long, intense droughts across southern and eastern Africa are <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/">escalating</a>. Some have lasted <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X13000279">more than 20 years</a>.</p>
<p>The conditions have left many elephants desperate for water. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.0141-6707.2000.00297.x">Research</a> as far back as 2003 shows elephants in Zimbabwe were dying during drought. And in 2016, when a drying El Nino weather pattern hit southern Africa, there were reports of more elephant deaths, prompting a local conservation group to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/11/water-relief-for-8000-thirsty-elephants-neglected-zimbabwe">drill bore holes</a> to provide relief.</p>
<p>Drought can also reduce the availability of food, causing elephants to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716303664">starve</a>. It can also mean <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0370">young elephants</a> die or don’t develop properly, because their parched mothers produce less milk.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rumble-in-the-jungle-an-ear-to-the-ground-can-tell-us-how-elephants-are-faring-in-the-wild-164368">Rumble in the jungle: an ear to the ground can tell us how elephants are faring in the wild</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="baby elephant stands with mother" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501236/original/file-20221215-13-zd431c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501236/original/file-20221215-13-zd431c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501236/original/file-20221215-13-zd431c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501236/original/file-20221215-13-zd431c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501236/original/file-20221215-13-zd431c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501236/original/file-20221215-13-zd431c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501236/original/file-20221215-13-zd431c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drought can mean young elephants don’t develop properly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Attila Balazs/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A unique physiology</h2>
<p>So, why do elephants struggle in drought and heat? </p>
<p>When elephants experience <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031938407001709">high internal temperatures</a>, it can disrupt the function of cells, tissues and organs such as the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/brv.12364">liver</a> and cause them to become sick and die.</p>
<p>Humans and other animals also suffer heat stress. But elephants are particularly vulnerable because they can’t sweat it off. </p>
<p>The graphic below shows how heat accumulates and dissipates in elephants. </p>
<p>Heat accumulates through an elephants’ natural metabolism and physical activity, as well as being absorbed from the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031938407001709">environment</a>. </p>
<p>But it does not always effectively dissipate. Elephants’ thick skin slows heat loss – and their <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/az/article/view/152820">lack of sweat glands</a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306456510000276">exacerbates this</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489486/original/file-20221013-22-pb514f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489486/original/file-20221013-22-pb514f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489486/original/file-20221013-22-pb514f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489486/original/file-20221013-22-pb514f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489486/original/file-20221013-22-pb514f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489486/original/file-20221013-22-pb514f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489486/original/file-20221013-22-pb514f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489486/original/file-20221013-22-pb514f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 1: the sources of heat gain in elephants, how heat is retained, and how they dissipate heat.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s more, elephants are the largest of all land mammals, weighing up to eight tonnes. They also have a large body volume – which generates heat – but a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306456506001057">relatively small</a> surface area (their skin) from which to lose this heat.</p>
<p>Water is essential for elephants to cope with heat. They <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/az/article/view/152820">swim and spray</a> their skin with mud and water; the subsequent <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05674.x">evaporation</a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306456510000276">mimicks sweating</a> and cools them down.</p>
<p>And elephants cool themselves internally by drinking <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/elephants-can-lose-two-bathtubs-full-water-single-day-when-it-gets-hot">several hundred litres of water a day</a>. </p>
<h2>Let elephants roam free</h2>
<p>Creating <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320709003759">artificial water sources</a> is a common management intervention when elephants need water. This includes the use of pipes, bores and pumps.</p>
<p>But this measure can be problematic. Sometimes, the water is sourced from supplies needed by local people. And large numbers of elephants congregating around water can <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352938518300090">permanently damage</a> the local environment and reduce food availability for other animals. </p>
<p>Historically, elephants migrated to water during drought. But the introduction of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320708003649#:%7E:text=Fencing%20for%20conservation%20is%20an,and%20exclude%20threats%20(intruders).">fenced areas</a> in the landscape has disrupted this movement. </p>
<p>Fences were constructed to mark out <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.12415">colonial land ownership</a>, <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/070003">separate</a> people from large animals and <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/070003">deter poachers</a>. </p>
<p>But as climate change worsens in Africa, elephants and other wildlife must be able to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/194008291200500405">move freely</a> between connected habitats. </p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aje.12541">Wildlife corridors</a> may provide an answer. These are protected channels of vegetation that enable animals to move between <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4314138#metadata_info_tab_contents">fragmented patches</a> of habitat. Wildlife corridors work well for megafauna in <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/4902">India</a> and the <a href="https://www.jswconline.org/content/54/4/645.short">United States</a> and would likely <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aje.12730">increase mobility</a> for much of Africa’s wildlife. </p>
<p>Introducing more wildlife corridors, especially in southern and eastern Africa, would require removing fences. This change would have repercussions. </p>
<p>Nearby communities – which have not coexisted with elephants since colonisation – would have to adjust to the change. The removal of fences may also lead to an increase in poaching. And letting elephants roam the landscape may make them less accessible to tourists, which could reduce <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26268031#metadata_info_tab_contents">tourism revenue</a>.</p>
<p>But communities have coexisted with elephants in the past. And community-based projects have been shown to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479714001054">reduce conflict</a> between humans and wildlife. In some cases, they’ve also led to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0305750X95000258">lower</a> poaching rates and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479714001054">increased</a> quality of life for communities. </p>
<p>Community management projects, such as in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014362280300033X">Northern Kgalagadi</a> in Botswana, show how local expertise – drawn from millennia of experience and knowledge – can guide wildlife management. Research has <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479714001054">shown</a> successful outcomes – both socially and ecologically – in places where elephants share landscapes with people.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-great-migrations-are-failing-but-there-is-a-solution-and-you-can-eat-it-too-93749">Africa's great migrations are failing but there is a solution - and you can eat it too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="herd of elephants in front of mountain" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501237/original/file-20221215-16-uv4lpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501237/original/file-20221215-16-uv4lpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501237/original/file-20221215-16-uv4lpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501237/original/file-20221215-16-uv4lpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501237/original/file-20221215-16-uv4lpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501237/original/file-20221215-16-uv4lpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501237/original/file-20221215-16-uv4lpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">African elephants should be free to roam the landscape.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Curtis/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Protecting a keystone species</h2>
<p>Ensuring African elephants survive drought will increasingly require new conservation strategies, including community-based management. Without this, already dwindling elephant populations will continue to decline. </p>
<p>This would be bad news for the health and stability of natural ecosystems in Africa – and a blow to Africa’s people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191844/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachael Gross receives funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Heinsohn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If the situation doesn’t change, Africa – indeed, the world – may lose one of its most iconic animal species.Rachael Gross, PhD Scholar in Applied Conservation Ecology, Australian National UniversityRob Heinsohn, Professor of Evolutionary and Conservation Biology, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1773152022-02-18T14:03:22Z2022-02-18T14:03:22ZEarly trauma affects an elephant’s ability to assess threat from lions – new research<p>It’s not only humans who suffer from the long-term effects of childhood trauma. In our <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/4/495/htm">latest research</a> we discovered that there appears to be a very real and lasting impact on elephants who experienced trauma and profound social disruption many decades earlier.</p>
<p>Families of African elephants who had witnessed their parents being culled appeared less able to differentiate between the roars of different numbers of lions than the elephants from a natural, relatively undisturbed population – and as you can imagine, assessing the level of danger from their key predator is a crucial skill on the African savanna.</p>
<p>Acquiring complex ecological knowledge about their own population and surrounding environment (such as how to accurately assess predatory threat) – and passing it onto younger family members – is crucial for long-lived species who live in multi-generational groups, such as elephants. </p>
<p>The knowledge passed from one generation to the next can vary <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2010.0304">depending upon specific threats</a> faced by the population. For example, elephants in Amboseli National Park, Kenya can <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/111/14/5433">use human voices</a> to distinguish the greater threat associated with groups of people that are more likely to hunt them. They recognised the more threatening people on the basis of ethnicity, gender and age through their language and voice characteristics.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Lioness watching feeding elephants" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447278/original/file-20220218-44643-sjirfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447278/original/file-20220218-44643-sjirfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447278/original/file-20220218-44643-sjirfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447278/original/file-20220218-44643-sjirfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447278/original/file-20220218-44643-sjirfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447278/original/file-20220218-44643-sjirfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447278/original/file-20220218-44643-sjirfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lions are the only predator of African elephants, apart from humans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Shannon</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aside from humans, lions are the key natural predator of elephants. It may be rare, but lions will <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6kx4m8">occasionally hunt calves</a> that have become separated from their family. In some regions, such as the Chobe national park in Botswana, large prides of lions have actually become adept elephant hunters and will even <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15627020.2009.11407437">tackle smaller adults</a>. </p>
<h2>How we assessed threat response</h2>
<p>For many years we have been studying African elephants in South Africa and Kenya, to explore the role of age and experience in effective leadership and decision making. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2011.0168">previous research in 2011</a> showed that the oldest matriarchs in Amboseli National Park were better at determining the greater danger associated with larger-bodied male lions compared with female lions solely from listening to lion roars broadcast from our custom-built loudspeaker. Making these subtle acoustic distinctions required experience gained over a long lifetime.</p>
<p>So, in our <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/4/495/htm">latest study</a> we set out to explore whether social trauma experienced decades ago might affect the natural ability of wild elephants to make key decisions on predatory threat.</p>
<p>We used two populations with differing developmental backgrounds. The natural population in Amboseli consisted of stable family groups with related individuals, and had experienced low levels of human disturbance. But the elephant population in Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa was founded with young, unrelated elephants who were survivors of culling operations in Kruger National Park during the early 1980s. The adult females from the families were shot, while the young animals were rounded up and moved to new reserves, forming groups with unrelated individuals. Thankfully this practice was ended soon after the population in Pilanesberg was established.</p>
<p>We broadcast one or three roaring lions to our study populations in Amboseli and Pilanesberg over a period of three years. The 30 second roars were broadcast from the back of our project Land Rover in the late afternoon when lions are most active. The behavioural responses of the elephant family group to the lion roars were recorded on video for later analysis.</p>
<h2>Impact of trauma</h2>
<p>The Amboseli elephants adjusted their behavioural response depending upon the number of lions that were broadcast. In situations of greater threat (more roaring lions) the elephants formed a rapid defensive bunch that would likely deter even the most committed predator. These involve calves moving to the middle of the group while the adults form a defensive ring. Whereas a single roaring lion was met with a reduced threat response and the elephants were less alert.</p>
<p>But the Pilanesberg elephants did not appear able to distinguish three roaring lions as a greater threat than one roaring lion, showing a similar high probability of defensive bunching in both situations. </p>
<p>This overreacting to every situation could potentially result in increased use of energy, loss of feeding time and injury risks.</p>
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<p>So, it appears that their traumatic past has had a long-term impact on the development and knowledge acquisition of these surviving animals. </p>
<p>In fact, the results echo those of our <a href="https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-9994-10-62">earlier study</a> exploring social knowledge in the Pilanesberg elephants. We found that they were unable to assess the greater social threat presented by the vocalisations of unfamiliar and older adult female elephants.</p>
<p>As well as the likely direct impact of trauma, the lack of older highly knowledgeable females in the orphaned population is key. The passing on of knowledge is likely to have significant survival and reproductive benefits for families led by the oldest and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1057895">most experienced matriarchs</a>, whereas orphaned elephants commonly <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14712-2">miss out</a> on the benefits.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/forest-elephants-are-our-allies-in-the-fight-against-climate-change-finds-research-120440">Forest elephants are our allies in the fight against climate change, finds research</a>
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<p>But it’s not all bad news. Despite everything, the elephants in Pilanesberg have shown remarkable resilience and over time have formed stable family groups that exhibit normal social behaviour. This is not always the case, with some reintroduced elephants showing very high <a href="https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/188">levels of aggression</a> against other animals.</p>
<p>Our results have important implications for the remaining elephant populations across Africa, many of which face <a href="https://www.savetheelephants.org/about-elephants-2-3-2/threats-to-elephants/">considerable pressure from humans</a>, such as poaching, habitat loss and climate change. These threats greatly impact social structure and the opportunity to learn crucial skills from older and more experienced individuals.</p>
<p>Sadly it is often these older and wiser animals that are the target of illegal hunting due to their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/06/poachers-kill-satao-ii-elephant-kenya-tsavo-big-tusker">larger tusks</a>. Ultimately, when it comes to conserving long-lived and highly social species such as elephants, we need to <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2020.2718">protect the social structure</a> of the population. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/elephant-ivory-dna-analysis-offers-clearest-insight-yet-into-illegal-trafficking-networks-177012">Elephant ivory: DNA analysis offers clearest insight yet into illegal trafficking networks</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177315/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graeme Shannon received funding from the Leverhulme Trust for this research. </span></em></p>We showed for the first time that social disruption and trauma - such as culling of older elephants - has a lasting impact on the behaviour of African elephants.Graeme Shannon, Lecturer in Zoology, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1770122022-02-14T16:08:22Z2022-02-14T16:08:22ZElephant ivory: DNA analysis offers clearest insight yet into illegal trafficking networks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446275/original/file-20220214-19-1fzwj1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5485%2C3329&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/guangzhou-china-jan-6-2014-chinese-760119226">Plavi011/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Poaching rare wildlife for teeth, tusks, fur, horns and other body parts is a crime which threatens many species with extinction, but the evidence which could incriminate traffickers is often difficult to access, hard to interpret, or piecemeal. </p>
<p>To discover more about the criminal networks sustaining this trade, researchers in the US, Kenya and Singapore have extracted as much data as possible from the products of illegal elephant ivory trafficking in Africa.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01267-6">The new study</a> analysed the DNA of tusk ivory seized from 49 large shipments impounded in African ports between 2002 and 2019. The researchers sampled 111 tonnes of ivory from at least 4,320 poached African elephants – a fraction of the total haul. These included ivory from the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/species/202103/african-elephant-species-now-endangered-and-critically-endangered-iucn-red-list#:%7E:text=The%20African%20savanna%20elephant%20(loxodonta%20africana)%20is%20now%20listed%20as,on%20the%20IUCN%20Red%20List.&text=The%20IUCN%20Red%20List%20now,imagination%20all%20over%20the%20world">savanna and forest elephant species</a> which are both listed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species.</p>
<p>African savanna elephants, which live in the grasslands of eastern central Africa, have declined by at least 60% over the past 50 years, but the number of forest elephants, found in western central Africa, has decreased by more than 86% in 31 years.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An elephant wades through shallow water with a calf beneath her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Forest elephants (mother and calf) in a Congolese swamp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_forest_elephant#/media/File:Loxodontacyclotis.jpg">Thomas Breuer</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>While 111 tonnes may sound like a lot of tusk, it is likely the tip of the ivory iceberg. The new analysis indicated where many elephants are being poached in Africa, where they are being shipped from and the consumer markets in south-east Asia and elsewhere they are destined for. It found that most tusks came from repeated poaching of the same elephant populations and implicated a handful of large, interconnected networks. This knowledge could help law enforcement officials link multiple shipments to a single group, thereby tying together a raft of crimes and illuminating the true scale of criminal activity.</p>
<h2>Inside the ivory trade</h2>
<p>Remarkably, the data indicates that most of the 49 shipments confiscated from across Africa contained ivory from the same bands of close relatives. This suggests the tusks of several elephants poached in one place were split up and packed into separate shipping containers for transport: mainly on cargo ships, although some went via road or rail to different countries. By spreading their illegal load across numerous vessels, traffickers reduce the risk of losing a large ivory store. With nearly one billion shipping containers <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aat0625">travelling the world</a> each year, not all of them can be thoroughly checked.</p>
<p>The new data indicates that the power brokers of the elephant ivory trade network are transnational criminal organisations. Matching tusks that came from elephants in the same families – including parents and offspring and siblings – between different shipments helped to identify three major criminal groups based in Mombasa in Kenya, Kampala in Uganda and Lomo in Togo.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large vessel laden with colourful containers in a busy harbour." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Lots of potential hiding places for contraband.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/container-ship-industrial-port-import-export-1570847962">Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The Mombasa and Kampala groups may well be arms of a single large organisation, with links across <a href="https://baselgovernance.org/publications/SNA_IWT">east Africa and south-east Asia</a>. Nevertheless, the possible links between criminal groups, ports and countries described in the study are probably an underestimate, given the high likelihood that most illegal ivory shipments pass undetected. There are practical constraints on DNA sampling and analysis too – not all tusks in every captured shipment can be genetically analysed.</p>
<p>I was alarmed to learn that my old stomping-ground, Uganda, where I was privileged to see and be among wild elephants on numerous occasions, has become a hub for this trade. The ivory illegally shipped from Uganda in this study was not principally from Ugandan elephants, but drew heavily from populations in Tanzania and Kenya instead. The data also revealed a growing web of connections between ports in different countries, indicating the expanding reach of the criminal organisations in the network.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four maps of central Africa depicting genetic connections between ivory seizures over time." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Blue lines connect any two ivory seizures containing one or more genetic matches.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01267-6">Wasser et al. (2022)/Nature Human Behaviour</a></span>
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<p>The most recent seizure in the dataset also contained 12 tonnes of <a href="https://reports.eia-international.org/out-of-africa/">scales</a> belonging to pangolins – the most poached animals in the world. Other ivory shipments included rhino horn. In many cases, the cover load in containers hiding animal parts is timber, but even the timber tends to originate from <a href="https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2020/Forestry-crime-targeting-the-most-lucrative-of-environmental-crimes">illegal harvests</a>. This shows that criminal organisations behind ivory trafficking are routinely engaging in multiple wildlife and environmental crimes involving many other protected species and <a href="https://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/Money-laundering-and-illegal-wildlife-trade.pdf">laundering the revenue</a>.</p>
<p>Trafficking groups may change which ports they use to distribute ivory to evade increased law enforcement at an existing one. These groups appear to be large, with transnational transport networks. This means that effective law enforcement must be similarly expansive and adaptable, involving government at various levels, scientists, conservation groups and the private sector. The role of institutional corruption cannot be overlooked either. At least some of the impounded ivory was taken from a <a href="https://intpolicydigest.org/the-enterprise-the-burundi-stockpile-and-other-ivory-behind-the-extradition/">Burundi government stockpile</a>.</p>
<p>Including the tusks that were not sampled, lead author of the study Samuel Wasser estimates the number of elephants represented by the total haul at 17,619. Some quick maths suggests that approximately 84,945 tonnes of elephant mass was removed, over 17 years, from the ecosystems which these animals contributed to – roughly equivalent to three times the weight of the Statue of Liberty. Considering the majority of illegal ivory shipments that pass through undetected, the scale of this <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.1557">ecological loss</a> is massive.</p>
<p>Understanding the networks that illegal wildlife products travel can help. But while there is demand for elephant ivory, poaching and illegal trafficking will continue. Alongside more effective law enforcement, there must be a major effort to promote <a href="https://files.worldwildlife.org/wwfcmsprod/files/Publication/file/2gga0z78ui_ReducingDesireforIvory_011917_print.pdf/%20https://globescan.com/2021/10/26/consumer-demand-for-ivory-remains-decline-wwf-fifth-annual-china-survey-finds/">behaviour change</a> among the people who buy illegal wildlife products and so fund the trade. </p>
<p>Investment in and ownership of illegal wildlife products must become <a href="https://theconversation.com/rhino-horn-must-become-a-socially-unacceptable-product-in-asia-103498">a badge of shame</a> rather than a status symbol.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177012/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Gilchrist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study reveals the major players and routes involved.Jason Gilchrist, Ecologist, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1719602021-11-22T15:29:38Z2021-11-22T15:29:38ZA fossil cranium from Kenya tells the story of an extinct elephant species<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432580/original/file-20211118-19-1mj3gck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">4.5 million-year-old cranium of the fossil elephant Loxodonta adaurora, from Ileret, Kenya, in right lateral and front views. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Figure courtesy of Carol Abraczinskas, University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some 4.5 million years ago, during the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/early-Pliocene-Epoch">early Pliocene</a> epoch, Kenya’s Lake Turkana looked very different than it does today. Grasslands and open woodlands were spreading in cooler, drier climates. Competition for C4 grasses – the kind that grow in seasonal, tropical environments and were well adapted for these new, cooler, drier conditions – was increasing between mammals like horses, hippos, rhinos, antelopes, pigs and elephants. Some of the oldest bipedal human ancestors, <em>Australopithecus anamensis</em>, inhabited the same landscapes.</p>
<p>Flash forward to 2013. Apolo Longaye, a member of the <a href="https://www.kfrp.com/">Koobi Fora Research Project</a>, was prospecting the barren landscape for fossils at a site known as Area 14, northeast of Lake Turkana near Ileret, Kenya. Longaye spotted a single fossil elephant molar beginning to emerge from the ground. Project leaders Meave Leakey and Louise Leakey decided to excavate the molar. They discovered an entire cranium to which the molar belonged.</p>
<p>What followed was a remarkable collaborative effort by researchers in Kenya and the US to recover, prepare, conserve, and study the cranium and its geological context. </p>
<p>The results of <a href="https://www.palaeovertebrata.com/articles/view/393">the study</a>, which I led, reveal the cranium to be truly extraordinary. It belonged to an adult male that was still growing at the time of its death. It is much larger than the biggest crania of living African elephants, correlating with a body size of about 3.7 metres from the ground to the top of the shoulder and weight of about about 8000 kgs. Its degree of preservation makes it the only nearly complete cranium of an elephant to have been found in an interval from their origin at about 8 million years to about 3.5 million years ago. </p>
<p>The anatomy of the teeth in the cranium and its bones show that it belongs to <em><a href="https://www.gbif.org/species/165696196">Loxodonta adaurora</a></em>, an extinct cousin of the living African savanna and forest elephants. It is also called the “dawn African elephant.” </p>
<p>This is an important finding because, by studying its teeth, we were able to understand how this species physically shaped the landscape it occupied. It also gives us new insight into an ancient species whose modern cousins remain a part of our lives - for now, given that they are on <a href="https://www.iucn.org/ssc-groups/mammals/mammals-a-e/african-elephant/african-elephant-database/iucn-red-list-threatened-species">the verge of extinction</a>.</p>
<h2>Recovery and study</h2>
<p>The first step in recovering the immense fossil elephant cranium – it weighs more than 1800kgs – involved excavating it. It was then treated with chemical preservative in the field, and secured inside a plaster-and-burlap cradle on a metal frame. After this it was removed from the local sediments and hoisted onto the back of a truck, aided by many of the project’s team members.</p>
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<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/647180242" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A time lapse video of the excavation, courtesy of Louise Leakey, Turkana Basin Institute and National Geographic Explorer-at-Large.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was taken to the Turkana Basin Institute’s Ileret research facility for permanent storage. There, it underwent initial preparation and further chemical consolidation. This made the fossil accessible for study.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, geologists from the Universities of Utah and Rutgers studied the rock sequence in Area 14. They wanted to establish the age of the fossil and the geological context it was recovered from. They also wanted to determine the conditions under which the elephant cranium had become fossilised. Their investigations revealed that the rocks from which the cranium was extracted were sandstones and conglomerates that had accumulated in an ancient river. Bones have a better chance of becoming fossils if they are quickly covered by sediments in lakes or rivers. There work established that the cranium is as old as 4.5 million years.</p>
<p>Once this work was done, I undertook comparative research on the cranium. This was designed to identify and properly describe it for publication. I have studied the evolution and palaeoecology of African and Arabian elephants and their closest relatives for almost 40 years, involving fieldwork and investigations of fossil collections in museums from Cairo to Cape Town.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432581/original/file-20211118-27-1wh3v7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432581/original/file-20211118-27-1wh3v7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432581/original/file-20211118-27-1wh3v7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432581/original/file-20211118-27-1wh3v7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432581/original/file-20211118-27-1wh3v7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432581/original/file-20211118-27-1wh3v7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432581/original/file-20211118-27-1wh3v7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432581/original/file-20211118-27-1wh3v7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Apolo Longaye, who discovered the cranium, applies a chemical hardener to it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Louise Leakey, Turkana Basin Institute and National Geographic Explorer-at-Large</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cranium was measured in the Ileret facility using animal body calipers. It is almost 1400 mm long and over 900 mm wide. It was also scanned in Kenya to make 3D images, which allowed me to look at the cranium in its entirety at the same time, remotely. </p>
<h2>Built for the task</h2>
<p>We did more than just identify the elephant species and locate it in geographical time. By studying its molars and cranium, the team was also able to understand the animal’s chewing habits. It possessed abundant adaptations for resisting the grit of eating close to the ground and for an energy-efficient form of horizontal-shearing when chewing.</p>
<p>We found that the teeth of <em>Loxodonta adaurora</em> are higher-crowned and more abundantly covered with protective cementum (in human teeth this hard substance covers the roots; in elephants it extends up over the crown of molars) than the molars of earlier elephants. The details of the new cranium also show that it is unexpectedly modern in shape: tall and compressed from front-to-back, an expedient arrangement to align the chewing muscles perfectly to apply their force for grazing. </p>
<p>The advantages of having anatomy synchronised with feeding behaviour go a long way to explaining why <em>Loxodonta adaurora</em> was the dominant elephant known in eastern Africa at that time, particularly in the region around what is now Lake Turkana: it was perfectly built for the landscape of the time.</p>
<p>Other species benefited from living in habitats opened up by elephant feeding and movement activities. Elephants opened up closed woodlands and forests to transform them into grasslands and open woodland, wooded savannas and brushland. </p>
<p>In these conditions, an “ape” that adopted walking on two legs became energy efficient to travel between patches of fruit trees and other resources. Nascent bipedality in early hominins was perfect for these conditions; without these conditions, bipedality would have conferred no particular advantage and humans may not have continued to evolve into the tool-making bipeds we are today.</p>
<h2>Looming extinction</h2>
<p>It seems tragic that the current relatives of this Pliocene behemoth, and with them the lineage that once created conditions for the early success of our own evolution, now also <a href="https://www.iucn.org/ssc-groups/mammals/mammals-a-e/african-elephant/african-elephant-database/iucn-red-list-threatened-species">face extinction</a> – not because of natural competition but due to avoidable human land encroachment, poaching, and the environmental impacts of human-driven climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171960/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Sanders does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The anatomy of the teeth in the cranium and its bones show that it belongs to an extinct cousin of the living African savanna and forest elephants.William Sanders, Chief Vertebrate Preparator and Associate Research Scientist in the Museum of Paleontology and Department of Anthropology, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1643062021-07-15T13:43:36Z2021-07-15T13:43:36ZFossil tracks and trunk marks reveal signs of ancient elephants on South Africa’s coast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410693/original/file-20210711-15-tgjz7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New fossil evidence reveals more about how African bush elephants' ancient ancestors moved about a South African landscape.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gunter Nuyts/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hundreds of thousands of years ago, South Africa’s Cape south coast looked very different. Some of the species that roamed this area are now extinct; others evolved over the millennia and their modern descendants inhabit different areas – some far away, others nearby.</p>
<p>For instance, in the 19th century, a population that came to be known as the “<a href="https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/the-knysna-elephants/">Knysna elephants</a>” (a reference to the nearest big town) were the most southerly group of elephants in Africa. Over time they became the only free-ranging elephants in South Africa. Their numbers were decimated by the ivory market and habitat transformation. <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/african-journal-of-wildlife-research/volume-49/issue-1/056.049.0016/And-Then-There-was-One--A-Camera-Trap-Survey/10.3957/056.049.0016.short">Evidence</a> indicates that only one elephant, an adult female in her forties, remains. </p>
<p>Now, about 18km from the area that lone elephant occupies, we have found <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1017/qua.2021.32">new evidence</a> of her ancient ancestors in the form of fossil tracksites from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Pleistocene-Epoch">Pleistocene</a> Epoch. These sites vary in age from 400,000 to 35,000 years. The tracks, preserved in aeolianites (the cemented remains of dune surfaces) and cemented beach deposits, dovetail with <a href="https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2019/4805">more recent evidence</a> that elephants historically made widespread use of open areas in the region. </p>
<p>Along with elephant tracks from sites on the Cape south coast, we <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1017/qua.2021.32">identified</a> what appears to be the first example in the global trace fossil record of elephant trunk-drag impressions. We interpret the impressions in question as having been made by an elephant either dragging its trunk or dragging something it was gripping in its trunk. These marks are consistent with the sort of trunk-drag traces described in tracking manuals and on <a href="https://www.elephantvoices.org/multimedia-resources/gestures-db-structure/413-sexual/advertisement-attraction/1770-trunk-bounce-drag.html?layout=gesture">various websites</a>.</p>
<p>The extant African bush elephant (<em>Loxodonta africana</em>) – the Knysna elephant belongs to this species – is known to show trunk-dragging behaviour under a variety of circumstances, including <a href="https://safarisafricana.com/elephant-musth-facts/">musth</a>, sporadic periods during which bull elephants are particularly aggressive.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1017/qua.2021.32">recent article</a> focused on the 35 elephant tracksites, which are among the more than <a href="https://www.livescience.com/40311-pleistocene-epoch.html">300 vertebrate Pleistocene tracksites</a> that we have identified along a 350km stretch of the coastline since 2008. Such fossil tracksites can tell us many things about what happened on those ancient dunes and beaches, and the ancient environment that the elephants roamed.</p>
<p>For one, they offer insights into the <a href="https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2019/4805">probable history</a> of the Knysna elephants, suggesting that the remaining elephants retreated into dense afrotemperate forest for protection in recent centuries, where hunters had difficulty finding them. </p>
<p>The tracksites are also important because elephants are ecosystem engineers. Their presence may have large-scale effects on the landscape: for example, they can transform woody habitats to more open habitats. They may well have facilitated the development and maintenance of the mosaic of woodland and grassland habitats that characterised the huge, now-submerged <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.105866">Palaeo-Agulhas Plain</a> during the Pleistocene.</p>
<h2>Large tracks</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A smooth grey rock surface, with some pock marks, alongside the blue ocean. There is a mark in the rock's surface that looks like a deep, diagonal groove." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410694/original/file-20210711-15-eps2jj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410694/original/file-20210711-15-eps2jj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410694/original/file-20210711-15-eps2jj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410694/original/file-20210711-15-eps2jj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410694/original/file-20210711-15-eps2jj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410694/original/file-20210711-15-eps2jj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410694/original/file-20210711-15-eps2jj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This elongated groove was likely caused by an elephant dragging its trunk or dragging something it was carrying in its trunk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Helm</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fossil elephant tracks can take a number of forms. Sometimes they are familiar depressions; sometimes they appear as natural casts, representing the layer that filled in the tracks and, so, protruding down from the ceilings of overhangs. They can also be seen in profile in cliff outcrops. </p>
<p>Elephant tracks, predictably given the animals’ size, often deform underlying layers. Sometimes, when these tracks can be discerned in profile in multiple successive layers, <a href="http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/23736">conclusions</a> can be drawn about repeated use of an area over time. In some cases, elephant tracks on beaches were <a href="https://doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-20-00064.1">precursors for the formation of potholes</a>. In places they have been eroded into bizarre shapes, which beach hikers admire and pass by without knowing their intriguing origins.</p>
<p>Analogies can be drawn between Pleistocene elephant tracks and Mesozoic dinosaur tracks: in both scenarios they were the largest tracks of their time, made by the heaviest creatures. In fact, it appears that the elephant tracks we <a href="http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/28633">described</a> at one site, measuring as much as 70cm in diameter, are the largest tracks ever identified since the “Age of Dinosaurs”.</p>
<p>The elephant trunk-drag site was identified on an aeolianite surface in the <a href="https://www.capenature.co.za/reserves/goukamma-nature-reserve">Goukamma Nature Reserve</a>, around 500km east of Cape Town. There were also tracks of the extinct long-horned buffalo and of smaller buck species, two coprolite sites – that is, fossilised dung – and small carnivore tracks, alongside numerous examples of elephant tracks.</p>
<p>The site is only exposed at low tide, being subject to intense wave action during high tides and storm surges. It is also usually covered by metres-thick layers of beach sand, so we were fortunate to find it during a rare occasion in which it was exposed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A shirtless man in blue shorts is seen underwater, a ruler in his hand held against a rock surface. A large indentation is visible on the rock." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410695/original/file-20210711-23-2md2zs.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410695/original/file-20210711-23-2md2zs.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410695/original/file-20210711-23-2md2zs.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410695/original/file-20210711-23-2md2zs.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410695/original/file-20210711-23-2md2zs.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410695/original/file-20210711-23-2md2zs.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410695/original/file-20210711-23-2md2zs.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Measuring an underwater elephant track.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Helm</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here, beside an elephant trackway comprising 13 tracks which traversed a cemented dune slope, we encountered a “serpentine” sequence of two long, slightly curved groove features with an outward convexity, one on each side of the trackway. Displacement rims were present; these indicate that a compressive force had caused the grooves. In one spot we could tell that the grooves were registered first, and then the tracks, consistent with how elephant footprints often are superimposed on parts of trunk-drag impressions. </p>
<p>We considered interpretations other than trunk-drag impressions, but any alternative possibilities appeared to be truly remote.</p>
<h2>Filling in gaps</h2>
<p>There are no body fossils of elephants from this time period, so the available information about how these gigantic animals moved through the ancient landscapes currently depends entirely on the track record. </p>
<p>Each elephant tracksite we identify evokes a sense of wonder at how the tracks – and in this case, the trunk-drag impression – survived, against the odds, and are now amenable to our interpretation, as we try to read the story the rocks tell us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164306/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Helm does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are no body fossils of elephants from this time period, so the available information of how these gigantic animals moved through the ancient landscapes depends entirely on the track record.Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1597202021-04-28T14:58:07Z2021-04-28T14:58:07ZPasha 105: Two academics weigh in on Botswana allowing elephant hunting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397096/original/file-20210426-23-afovyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Botswana recently offered the rights to shoot around 300 elephants. There have been mixed feelings about this decision. Some say licensed hunting is ecologically necessary. They also say rural communities need revenue from hunting and are at risk of human-wildlife conflict. Others have criticised it heavily, disputing the claim that hunting is a solution to various problems and pointing to its negative consequences. </p>
<p>Botswana is home to about one third of Africa’s elephants and the numbers have increased over the years. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has categorised savanna elephants as endangered, but they can be hunted if the decision to allow it is backed by scientific evidence. </p>
<p>In today’s episode of Pasha, Ross Harvey, a senior research associate at the Institute for the Future of Knowledge at the University of Johannesburg, and Peet van der Merwe, a professor in tourism at North-West University, take us through both sides of the argument. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Photo:</strong><br>
“African Elephants in Botswana” by 2630ben found on <a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/african-elephants-botswana-371396089">Shutterstock</a></p>
<p><strong>Music:</strong>
“Happy African Village” by John Bartmann, found on <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/happy-african-village">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1</a>.</p>
<p>“Ambient guitar X1 - Loop mode” by frankum, found on <a href="https://freesound.org/people/frankum/sounds/393520/">Freesound</a> licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">Attribution License.</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Is Botswana allowing the hunting of elephants a good or a bad thing? Two academics weigh in.Ozayr Patel, Digital EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1579442021-03-26T16:41:53Z2021-03-26T16:41:53ZAfrica’s 2 elephant species are both endangered, due to poaching and habitat loss<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391841/original/file-20210325-21-1q6lz7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C22%2C5061%2C3366&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An African forest elephant (_Loxodonta cyclotis_) in Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Republic of the Congo.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/african-forest-elephant-odzala-kokoua-national-park-news-photo/1288088426">Nicolas Deloche/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Humans have been over-exploiting African elephants for centuries. More than 2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire’s demand for ivory led to the extinction of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.10.086">genetically distinct elephant populations in northern Africa</a>. But in recent times, population increases among southern African elephants and declines across the rest of the continent have made it hard to clearly assess how threatened the species is overall. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=89PvLp0AAAAJ&hl=en">I serve on a team of scientists</a> that recently reviewed African elephants’ status for the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a> (IUCN). We compiled data from over 400 sites across Africa, spanning 50 years of conservation efforts – and our results were grim. </p>
<p>The number of African savanna elephants – the largest subspecies of elephants – has <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/species/202103/african-elephant-species-now-endangered-and-critically-endangered-iucn-red-list">declined by 60%</a> since 1990. And forest elephants, which the IUCN is treating as a separate species for the first time, have declined in number by over 86%. Based on our assessment, the IUCN has changed its listing from “vulnerable” for all African elephants to “endangered” for savanna elephants and “critically endangered” for forest elephants.</p>
<h2>Two species</h2>
<p>By separating savanna and forest elephants into independent assessments, our report reveals the critical state of the more elusive forest elephants, which was obscured in previous reviews that lumped all of Africa’s elephants together. Scientific evidence for separating the species has been <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1059936">building over the past two decades</a>, and many taxonomists felt this recognition was long overdue. </p>
<p>Increased research on forest elephants highlights the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059469">dramatic declines</a> these <a href="http://www.cnn.com/NATURE/9908/26/africa.elephants/">secretive giants</a> are undergoing. Studies also show that they are among the slowest-reproducing mammals on the planet. This means that even if they receive adequate protection, their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12764">recovery will take decades</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of elephant populations across Africa." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Habitat encroachment, increased human population densities, urban expansion, agricultural development, deforestation and infrastructure development are all reducing African elephants’ rangelands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gridarendal/31514045354/">Riccardo Pravetoni for GRID-Arendal/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Global threats, global solutions</h2>
<p>Scientists believe that elephant populations across Africa actually increased during the early 20th century, when nations were entrenched in global wars and consumption of ivory and other luxury items declined. After World War II, however, conspicuous consumption surged. Over-hunting for ivory drove <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300020433">severe declines in the number of elephants</a> in the 1970s and 1980s. </p>
<p>Thanks to interconnected global trade networks, along with porous and unregulated borders in many parts of Africa, rising ivory demand in one part of the world quickly translates into <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1403984111">higher black market ivory prices in Africa</a>. And these higher prices lead to poaching.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Female elephant and calf drinking on open savanna." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Savanna elephants (<em>Loxodonta africana</em>) in South Africa’s Addo Elephant National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/SPSSgs">Bernard Dupont/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Removing elephants from an area can pave the way for converting forests and grasslands to agriculture. This cycle has led to the <a href="https://www.traffic.org/publications/reports/elephants-in-the-dust-the-african-elephant-crisis/">depletion of much of African elephants’ historic range</a>. </p>
<p>Habitat loss also brings elephants and humans closer together, leading to more human-elephant conflict. Such clashes lead to the direct loss of elephants. They also are a burden for local communities that can erode their interest in and support for conservation. </p>
<p>While the scale of decline in Africa’s elephant populations is overwhelming, there are many examples of successful conservation efforts across the continent. The <a href="https://www.kavangozambezi.org/en/">KAZA (Kavango-Zambezi) Transfrontier Conservation effort</a>, anchored by Botswana, holds the largest contiguous elephant population on the continent, and that population has experienced strong growth over the past 50 years. This success reflects government collaboration across borders and work with local communities. </p>
<p>Joint international efforts to reduce the illegal ivory trade are raising awareness of the problems with ivory consumption. China <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-42532017">banned domestic ivory trade in 2017</a>, and concurrently ivory poaching across many elephant populations in Africa declined – including in the largest populations in Tanzania and Kenya, which were under severe pressure less than 10 years ago. The core population of forest elephants in Gabon, which <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30024-6?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982217300246%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">declined by 80% between 2004 and 2014</a>, has stabilized with increased government investment and reduced poaching pressure. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wcjBy0fyGl0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Basketball star Yao Ming publicizes China’s domestic ivory trade ban to Chinese viewers.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Innovative work with communities in countries such as Namibia and Kenya to enhance people’s livelihoods by developing wildlife-supported economies has led to the protection of enormous tracts of lands as conservation areas. And researchers and conservationists are working to find solutions to conflicts between human activities and elephant needs that can be applied across Africa. </p>
<p>By highlighting the precarious state of Africa’s two elephant species, my colleagues and I hope that this <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/assessment/process">Red List Assessment</a> can help motivate African countries with elephant populations and the international community to invest in measures that support elephant conservation. </p>
<p>Elephants provide much more than just aesthetic benefits. Recent studies show forest elephants also play an important role in fighting climate change by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0395-6">enhancing carbon storage in central African forests</a>, among the most important carbon reserves on the planet. The elephants disperse seeds and thin out young trees as they forage, which makes room for larger trees to thrive. </p>
<p>Elephants also are a linchpin of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13379">wildlife-based economy across Africa</a>. And elephants, in compliment with fire, are considered to be ecosystem engineers that structure the balance between trees and grass on Africa’s savannas. Along with many other conservation experts, I see reversing their decline as a global imperative that requires concerted global support.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Wittemyer is a member of the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group and serves as the Chairman of the Scientific Board for Save the Elephants, a Kenyan non-governmental organization.</span></em></p>A new review of the status of African elephants finds scientific grounds for dividing them into two species, and reports that both have suffered drastic population declines since 1990.George Wittemyer, Associate professor of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1177902019-05-28T15:26:21Z2019-05-28T15:26:21ZTo save the African elephant, focus must turn to poverty and corruption<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276816/original/file-20190528-42565-19e5tz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-images-african-elephants-africa-523936120?src=uKnBfyUZjrQIwXoVVFDHPg-1-3">tobkatrina/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>African elephants are threatened with extinction. With numbers shrinking by a <a href="http://www.greatelephantcensus.com/final-report">third</a> in just seven years, there are now fewer than 350,000 left in the wild. And their dwindling numbers are not just the concern of nature documentaries – they play vital roles in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-tropical-ecology/article/need-to-be-eaten-balanites-wilsoniana-with-and-without-elephant-seeddispersal/7BBAD30C775187C0417EFDA377D5A517">helping plant life prosper</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169555X1100314X">digging water holes</a> and <a href="https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wurpubs/438227">improving foraging conditions</a> for other animals.</p>
<p>In 2011, poaching rates hit an all-time high, with 10% of all elephants on the continent killed in a single year. Thankfully, our new research, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09993-2">Nature Communications</a>, reveals that the poaching rate has since declined, hovering at around 4% in 2017.</p>
<p>However, this drop is not enough – at current levels of poaching, the African elephant could still become near extinct in a few decades. This is despite <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/why-law-enforcement-essential-stopping-illegal-wildlife-trade">substantial law enforcement efforts</a>, and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-42532017">legislation</a> to outlaw the trade of ivory. Our results suggest that if we are to save the African elephant, we should begin to direct resources towards less traditional approaches.</p>
<h2>Slow economy, lower poaching</h2>
<p>The drop in poaching from 2011 levels was likely due to a decrease in demand for ivory in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cobi.12377">China and South-East Asia</a> – but the reasons for this decrease are not obvious. It would be easy to assume that <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-42532017">China’s ivory trade ban</a> and <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/22725/download/pdf/">prominent supportive campaigns led by celebrities</a> were responsible, but the dates don’t match up – the trade ban wasn’t announced until 2015 and didn’t take effect <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989418302518">until 2017</a>.</p>
<p>The ban may have had some positive effect on more recent poaching numbers, and it certainly sends the right political messages. But as demonstrated by <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/wildlife-watch-rhino-poaching-crisis-continues-south-africa/">the recent growth in rhino poaching</a> despite a comprehensive ban, history tells us that making a coveted animal product illegal <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-banning-the-mammoth-ivory-trade-would-be-a-huge-mistake-46632">doesn’t always</a> curb trade.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-banning-the-mammoth-ivory-trade-would-be-a-huge-mistake-46632">Why banning the mammoth ivory trade would be a huge mistake</a>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-chinas-ivory-ban-is-a-mammoth-step-towards-saving-the-elephant-71186">Why China's ivory ban is a mammoth step towards saving the elephant</a>
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<p>Instead, it seems that <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46755158">China’s slowing economy</a> may have been the main driver behind the fall in poaching. And while the subsequent economic squeeze probably reduced ivory demand among the rich in Asia, poaching could easily rise again should China’s economy change.</p>
<h2>A new approach</h2>
<p>The most important thing we can do to reduce poaching is to stop people setting out to poach in the first place. Traditionally, law enforcement has been seen as the cornerstone of strategies to cut supply, driving a push for <a href="https://theconversation.com/foreign-conservation-armies-in-africa-may-be-doing-more-harm-than-good-80719">increasingly militarised</a> anti-poaching operations. But while law enforcement did explain some of the large variation in poaching rates across sites, a much bigger correlate of poaching rates was the level of poverty and corruption in the area. </p>
<p>For many involved in poaching in Africa, the ivory from a single large elephant could be <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/111/36/13117">sold</a> for much more than they have any chance of earning in an <a href="https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4923.201393">entire year</a>. And given that elephants regularly <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141204-five-ways-to-scare-off-elephants">raid crops</a> and kill community members, even those not involved are often understandably ambivalent about tackling poaching.</p>
<p>That’s not to say that we should stop investing in law enforcement. The mere presence of a few rangers deters many poachers, and is an extremely useful strategy. But the most professional poachers will only be deterred by a large, well-trained, and well-equipped field team, which simply isn’t practical in sites that cover ground areas in excess of small European countries. Our results suggest that some of the <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/voices/chart1_0.png">vast sum of money</a> spent on these types of operations may be better spent on poverty and corruption-related interventions. </p>
<p>Of course, reducing poverty and corruption is no simple task either. Some conservation organisations have tried offering financial incentives to communities for taking an active role in conservation efforts, but these schemes have had <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0125531">mixed results</a> as cash benefits are often small, or not shared equally. </p>
<p>Our results suggest that conservation benefits may result from any reduction in poverty, not just from development schemes that are directly tied to biodiversity. So conservation organisations might seek to invest in, say, the provision of factories that offer appropriate employment to community members, or make grants to community members for new business ideas.</p>
<p>The important bonus of this approach is that in addition to being an effective method of reducing poaching, it would place improving the lives of thousands of Africans as a central priority. The well-being of humans and wildlife are not <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/theres-justice-in-the-battle-for-biodiversity/">isolated issues</a>. The plight of all species on this planet are intertwined, and the sooner we act accordingly, the better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117790/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin Beale receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, Natural England, USAID and the Wildlife Conservation Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Severin Hauenstein does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Poaching of African elephants has fallen, but the species is still at risk. Law enforcement and ivory bans help, but tackling poverty is key to stopping poaching at the source.Colin Beale, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, University of YorkSeverin Hauenstein, PhD Candidate in Ecology and Conservation, University of FreiburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1116432019-02-18T06:29:28Z2019-02-18T06:29:28ZTechnology is useful, but drones alone won’t save Africa’s elephants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258709/original/file-20190213-181593-16pbmxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">According to the latest data, there are probably fewer than 400,000 savannah elephants left in the wild across Africa. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Technology has made a tremendous difference in the world, in areas as diverse as <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kraft_medicine_s_future?language=en">health</a> and <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/anant_agarwal_why_massively_open_online_courses_still_matter">education</a>, and pretty much everything in between.</p>
<p>But is technology the weapon that will ultimately eradicate animal poaching and save various species from eradication? It’s not a silver bullet, but it certainly has potential. That’s why Vulcan – a company started by the late Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft – has produced a tech platform called <a href="https://earthranger.com/">EarthRanger</a> to monitor protected wildlife areas by drawing in big data from cameras, animal collars and vehicle sensors. Other platforms such as <a href="http://smartconservationtools.org/">SMART</a> – a spatial monitoring and reporting tool – have also started to gain traction and operate in similar ways to EarthRanger. </p>
<p>Vulcan is known in the conservation world for sponsoring the <a href="http://www.greatelephantcensus.com/final-report/">Great Elephant Census</a>. The census revealed that there are probably fewer than 400 000 savannah elephants left in the wild across Africa. It also revealed a decline of 8% a year between 2007 and 2014, largely due to poaching, either to supply the illegal ivory trade or the bushmeat trade. </p>
<p>A census is useful because it provides a snapshot in time and highlights the urgency of the problem. Elephants are a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275657970_Collapse_of_the_world%27s_largest_herbivores">keystone species</a>, environmental engineers who play irreplaceable roles in maintaining ecological integrity. They’re also <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/if-elephants-arent-persons-yet-could-they-be-one-day">incredibly intelligent</a>. Losing them is not an option. But we need more than occasional snapshots to aid conservation efforts. </p>
<p>New technologies, however - as a step beyond census counting - are <a href="https://www.tusk.org/news/can-we-save-wildlife-with-technology/">merely a tool</a>. Their efficacy ultimately depends on the value to the end user. A sound overarching vision and buy-in from users on the ground is also critical. At present, data collection and analysis practices vary from site to site. Without best-practice standards in this respect, all the cleverly collected data in the world may make little difference.</p>
<h2>Drones: a silver bullet?</h2>
<p>Drones can provide real-time information on animal movements and numbers in ways that traditional surveys cannot. This enhances platforms like SMART and EarthRanger. Drones are not delayed by heavy forest cover. They also don’t need human comforts: they don’t have to be fed, as field technicians do during aerial surveys, and don’t get tired like pilots do. </p>
<p>Moreover, they can detect snares and, in combination with remote sensors and camera traps, identify potential poaching behaviour. Because they can fly often, they put usable information into the hands of rangers, who can plan patrols more preemptively and effectively. This means that anti-poaching resources can be allocated more efficiently. It also means that experts far removed from day-to-day operations can analyse the data for interesting patterns. </p>
<p>This all sounds good. But, in a <a href="https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/saia_sop_219_harvey_20150806.pdf">2015 paper</a>, I applied a basic game theory model – a “<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/game-theory/">river-crossing” game</a> – to the problem of elephant conservation. It showed that ivory demand reduction requires more capital allocation if anti-poaching initiatives are to be successful. A <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/695451479221164739/pdf/110267-WP-Illegal-Wildlife-Trade-OUO-9.pdf">World Bank analysis</a> later showed that only a small portion of global funding goes towards this goal. More research is also required to make demand reduction campaigns more effective. </p>
<p>The research is a reminder that demand for illicit wildlife products ultimately drives poaching, and even the best technologies can only go so far in complementing anti-poaching efforts. </p>
<h2>A multi-pronged approach</h2>
<p>One serious spanner in the faith conservationists place in technology is that it can be equally effectively employed by poaching syndicates. As I pointed out in <a href="https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/saia_sop_219_harvey_20150806.pdf">my paper</a>, if an MI-17 helicopter arrives with poachers firing into a herd with extreme precision (as <a href="https://savetheelephants.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2012IDHCongressHearing.pdf">reportedly happened</a> in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012) no amount of drone-driven anti-poaching efforts can stop the slaughter. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258529/original/file-20190212-174857-1et8i2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258529/original/file-20190212-174857-1et8i2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258529/original/file-20190212-174857-1et8i2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258529/original/file-20190212-174857-1et8i2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258529/original/file-20190212-174857-1et8i2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258529/original/file-20190212-174857-1et8i2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258529/original/file-20190212-174857-1et8i2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Rangers at the Selous Game Reserve, a World Heritage Site in Tanzania, ahead of a drone training session.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ross Harvey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On a field research trip to the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania in 2017, I interviewed the head of the World Wide Fund for Nature’s programme there, who happened to be running a training programme for park rangers to use new drones. Wisely, the organisation’s <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/projects/road-map-to-zero-poaching-in-selous">roadmap to zero poaching</a> in the Selous recognises that technology is just one among several pillars necessary to achieving significant poaching reduction. </p>
<p>Without the others – including community buy-in, cooperation between various players at different levels, and improved prosecution and conviction outcomes – technology is just a buzzword. </p>
<p>Concerted global efforts to overcome the current challenges associated with anti-poaching technology are crucial for ensuring better results. At the same time, we have to recognise that poaching syndicates also have access to the best technology. If both sides simply become more efficient, we’re still going to lose our wildlife heritage. </p>
<p>For this reason, one cannot overemphasise the importance of effective demand reduction, a more unified approach among range states (countries that have elephant populations), and conservation-driven development from local communities. </p>
<p>Technology can be a valuable arrow in conservation quivers – but alone, it cannot halt the loss of the continent’s elephants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111643/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Harvey is affiliated with the South African Institute of International Affairs, which has previously received research funding from Stop Ivory and the Humane Society International. </span></em></p>Drone technology plays a vital role in gathering accurate wildlife data. But this alone isn’t enough to save Africa’s elephants.Ross Harvey, Senior Research Associate, Institute for the Future of Knowledge, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1041692018-10-12T10:44:06Z2018-10-12T10:44:06ZAre electric fences really the best way to solve human-elephant land conflicts?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240028/original/file-20181010-72117-1f1o0vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An elephant grazing in Kimana Conservancy, Kenya.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Conflict between humans and elephants has reached a crisis point in Kenya. As the elephants have begun to regularly raid farms in search of food, it has become not uncommon for local people to attack and kill them in retaliation. <a href="http://www.amboseliconservation.org/news--commentaries/amboseli-takes-a-lead-in-addressing-human-wildlife-conflict">Between 2013 and 2016</a>, 1,700 crop raiding incidents, 40 human deaths and 300 injuries caused by wildlife were reported in the Kajiado district alone. </p>
<p>The problem has come as vast parts of Kenya that are home to elephants have been <a href="http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/lead/pdf/05_article01_en.pdf">subject to</a> intensive agricultural development in the past few decades. The Maasai people who tend to the land are switching from their traditional nomadic lifestyle to seek a more permanent livelihood. But these lands have also been used by elephants and other wildlife for many generations, providing them with food, water and space for migration. </p>
<p>Tensions are running high, but a controversial solution is being put in place: electrified fencing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239773/original/file-20181008-72127-1w4lfy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239773/original/file-20181008-72127-1w4lfy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239773/original/file-20181008-72127-1w4lfy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239773/original/file-20181008-72127-1w4lfy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239773/original/file-20181008-72127-1w4lfy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239773/original/file-20181008-72127-1w4lfy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239773/original/file-20181008-72127-1w4lfy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young Maasai woman, from a small household in Kenya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 2016 Netflix documentary <a href="https://theivorygame.com/">The Ivory Game</a>, filmed in Kenya’s Kajiado district, the following exchange was caught on camera, between a group of Maasai people and Craig Millar, head of security at non-profit conservation foundation <a href="https://biglife.org/">Big Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Farmer 1: You see this maize? It is for my children, not for elephants … we don’t want to see elephants on our farms.</p>
<p>Millar: And what do you think is the solution?</p>
<p>Farmer 1: The solution is to kill them! </p>
<p>Farmer 2: A fence. Electrification.</p>
<p>Millar: I agree, but … it is expensive. We will ask countries in Europe for help … everybody will have to contribute something. You will have to protect the fence once it is erected.</p>
<p>Farmer 1: We’ll take care of it. If you are lying about the fence, the elephants will be in danger. The elephants will die.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When the documentary was filmed, an electrified fence was believed to be the only solution to the conflict. So, with support from international investors, work in the borderlands between Kenya and Tanzania was started in 2016 and the foundation has reported that the 50km of fence built to date has already reduced elephant crop raids <a href="https://biglife.org/news-events/bush-journal/bill-kurtis-film">by more than 90%</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, this is not the only human-elephant conflict hotspot in the country. Kenya is experiencing <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215013093?via%253Dihub">rapid economic and industrial growth</a>, and small-scale agriculture developments are spreading across Maasai lands, causing more and more problems.</p>
<h2>Fenced in</h2>
<p>Fencing is one of the most commonly used conservation tools in the world. And Big Life’s electrified fence is a great example of how fast and effective it can be. But fencing can have long-term consequences for animals – it can disturb wildlife migration routes, disrupt gene transfer through mating and alter population dynamics. </p>
<p>The possible costs to animals are unknown. South Africa is the only African country that <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2015.00087/full%22%22">legally requires</a> an environmental impact assessment to be done prior to building fences. Generally speaking, there is no straightforward international policy or legal guidelines for fence planning. In most countries, fences are built in a random and uncontrolled way. But fencing can be an effective tool for conservation – in Australia, <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7357/%22%22">fencing is commonly used</a> to save native mammals from introduced carnivores, while <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-0902-1_12%22%22">in Namibia</a> fencing protects cattle from cheetahs and lions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239771/original/file-20181008-72130-cdpznl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239771/original/file-20181008-72130-cdpznl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239771/original/file-20181008-72130-cdpznl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239771/original/file-20181008-72130-cdpznl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239771/original/file-20181008-72130-cdpznl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239771/original/file-20181008-72130-cdpznl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239771/original/file-20181008-72130-cdpznl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elephants often use the same movement corridors for decades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13246">recently published paper</a> we looked at how an electrified fence being built around crop fields in southern Kenya is affecting major elephant migration pathways. We used GPS collars on 12 elephants from the area where the fence was to be built, and tracked their movement and behaviour. All the elephants were from different families and were collared in various locations. </p>
<p>After two years of data collection we used the information to map where and how the elephants spent their time in the study area. We reconstructed their movement paths and built a connectivity model, highlighting the most important migration routes between large national parks. </p>
<p>After validating our model, we included the fence plan and recalculated, to estimate if the fence would change the elephants’ free movement between parks. The results showed that local managers were right: fencing did not disturb migration corridors nor diminish connectivity between the national parks. </p>
<p>But more detailed examination gave us some food for thought. Areas with limited amounts of the resources that elephants need (wetlands, floodplains and conservancies) are predicted to be more intensively used after fencing because the elephants will no longer have access to their usual grounds – and this may lead to overgrazing and habitat destruction. In addition, fences will not stop elephants from moving – so the conflict will basically be shifted to unfenced areas.</p>
<p>These results raise a reasonable question: how much more land will have to be fenced to resolve human-wildlife conflicts? Besides high costs and difficulties in maintenance, the more land is fenced the less habitat remains for elephants. Long-term aerial monitoring in <a href="https://biglife.org/area-of-operation/the-amboseli-ecosystem">the Amboseli Ecosystem</a> (an 5,700km² conservation area near the Tanzania-Kenya border) confirms that habitat loss to agriculture will become <a href="http://www.kws.go.ke/sites/default/files/parksresorces%3A/Amboseli%20Ecosystem%20Management%20Plan%20%282008-2018%29.pdf">a bigger threat</a> to elephants than illegal poaching in the near future.</p>
<p>There is no simple solution here. The benefits of electrified fencing are undeniable, but lack of understanding of the long-term consequences for wildlife is worrying. We recommend that integrated impact assessments – as we did during our study – are made prior to fencing become international policy. </p>
<p>Another approach could be using fences only as a temporary tool for mitigating critical conflicts and considering alternative management approaches – such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/beehive-fences-and-elephants-tanzanian-case-study-offers-fresh-insights-101487">fencing which contains beehives</a>, to deter elephants but not restrict their movement – to solve the problem in the long run.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liudmila Osipova receives funding from EU (FONASO programme). The research was accomplished with the support not-for-profit organization the African Conservation Center</span></em></p>As the Maasai people of Kenya seek to expand their agricultural developments, the lives of one of Africa’s greatest creatures are being severely disrupted.Liudmila Osipova, PhD Researcher, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1014872018-08-21T13:44:29Z2018-08-21T13:44:29ZBeehive fences and elephants: Tanzanian case study offers fresh insights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232316/original/file-20180816-2921-qeju5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beehive fences can help improve human-elephant coexistence.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When people cultivate food crops on or near wild lands it can be assumed that wild animals will eat them – what’s known as crop-raiding. Farms in the vicinity of protected areas can expect to be visited by a range of wild animals including birds, rodents, and large mammals like <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10871209.2014.853330">monkeys</a>, bushpigs and <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178840">elephants</a>. </p>
<p>Because of their size, elephants are the most conspicuous crop-user and may, in addition to eating crops, trample farmers’ fields and break fences. Using nonlethal ways to deter elephants from farms is the most humane and effective defence long-term. But elephants are still being shot and killed, particularly if they threaten people or property. </p>
<p>Given that elephant numbers are dwindling, creative solutions need to be found to reduce crop losses and improve the chances of elephants and people coexisting. </p>
<p>Over the past eight years we have been trying to do just that. We have been <a href="http://www.stzelephants.org/">collecting data</a> on elephants – their consumption patterns and their impact on crops at a forested site in southern Tanzania. And we’ve been working with farmers to try and design ways of keeping elephants at bay. </p>
<p>After some failures, we imported an idea from Kenya – beehives. After five years of study we’ve published our <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/efficacy-of-beehive-fences-as-barriers-to-african-elephants-a-case-study-in-tanzania/589D8AE1D72A41BDDC124062A12D9C7A">results</a> which show that there is indeed merit to installing fences made up with beehives to keep elephants from eating, and destroying, farmers’ crops.</p>
<h2>What failed, what worked</h2>
<p>One method farmers tried to adopt involved collecting and soaking elephant dung in buckets of water and spreading the fibrous mixture across their fields. The basis of this interesting idea was that elephants are coprophobic – they don’t like their own poo – and will avoid eating crops covered in their own dung. </p>
<p>We were unable to test the effectiveness of this approach because Udzungwa Mountains National Park introduced new rules in 2011 that banned people from collecting firewood as well as non-timber products such as elephant dung from the park. </p>
<p>Farmers then tried chilli-oil. Cloth, soaked in used motor oil and powdered chillies, was then attached to rope fences. But heavy rains in the Udzungwa Mountains meant that the mixture had to be reapplied regularly. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232314/original/file-20180816-2909-1agcfku.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232314/original/file-20180816-2909-1agcfku.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232314/original/file-20180816-2909-1agcfku.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232314/original/file-20180816-2909-1agcfku.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232314/original/file-20180816-2909-1agcfku.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232314/original/file-20180816-2909-1agcfku.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232314/original/file-20180816-2909-1agcfku.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232314/original/file-20180816-2909-1agcfku.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beehive fences can help reduce elephants’ damage to crops.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Next we looked to our neighbours for a solution – beehives. These were being used in <a href="http://elephantsandbees.com/">elephant conservation field programmes in Kenya</a> and the practice was spreading to other African countries and also to Asia. </p>
<p>Using beehives at our site involved installing a fence between the park boundary and farms. The beehives are connected with a wire. When elephants attempt to enter fields they disturb the wire which causes the hives to swing. This in turn disturbs the bees inside the hives. Our initial short 500m fence of 50 hives was eventually extended by 600m and 87 hives four years ago. </p>
<p>Our findings after five years of study show that there’s promise in the approach.</p>
<h2>Our findings</h2>
<p>Our main finding was that the probability of elephants damaging crops was less with the construction of the short beehive fences, and even lower when the fence was extended. </p>
<p>We also found that as more hives making up the fence were inhabited by bees, the more elephants stayed away. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XAEWcPrmd7c?wmode=transparent&start=6" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Beehive fences and elephants.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A few factors affected the success of the beehive fences. These included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Elephants breaching the fence where hives were empty. Of the 133 fence breaches, nearly 70% were between empty hives.</p></li>
<li><p>Not mending damaged fences promptly.</p></li>
<li><p>Elephant bulls visiting farms at night, when bees are relatively less active.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The beehive fence didn’t completely eliminate elephants entering farms. But it did reduce the number of elephant visits and was well-received by farmers. </p>
<p>Another indicator of success was that farmers stopped calling game officers to shoot problem elephants. Farmers also formed and registered a cooperative group to manage the beehive fence and honey harvests.</p>
<h2>The beehive fence method is spreading</h2>
<p>The use of beehive fences is beginning to spread across southern Tanzania. And government has recently advised that beehives be used to deter elephants from crops <a href="https://www.ippmedia.com/en/news/%C2%A0tanapa-tfs-ordered-initiate-%C2%A0beekeeping-projects-ten-villages">around the Serengeti</a>, in northern Tanzania. </p>
<p>Next steps should involve standardising how sites employing this method are monitored and evaluated. This could help determine the minimum effective fence length and optimal placement of beehives. </p>
<p>Other lessons could be learnt that might be replicated in new sites. For example, unoccupied – or dummy hives – have been shown to be effective but presumably only if elephants have already developed a negative association with occupied ones. </p>
<p>Finally, researching the differences in the relative nighttime activity of both elephants and honeybees across sites could also help explain differences in outcomes and inform best deterrent approaches and improvements. </p>
<p>Our programme has already pioneered the use of camera traps to monitor elephant activity and identify <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/using-camera-traps-to-study-the-agesex-structure-and-behaviour-of-cropusing-elephants-loxodonta-africana-in-udzungwa-mountains-national-park-tanzania/AAB225F1915E73FAF278B8B2F5BA7E56">crop-using individuals</a> in the vicinity of beehive fences. These could be used at other sites too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Southern Tanzania Elephant Program (STEP), with which Katarzyna Nowak is affiliated, has received funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service African Elephant Conservation Fund including for the beehive fence initiative. The first 50 beehives were funded by the Fauna and Flora International Rapid Response Facility; subsequent hives had support from Raleigh International. Katarzyna Nowak is currently a fellow with The Safina Center, a research associate in Zoology and Entomology at the University of the Free State (Qwaqwa campus) and on contract with the Wildlife Conservation Society-Americas Program. </span></em></p>There is indeed merit to using beehives to keep elephants from eating and destroying crops.Katarzyna Nowak, Fellow at The Safina Center, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/955932018-05-03T13:54:56Z2018-05-03T13:54:56ZLocal links across Africa provide key clues to fighting the illegal ivory trade<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216875/original/file-20180430-135803-gysg93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">CITES, calls Uganda a country of primary concern in the illicit ivory trade.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The population of African elephants is estimated to have declined by 111 000 <a href="https://cites.org/eng/news/pr/African_elephant_poaching_down_ivory_seizures_up_and_hit_record_high_24102017">over the past ten years</a>. Eastern Africa, for example, has experienced <a href="https://cites.org/eng/news/pr/African_elephant_poaching_down_ivory_seizures_up_and_hit_record_high_24102017">an almost 50% reduction</a> in its elephant population. </p>
<p>What does academic research tell us about these dynamics? There’s a wealth of research giving fascinating insights into <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5006885/">poaching</a>, the <a href="https://rusi.org/sites/default/files/201509_an_illusion_of_complicity_0.pdf">largely disputed terrorism-poaching</a>, <a href="http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/133/1332550947.pdf">ivory markets</a>, <a href="https://www.cites.org/eng/prog/etis/index.php">ivory confiscations</a>, and a range of other factors. Missing from this research is one aspect: ivory smuggling. Very little is known about how ivory is traded on the continent. There is therefore <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1865/W-TRAPS-Elephant-Rhino-report.pdf">a gap</a> and <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Studies/TOC_East_Africa_2013.pdf">a need</a> for a better understanding of ivory’s trade structure.</p>
<p>To bridge this gap, I set out <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/bjc/azy009/4967883">to study</a> illegal ivory traders in Uganda. Between 2012 and 2017 I interviewed a wide range of illegal ivory traders. I gained access through long-term research on illegal trade in general which has included studying illegal trade along the Uganda-DRC border <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kristof_Titeca/publication/262013770_'Les_OPEC_boys_en_Ouganda_trafiquants_de_petrole_et_acteurs_politiques'/links/540a7c3c0cf2df04e74927bc/Les-OPEC-boys-en-Ouganda-trafiquants-de-petrole-et-acteurs-politiques.pdf">since 2004</a>. </p>
<p>From around 2008-2009 onwards ivory started becoming an important commodity in trading networks. Ivory came largely from countries like the Democratic Republic and the Central African Republic. For its part, Uganda has served as the
<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12117-016-9299-7">transit country</a> – the country that goods are transported through to their final destination in a third country – for ivory. Between 2009 and 2014, an estimated <a href="https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1444205/us-trains-ugandans-combating-wildlife-trafficking?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">20 metric tons of ivory</a> was trafficked through Uganda, mainly to Asia.</p>
<p>The Convention of the Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, calls Uganda a country of <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/resources/reports/cites-national-ivory-action-plans/">“primary concern”</a> in the illicit ivory trade. It is listed as one of the ten countries worldwide “linked to the greatest illegal ivory trade flows <a href="https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/17/WorkingDocs/E-CoP17-57-06-R1.pdf">since 2012.”</a> Other countries include <a href="https://cites.org/eng//elephant_poaching_and_ivory_smuggling_figures_for_2013_released">China, Malaysia, Thailand and Kenya.</a></p>
<p>My work looked at how ivory is smuggled. Based on the evidence I gathered I conclude that it’s important to look at “nodes” of the trade. This can be both locations like border towns as well as people acting as middlemen. </p>
<p>Ivory originates from a number of different places, and enters Uganda in a decentralised and uncoordinated way. Nodes are important because they’re crucial to collecting the ivory, storing it and connecting supply and demand. Both middlemen and particular towns play a central role in how this trade happens. </p>
<h2>Towns and middlemen</h2>
<p>Border towns are particularly important. They’re the point at which supplies of ivory are brought in from a variety of sources – including neighbouring countries. The Ugandan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudanese border triangle is an example of one of these nodes. Ivory comes from the Central African Republic, South Sudan and DRC, and is smuggled into the Ugandan border town of Arua <a href="https://africasustainableconservation.com/2017/12/08/uganda-dr-congo-ivory-poaching-and-smuggling-in-west-nile/">near the Congolese border</a>. This town links together ivory suppliers, buyers, and transporters, and acts as a storage place.</p>
<p>Uganda’s capital Kampala is another example. Ivory comes into the city from the DRC border region as well as from other border regions (such as the border with Tanzania). From Kampala, ivory either goes to Mombasa port, or it goes to Entebbe airport. Recently, <a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Shs1b-ivory-seized-at-Entebbe-airport/688334-2600982-ycvcgdz/index.html">the airport</a> and its <a href="https://theinvestigatornews.com/2017/02/crime-investigations-tension-enhas-cited-usd3m-smuggled-ivory-suspected-manager-fired/">handling company</a> have turned into a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/ivory-seized-at-ugandan-airport-10428142.html">hotspot</a> for ivory smuggling.</p>
<p>People, such as ivory traders, connect the local level with transnational actors. The ivory traders’ operations are centred around their connections with ivory suppliers, transporters and rogue <a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/UPDF-soldiers-convicted/688334-3824322-format-xhtml-sbd7li/index.html">government officials</a>. </p>
<p>These connections aren’t uniform. They vary among traders. The more powerful these <a href="http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=37054:uganda-probes-theft-of-ivory-stockpile-suspends-wildlife-agency-staff&catid=87:border-security">connections</a>, particularly with high level government officials, the bigger the reach of the traders. The bigger territory they operate in, the more suppliers they can in turn rely on. It also allows these traders to smuggle goods out of more difficult hot spots, such as the airport. </p>
<p>Traders with less powerful connections limit themselves to smuggling ivory in their specific region. This can be a border region, for example, where they know the smuggling roads, transporters and some security officials.</p>
<h2>Beyond corruption</h2>
<p>Corruption is always noted in research into the illegal <a href="http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/ivory-and-saving-elephants-how-corruption-undermining-every-aspect-conservation/">trade in ivory</a>. While corruption is important, it can conceal more than it reveals.</p>
<p>My research highlights the importance of going beyond the initial analysis of <a href="http://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/corruption-enables-illegal-wildlife-trade/">corruption</a> to unpack the different kind of connections which traders have with a range of individuals such as custom officials, police agents transporters. These connections are crucial in understanding the smugglers’ operations. </p>
<p>My research also highlights the need to take local dynamics seriously. Although ivory is transported in a loose and decentralised way, these patterns are nevertheless key to understanding the global ivory trade. The transnational ivory trade depends on these local dynamics – nodes, and the connections they entail, offer crucial insights into how ivory is smuggled. Also here, power differences are crucial: addressing illegal wildlife trade shouldn’t limit itself to addressing small-scale actors – the transporters and suppliers. Instead, it should focus on the more powerful actors in these nodes, the ones connecting the local with the transnational, and who are fuelling the trade.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95593/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristof Titeca does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Locations like border towns as well as people acting as middlemen provide key insights into Uganda’s ivory trade.Kristof Titeca, Lecturer in International Development, University of AntwerpLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/944262018-04-08T10:12:20Z2018-04-08T10:12:20ZAncient DNA changes everything we know about the evolution of elephants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213141/original/file-20180404-189824-1h993o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Paleoloxodon antiquus has been extinct for 120 000 years.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APaleoloxodon_antiquus.jpg">By Apotea (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For a long time, zoologists assumed that there were only two species of elephant: one Asian and one African. Then genetic analyses suggested that the African Elephant could be divided into <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/293/5534/1473">two distinct species</a>, the African Forest and African Savannah elephants.</p>
<p>Now a new elephant has been added to the mix. The <em>palaeoloxodan antiquus</em> has been extinct for 120 000 years. This elephant roamed Europe and western Asia during the last ice age, about 400 000 years ago. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/02/16/1720554115">A study</a> of its DNA shows that this supposedly European animal is actually the African forest elephants’ closest relative. <a href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/25413">Another study</a> by the same team found that at a genetic level, it may even have more in common with the modern African forest elephant than the African savannah elephant. </p>
<p>This study changes everything we thought we knew about the evolutionary history and ancestry of modern elephants and their closest relatives. It also shows that the African elephant’s lineage was not confined to Africa; the animals actually went out of the continent, which we didn’t know before. It roamed Europe and – through a lot of interbreeding – left its genetic mark far from its original stomping grounds.</p>
<p>The new find, based on DNA from fossils found in Germany, may also shed light on a DNA discrepancy that has puzzled scientists for some time.</p>
<h2>The evolution of elephants</h2>
<p><em>Palaeoloxodon antiquus</em> is known as the straight-tusked elephant because of its distinctive and somewhat bizarre appearance. Its ancestors, the <em>Palaeoloxodon recki</em>, lived in Africa between 3.5 millon and 100 000 years ago. Fossils show that the straight-tusked elephants arrived in Eurasia around 750 000 years ago and that they left Africa through the Middle East.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213387/original/file-20180405-189795-13onw6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213387/original/file-20180405-189795-13onw6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213387/original/file-20180405-189795-13onw6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213387/original/file-20180405-189795-13onw6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213387/original/file-20180405-189795-13onw6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213387/original/file-20180405-189795-13onw6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213387/original/file-20180405-189795-13onw6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213387/original/file-20180405-189795-13onw6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julien Benoit</span></span>
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<p>Once it reached Europe, the <em>Palaeoloxodon antiquus</em> had to adapt to new conditions. One of its new homes was the island of Sicily and, as is common when large animals settle on an island, it evolved into a dwarf species. This is a way for large animals to deal with the paucity of resources common on islands.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2014.991021">own research</a> on this dwarf elephant, <em>Palaeoloxodon falconeri</em> has shown that this remarkable species had an exceptionally large brain. In fact, it’s the only animal species ever recorded with a brain size comparable to a human’s.</p>
<p>There’s a problem, though: <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00239-002-2337-x">DNA revealed</a> some years ago that the <em>Palaeoloxodon falconeri</em> wasn’t descended from or related to any of the African elephant species as expected. Its closest relative was actually the Asian elephant.</p>
<p>That made no sense. How could the straight-tusked elephant be related to African elephants and its dwarf descendant be related to Asian elephants? Was that study wrong? The new study, which examined <em>Palaeoloxodon antiquus</em> DNA, could help unravel the mystery. </p>
<p>This is because the <em>Palaeoloxodon antiquus’</em> DNA appears to be a mixture of many species’ DNA, which would have happened when they interbred. This process, known as admixture, probably occurred once <em>Palaeoloxodon</em> left Africa. That’s how its descendents ended up with Asian elephant DNA, and even DNA from the famous woolly mammoth. </p>
<p>It is possible that a small chunk of the dwarf elephant’s DNA analysed years ago was extracted from a fragment of sequence inherited from the Asian elephant – and its other origins weren’t picked up.</p>
<h2>DNA speaks</h2>
<p>This new information about elephants’ evolution and history is extremely exciting. It shows that the two modern African elephant species are heirs of a glorious and evolutionary successful past which still survives and speaks through their DNA. Conservation efforts therefore do not only preserve species, they also save the genetic memories of these peaceful giants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94426/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julien Benoit receives funding from The Claude Leon Foundation; PAST and its Scatterlings projects; the National Research Foundation of South Africa; and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE in Palaeosciences).</span></em></p>DNA studies reveal that African elephants belong to a very successful and widespread family.Julien Benoit, Senior Researcher in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/884972017-12-04T15:57:25Z2017-12-04T15:57:25ZBurning chillies and dung could help stop elephants damaging farmers’ crops<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197619/original/file-20171204-22977-4iz884.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rocio Pozo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The elephant is fighting for its survival. Many of these animals are now contained in national parks and other protected areas across Africa and Asia, but these are simply not big enough to support isolated populations of elephants. So they are often forced to go out to look for food and water ever <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-3008.2000.00132.x/full">closer to human settlements</a>. And this is when the interaction between people and elephants can develop into conflict. </p>
<p>One of the most widespread and costly sources of this conflict is the foraging or damage of crops by elephants. Crop-using elephants can destroy a farmer’s property and a year’s worth of food in just one night. Unsurprisingly, this makes it very challenging to get local communities behind elephant conservation efforts. But my colleagues and I have found a cheap and easy solution that could help keep elephants away without harming them: burning blocks of dung and chilli.</p>
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<p>In the Eastern Okavango Delta Panhandle of Northern Botswana, conflicts between elephant conservation and local communities <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178840">are common</a>. On average, farmers report around 180 cases of elephants using and destroying their crops every year. Botswana has <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/2354/">more elephants than any other country in the world</a>, and the north of the country holds the largest populations.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197620/original/file-20171204-23002-6myk9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197620/original/file-20171204-23002-6myk9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197620/original/file-20171204-23002-6myk9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197620/original/file-20171204-23002-6myk9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197620/original/file-20171204-23002-6myk9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197620/original/file-20171204-23002-6myk9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197620/original/file-20171204-23002-6myk9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The rarely spotted square elephant poo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rocio Pozo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>I flew to Botswana for the first time in 2014 to start collecting data for my PhD, in a collaboration between the University of Oxford and the <a href="http://www.ecoexistproject.org/">Ecoexist Project</a>. The main objective of my project was to approach the conflict between elephant conservation and peoples’ livelihoods by considering both as important parts of the issue. And so I gathered data on the conflict, how it had developed over previous decades and what we could do to mitigate it in the future.</p>
<p>In the Eastern Panhandle, most people work simply to grow enough food to survive. Local communities are poor and, during the harvesting season, farmers have to work very hard not only to grow their crops but also to keep elephants away. This meant it was a real challenge for us to think of methods that could be implemented and maintained by local farmers over time.</p>
<h2>Chilli methods</h2>
<p>Since the 1990s, academic conservationists <a href="http://connectedconservation.com/documents/first%20capsicum%20paper.pdf">have reported that</a> chillies are efficient at repelling elephants. Elephants, with their long noses – their trunks – have one of the most acute sense of smell in the animal kingdom. Chilli smoke stimulates their olfactory receptors and their respiratory tract is extremely sensitive to the unpleasant smell. We believe this causes irritation that they can remember well enough to put them off coming back to the area for at least a few days afterwards.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197621/original/file-20171204-22996-1fq1y9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197621/original/file-20171204-22996-1fq1y9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197621/original/file-20171204-22996-1fq1y9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197621/original/file-20171204-22996-1fq1y9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197621/original/file-20171204-22996-1fq1y9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197621/original/file-20171204-22996-1fq1y9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197621/original/file-20171204-22996-1fq1y9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Dung delivery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rocio Pozo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>A wide variety of ways of using chilli to repel elephants from crops have been trialled in different parts of Africa and Asia, with <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2011.00182.x/abstract">varying results</a>. These include creating fences from ropes and pieces of cloth greased with chillies, spraying solutions of chilli and resin, and <a href="https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/community-based-conflict-mitigation-trials-results-of-field-tests-of-chilli-asan-elephant-deterrent-2332-2543-1000144.php?aid=46217">burning briquettes</a> made from elephant dung, water and dry chillies.</p>
<p>In the area we studied, local farmers cannot afford materials to build fences, and other methods such as using <a href="http://elephantsandbees.com/beehive-fence/">beehives as fences</a> have not been successful in the past. So we decided to test chilli briquettes because they are cheap and easy to use. Although the smoke from chilli briquettes can be unpleasant, it has no negative effects for people or for the environment.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197623/original/file-20171204-23002-5z1bp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197623/original/file-20171204-23002-5z1bp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197623/original/file-20171204-23002-5z1bp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197623/original/file-20171204-23002-5z1bp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197623/original/file-20171204-23002-5z1bp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197623/original/file-20171204-23002-5z1bp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197623/original/file-20171204-23002-5z1bp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">I love the smell of chilli in the morning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rocio Pozo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>This led us to follow some previous recipes and start what we called the “chilli briquette factory” at the Ecoexist Project Camp in the Eastern Panhandle. Making chilli briquettes was a lot of fun, but also really hard work. In total, we collected and crushed more than 1 tonne of elephant dung and used around 250kg of really spicy chillies to make around 600 briquettes. We then trialled them in a selection of test sites (rather than working farmers’ fields) so we could control what attracted the elephants. Placing a small ember in the middle of each briquette kept it smouldering for six to seven hours.</p>
<p>After four months of driving more than 150km every day to monitor experiment sites and leaving briquettes to smoulder overnight, we found that the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/chillibriquettes-modify-the-temporal-behaviour-of-elephants-but-not-their-numbers/C160626432CF65707B2C1804FCAA225E/core-reader#">chilli briquettes were efficient at deterring elephants.</a>. Most importantly, thanks to our surveillance cameras, we discovered that to avoid the chilli-briquette smoke, the elephants went from being nocturnal to being active in the day (diurnal), when –in general– the presence of farmers was enough to keep them away.</p>
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<p>This shows that chilli-briquettes are an excellent non-lethal and low-cost opportunity for local farmers to keep elephants away from their crops or properties in the short term. But we hope it will also provide a long-term benefit by helping to decrease negative perceptions of elephants in the region. This could lead to more support for conservation efforts and eventually have an impact on elephant numbers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88497/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>For this project, Dr Pozo received funding from the Ecoexist Project and the Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT, Becas Chile). Additional support was granted by Kellogg College and the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK.</span></em></p>If we can keep elephants away from farms then farmers might be more inclined to help conservation efforts.Rocío Pozo, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Environmental Sciences, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/856262017-10-22T11:11:59Z2017-10-22T11:11:59ZHow African elephants’ amazing sense of smell could save lives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190996/original/file-20171019-1048-18eenfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chishuru, a male African elephant, indicates a target scent during trials.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graham Alexander</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For 27 years Angola was gripped by <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/angolan-civil-war-1975-2002-brief-history">civil war</a>. Half a million human lives were lost and wildlife, too, was decimated to sustain troops. Rhino and elephants became valuable targets – rhino horn and ivory served as currency for arms among rebel forces. </p>
<p>During the conflict elephant populations fled across the border into Botswana, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When the war ended in 2002 animal populations slowly started to return to their pre-conflict grazing grounds. But a huge problem remained: <a href="http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/5m-landmines-buried-in-Angola-20020627">millions of landmines</a> were still <em>in situ</em> and <a href="https://www.halotrust.org/where-we-work/africa/angola/">undetonated across Angola</a>. Many elephants were <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159115002063">killed and maimed</a> by the explosives as they attempted to recolonise.</p>
<p>Data collected from collared elephants moving through the affected areas <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/07/070716-elephants-mines_2.html">showed</a> herds avoiding minefields. This suggested that at least some of the returning elephants had associated minefields with danger. What could this association be based on? Had the minefield-avoiding elephants seen others killed in those areas? Or had they associated the smell of landmines with danger, extrapolating risk to other areas where the odour was present?</p>
<p>We couldn’t answer all these questions. To narrow down our search my colleagues and I set about finding out whether elephants could smell the main component of landmines – Trinitrotoluene (TNT). </p>
<p>TNT has a low volatility – the ease at which a substance moves into the air column. This makes it difficult to detect using smell. But some animals are excellent landmine sniffers – among them dogs and <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151006-giant-rats-landmines-cambodia-science-animals/">Gambian Pouched Rats</a>. <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/0210_040210_minerats.html">Bees</a> are also good at it. </p>
<h2>Genetic aspect</h2>
<p>What gives an animal a wide sense of smell comes down to how many different kinds of olfactory receptors it has, and this is determined by the species’ genes. </p>
<p>African elephants have more than double the <a href="http://genome.cshlp.org/content/24/9/1485.short">number of genes</a> associated with olfactory reception compared with dogs: about 2000 versus dogs’ 811. This suggests that olfaction must play an enormous role in elephants’ lives. In fact, elephants have the <a href="https://voices.nationalgeographic.org/2014/07/22/animals-elephants-smell-trunks-genes-africa-science/">highest count</a> of any species tested to date, meaning that they could quite possibly be the best smellers in the animal kingdom. </p>
<p>Not only were we eager to find out whether they could detect TNT using olfaction, but also how their abilities compared to those of highly trained, TNT-detection dogs.</p>
<p>To do this, we enlisted the help of three African elephants at “<a href="http://adventureswithelephants.com/">Adventures With Elephants</a>” – an educational tourism facility focused on raising awareness about conservation. Using reward-based training techniques, we trained the elephants to indicate whenever they could smell TNT among a lineup of blank, non-smelly samples initially and then later, highly volatile distractor odours. </p>
<p>Samples were individual filter papers loaded with trace amounts of one of the following odours: TNT; petroleum; acetone; bleach; detergent; tea; or nothing at all (blanks). These filter papers, or samples, were placed individually into a bucket, and sample buckets (eight in total) were placed 6 metres apart, in a straight line. The elephants were trained to walk along the line and investigate each bucket, raising their front leg and waving it over the selected bucket whenever they thought they could smell TNT. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Mussina, a female African elephant, is put through her TNT-sniffing paces.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The results suggest that elephants are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279888080_Biological_detection_of_explosives">even better</a> at one aspect of the sniffing process than <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279888080_Biological_detection_of_explosives">dogs</a>, the animals currently considered the gold standard in landmine detection.</p>
<h2>Sensitivity and selectivity</h2>
<p>Two metrics, sensitivity and selectivity, are incredibly important in detection science. Measures of these allow researchers to understand how well a biodetector such as a dog or elephant is performing. They also allow for comparisons across species. </p>
<p>The elephants missed only one out of 97 TNT samples during our trials. This translated into a phenomenal sensitivity score of 99.7%. Sensitivity is the propensity to indicate whenever a target substance (in this case TNT) is present. In comparison, sensitivity scores for TNT-detection dogs have been reported as 93.7%.</p>
<p>The elephants only made six false-positive indications, mistaking five out of 53 acetone samples and one out of 24 petrol samples for TNT. This incredibly low frequency of false-positives resulted in a respectable selectivity score – that is, the propensity to only indicate TNT, and not just any odourous substance – of 95.1%. This is a bit shy of the 100% score reported for dogs.</p>
<p>Our findings indicate that elephants are almost 5% more likely than dogs to indicate the presence of TNT when, in fact, there is none. But dogs are almost 6% more likely to miss TNT than elephants are. It’s obviously better for TNT detectors to be prone to false positives rather than false negatives: in fact it could be the difference between life and death. </p>
<h2>Real world application</h2>
<p>So does this mean that elephants should take over TNT-sniffing dogs’ duties? </p>
<p>No, absolutely not. We have no intention of putting elephants in harm’s way: their sheer size and weight makes them completely unsuited to being infield TNT detectors.</p>
<p>But remote elephant teams could act as valuable support to current demining operations in countries like Angola. </p>
<p>Samples collected via <a href="https://www.gichd.org/resources/publications/detail/publication/remote-explosive-scent-tracing-rest/#.Wd9xLFuCzIU">Remote Explosive Scent Tracing</a> by unmanned vehicles such as drones could be sent to the elephants for screening. The information gathered from TNT-detection elephants could be passed on to demining teams working at the front lines, even before they are deployed. This early warning system could potentially save the lives of the deminers and their dedicated biosensor companions.</p>
<h2>Other areas to explore</h2>
<p>Elephants’ ability to correctly identify and discriminate a learned scent from other odours suggests that they may also be useful in other biosensor fields such as early disease detection.</p>
<p>Detection dogs are used in medical and biological settings. I have used them myself as a biologically-relevant model to demonstrate that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ultimate-in-stealth-puff-adders-employ-camouflage-at-every-level-53316">puff adders</a> are undetectable via olfaction. </p>
<p>Specially trained dogs already screen for cancers, diabetes, epilepsy, alien invasives, harmful microbes and pests. Some <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26863620">scent-matching dogs</a> are even able to match collected samples to individuals, forgoing the need for expensive and time-consuming genetic testing. The dogs’ performance in these fields is, in most cases, proving <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159115002063">more reliable</a> than mechanical devices.</p>
<p>Elephants could rival dogs’ sensitivity abilities in these fields, as they did for TNT-detection. They require less maintenance training than dogs to keep them on the target scent. Our elephants were able to repeat the same tests with high success a year after their last trial, with no intervening maintenance training. </p>
<p>In addition, given their longevity – they can live to around <a href="https://www.sanbi.org/creature/african-elephant">60 years</a> in the wild – elephants, once trained, could serve as long-standing biosensors that far outlive any of their current biosensor counterparts.</p>
<p>And, importantly, biologically appropriate tasks that engage natural behaviours to gain reward is highly stimulating for captive animals. So not only could elephants potentially save lives while sniffing out danger – they could have fun at the same time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85626/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashadee Kay Miller received funding from the Army Research Office (ARO) for this work, and currently receives funding from the NRF, ARO and the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command for her research on chemical crypsis.</span></em></p>Elephants have the highest count of olfactory receptor genes of any species tested to date. This suggests that they may be the best smellers in the animal kingdom.Ashadee Kay Miller, PhD Candidate, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/811492017-08-01T17:58:42Z2017-08-01T17:58:42ZWhat camera traps tell us about elephants eating crops<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179317/original/file-20170723-28465-536uzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Southern Tanzania Elephant Program used camera traps to capture elephant visits to farmland.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">STEP/Author supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>An important conservation goal is to try and ensure that people and wildlife can coexist. This is especially important when it comes to elephants, whose large home ranges and long distance movements take them outside of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-3008.2000.00092.x/full">protected areas</a>.</p>
<p>One of the major challenges to coexistence is the use of food crops by elephants. This threatens the <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/elephants/human_elephant_conflict.cfm">livelihoods, food security</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320712003345">well-being</a> of rural communities. Elephant forays into farmland sometimes results in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard_Hoare/publication/278051645_Lessons_from_15_years_of_human-elephant_conflict_mitigation_Management_considerations_involving_biological_physical_and_governance_issues_in_Africa/links/557bde4808aeea18b7751990/Lessons-from-15-years-of-human-elephant-conflict-mitigation-Management-considerations-involving-biological-physical-and-governance-issues-in-Africa.pdf">retaliatory and legal killings under the Problem Animal Control laws</a> and erosion of support for elephant conservation efforts.</p>
<p>For people and elephants to thrive in the long-term, it’s important to find ways to mitigate the impact of the animal on people’s lives and livelihoods, and vice versa. To find effective solutions, we need to understand why elephants eat crops rather than fodder from the bush and how they learn about crops as a source of food.</p>
<p>To explore these questions our team at the <a href="http://www.stzelephants.org/">Southern Tanzania Elephant Program</a> used camera traps to capture elephant <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/using-camera-traps-to-study-the-agesex-structure-and-behaviour-of-cropusing-elephants-loxodonta-africana-in-udzungwa-mountains-national-park-tanzania/AAB225F1915E73FAF278B8B2F5BA7E56">visits to farmland</a>. The cameras were set up in an area adjacent to the Udzungwa Mountains National Park in Tanzania between 2010 and 2014. </p>
<p>We placed camera traps on elephant trails on the National Park boundary to photograph elephants as they travelled in and out of neighbouring farmland. We then studied the camera trap photos to identify individual elephants from key distinguishing features like ears and tusks.</p>
<h2>High-risk, high-reward</h2>
<p>All the elephants photographed by our camera traps were males. This is consistent with <a href="https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/22/3/552/269150/No-risk-no-gain-effects-of-crop-raiding-and">previous studies</a> suggesting that eating crops is a high risk, high reward feeding strategy for males. Females have been <a href="https://anotherbobsmith.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/smith_kasiki_00_hec.pdf">documented</a> to feed on crops, but they are generally less likely to visit farms because of the risks involved to their young.</p>
<p>Age also plays a role. Our study, as well as previous studies in <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0031382">Amboseli, Kenya</a> and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2028.2005.00577.x/full">Kibale, Uganda</a> found that eating crops appears related to specific <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0031382">milestones</a> in a male elephant’s life. </p>
<p>Two particular milestones stood out: the start of reproduction in bulls when they reach the ages of between 20-30 years, and their reproductive peak years in their 40s. When males reach these milestones, they are more willing to take risks and have increased energetic demands. Crops are an attractive source of food for males seeking to maximise their <a href="https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/22/3/552/269150/No-risk-no-gain-effects-of-crop-raiding-and">body size and reproductive success</a>. </p>
<p>How do males learn about crops as a food source? In Udzungwa, we found that young bulls aged 10-14 years visited farms. This is the age when males typically leave their maternal family groups, so they may be discovering farms during the process. It’s also possible that they learn about crops from older elephants. <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0031382">Researchers in Amboseli</a> found that young bulls learnt about crops from older bulls and that male social networks shaped behaviour.</p>
<h2>How many eat crops?</h2>
<p>Some <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2011.01967.x/full">studies</a> have investigated how many bulls eat crops, and how their feeding habits vary. In Udzungwa we identified 48 different elephants from our camera trap photos. With so many bulls visiting the farmland in our study site, we couldn’t attribute the crop damage to just a few habitual males. </p>
<p>We also found that the frequency of visits varied between individual bulls. Two-thirds were seen only once over the four-year study period, suggesting that these bulls visit farms infrequently. One-third of the bulls were seen multiple times and 18% more than twice over the study period. These males may be using crops more regularly. But even among these repeat offenders, males varied considerably in how often they visited farms. </p>
<p>In Kenya by comparison, researchers estimated that 12% of Amboseli bulls and 21% of bulls from the wider Amboseli, Kilimanjaro and Tsavo-Chyulu populations <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2011.01967.x/full">were repeat crop eaters</a>. Combined, this evidence suggests that the majority of bulls occasionally use crops, while a small proportion may use them more frequently. </p>
<h2>Strategies</h2>
<p>Strategies to reduce crop losses to elephants should consider that most bulls consume crops infrequently. So, killing elephants for eating crops is unlikely to significantly reduce crop loss. Taking lethal action is also costly, for it affects those older bulls who are more likely to be eating crops. Killing these older bulls removes a crucial source of <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151017-zimbabwe-elephant-tusker-trophy-hunting-poaching-conservation-africa-ivory-trade/">ecological knowledge as well as important breeding individuals</a>. This is particularly damaging to elephant populations already under threat from ivory poaching. </p>
<p>There are much better non-lethal options for reducing crop losses to elephants. These include <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12898/full">beehive fences</a> and land use planning which involves carefully assessing land for the best possible use. These approaches require strong commitment, community buy-in and creativity. But, as we’ve found in our <a href="http://www.stzelephants.org/projects/human-elephants-co-existence/">work</a> in Tanzania, they offer promising avenues for improving the chances of farmers and elephants being able to coexist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josephine B. Smit and co-authors received funding from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Idea Wild, Yale University's Summer Environmental Fellowship, and Richter Summer Fellowship to conduct the study described in the article. She is a PhD student at the University of Stirling and works for Southern Tanzania Elephant Program.</span></em></p>Elephants feeding on crops poses a challenge to their coexistence with humans. Farmers must introduce strategies to reduce losses and avoid lethal action against the endangered species.Josephine B. Smit, PhD Candidate, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/762372017-05-01T09:24:34Z2017-05-01T09:24:34ZWhat elephants teach us about cancer prevention<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166643/original/file-20170425-12640-ojvxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elephants express many extra genes derived from the critical tumour suppressor gene TP53</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stephen Tan/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every time a cell divides, there is a chance for a mutation (mistake) to occur in the DNA - the substance that carries genetic information in all living organisms. These mutations can lead to cancer.</p>
<p>If all cells have a similar chance of developing cancer-causing mutations, then very large and long-lived animals with more cells undergoing more cell divisions should develop cancer at a higher rate than smaller, short-lived animals with fewer cells dividing over less time. </p>
<p>But in 1977, Sir Richard Peto <a href="http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3040&context=edissertations">noted that</a> humans develop cancer at a rate similar to mice. This is despite <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150912031027">having</a> 1,000 times as many cells and living 30 times as long. Another example of this phenomenon can be found in elephants. They are 100 times larger than people and <a href="http://genomics.senescence.info/species/">can live</a> 60 to 70 years, and yet, their cancer rates are <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2456041">exceedingly low</a>.</p>
<p>Peto proposed that evolutionary considerations might explain the differences in per-cell cancer incidence across species. When comparing cancer rates in mice and men, he proposed that as humans evolved to grow larger and live longer throughout evolutionary history – with more human cells dividing over a longer period of time – that they also evolved to resist cancer. This surprising cancer resistance found in larger, long-lived animals, like elephants, has become known as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3060950/">Peto’s Paradox</a>.</p>
<p>Our research team <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2456041">provided</a> the first empirical data documenting cancer across species in support of Peto’s Paradox. </p>
<p>We showed that cancer mortality does not increase with body size or life span. Actually, we observed that some larger, longer living animals may develop less cancer. We calculated elephant cancer mortality rates at less than 5%, compared to human cancer mortality rates of 11% to 25%. </p>
<p>Elephants have had 55 million years of development to figure out how to resist cancer, and we hope that we can one day apply these lessons to develop effective treatments for cancer. </p>
<h2>Cancer resistance</h2>
<p>Our team looked at the genome of the African elephant for changes in oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes. Oncogenes can cause cells to grow out of control while tumour suppressor genes slow down cell division. <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/genetics/genes-and-cancer/oncogenes-tumor-suppressor-genes.html">These</a> are the two main types of genes that play a role in cancer and could help explain potential mechanisms of cancer resistance in elephants. </p>
<p>Our analysis revealed the shocking discovery that elephants express many extra genes derived from the critical tumour suppressor <a href="https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/TP53">gene <em>TP53</em></a>.</p>
<p><em>TP53</em> is called the <a href="https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/TP53">“Guardian of the Genome”</a> due to its ability to protect cells from accumulating cancer causing mutations. The <em>TP53</em> gene responds to DNA damage, or pre-cancer, by stopping the cell from dividing until the DNA can be repaired. If the cell cannot fix the DNA, then <em>TP53</em> causes the cell to die through a process called <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26873/">apoptosis</a>. Sacrificing damaged cells prevents the propagation of cells with mutations that could lead to cancer.</p>
<p>People with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome have a mutation in one copy of their <em>TP53</em> genes, with more than 90% lifetime risk to develop cancer. This high rate of cancer associated with <em>TP53</em> dysfunction illustrates the critical role that <em>TP53</em> plays in protecting us from cancer. </p>
<h2>Naturally cancer resistant</h2>
<p>Our lab at the University of Utah studies the broken DNA damage response in people with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome who are missing their <em>TP53</em> genes and have a very high rate of cancer. </p>
<p>When we learned that elephants were naturally cancer resistant and also had 20 times as much <em>TP53</em> as humans (40 gene copies total in elephants vs. 2 gene copies in healthy humans), we teamed up with Dr. Carlo Maley, an evolutionary and cancer biologist who helped to make the initial discovery about extra elephant <em>TP53</em>. </p>
<p>We used our clinical and research experience from studying patients with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome to try to understand if elephant <em>TP53</em> could be playing a role in protecting elephants from cancer. Because we already were measuring <em>TP53</em> function in people with and without Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, we could use the same laboratory tests to measure how elephant cells responded to DNA damage.</p>
<p>To perform these experiments, we collaborated closely with Utah’s Hogle Zoo (who have African elephants) as well as Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Circus (who have Asian elephants). Both groups routinely draw blood from their elephants to monitor their health, and we received approval to study the blood when it was drawn for these routine elephant health screening procedures. </p>
<p>The blood was sent to our lab where the white blood cells, called lymphocytes, were exposed to ionising radiation to induce DNA breakage. We monitored how quickly broken DNA was repaired in the African and Asian elephant lymphocytes compared to human lymphocytes. </p>
<p>We predicted that elephant cells would repair their DNA faster than human cells, but discovered that the rate of DNA repair was similar between elephant and human cells. But we noticed something interesting about the elephant cells after it was exposed to radiation: more elephant cells than human cells underwent programmed cell death or apoptosis.</p>
<p>We next undertook rigorous experiments to compare the percent of elephant cells vs. human cells vs. Li-Fraumeni Syndrome cells that died from DNA damage, or pre-cancer. </p>
<p>We discovered that the amount of apoptosis correlated with the number of <em>TP53</em> genes and that this followed the same pattern of lifetime cancer risk – elephants (~5%), humans (~50%), patients with LFS (~90%). This makes sense because more <em>TP53</em> makes the cell more effective at removing pre-cancer cells that could go on to form cancer. </p>
<h2>Learning from elephants to help people</h2>
<p>We showed that elephant <em>TP53</em> helps elephants to more quickly remove pre-cancerous cells with DNA damage and that this possibly contributes to elephant cancer resistance. </p>
<p>Now, we are focusing our research efforts to better understand the specific mechanism of how elephant <em>TP53</em> works. The ultimate goal of our laboratory work is to help patients who already have cancer, and maybe even those people who could be at risk for cancer in the future. </p>
<p>We want to see if we can translate this fascinating discovery into an effective treatment for cancer, or maybe even potentially as a cancer prevention strategy. In the end, we are working to create a world with more elephants and less cancer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76237/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Schiffman owns shares in PEEL Therapeutics and ItRunsInMyFamily.com.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Abegglen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Elephants naturally avoid cancer after 55 million years of evolution. Scientists are studying if they can extract lessons that could help people.Joshua Schiffman, Professor of Pediatrics, University of UtahLisa Abegglen, Pediatrics - Visiting Instructor, University of UtahLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/747802017-03-22T14:54:43Z2017-03-22T14:54:43ZWhy it’s so important to understand how elephants sleep<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161331/original/image-20170317-6133-ysbvhc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could this be the world's largest Fitbit?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humans and animals need to do several things to pass on their genes: eat, avoid being eaten, reproduce and sleep. Missing any of these biological imperatives leads to death. But when we’re asleep we can’t perform those other functions. One of modern science’s big mysteries, then, is: why do we sleep?</p>
<p>Scientists have suggested many answers when it comes to human sleep. One is for the removal of waste products, another is for <a href="http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v3/n12/full/nn1200_1225.html">memory consolidation</a>. One way to test these ideas’ validity is see how they apply to sleep in exotic animals that are normally not studied, such as the large African mammals.</p>
<p>Research has already shown that larger mammals <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7063/abs/nature04285.html">tend to sleep less</a> than smaller mammals. So African elephants, adults weighing between 3000 and 5000 kg, shouldn’t sleep much. Recording brain waves is the accepted way to prove when an animal is asleep: features of the brain’s global activity show when the brain is awake, in slow wave sleep or is dreaming (REM sleep). But doing this in elephants borders on surgically impossible because of the large frontal sinus that makes up most of their skull. </p>
<p>To overcome this our comparative neurobiology group at the University of the Witwatersrand, with colleagues from <a href="http://elephantswithoutborders.org/">Elephants Without Borders</a> and <a href="https://www.semel.ucla.edu/sleepresearch">UCLA</a> adapted an activity meter used in studies of human sleep. This allowed us to monitor the sleeping patterns and habits of two wild elephant matriarchs. </p>
<p><a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0171903">The results</a>, published in the journal PLoS ONE, are important for two reasons. By understanding sleep across animals we can gain insights into improving the quality of human sleep and our quality of life. But just as crucially, understanding sleep in animals like elephants helps us to understand them better – and improves our ability to develop beneficial conservation and management strategies. </p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>The device we used provides an output of the number of acceleration events per minute. It could be readily implanted under the skin to measure when the elephant was or wasn’t moving. After observing elephants in the wild, we realised that the most active part of the body was the trunk. We reasoned that if the trunk wasn’t moving for five minutes, the elephant was likely to be asleep – so that’s where the activity meter was implanted.</p>
<p>Combining this with a GPS collar and gyroscope – which measured bodily movements in the <a href="https://my-ms.org/mri_planes.htm">x, y and z planes</a>, we made four really interesting observations:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the elephants slept on average for two hours a day; </p></li>
<li><p>most of their sleep was while standing, but they lay down to sleep every third or fourth day; </p></li>
<li><p>there were nights when they didn’t sleep at all, and they took a 30 km hike; and</p></li>
<li><p>the time they went to sleep and woke up coincided with environmental conditions not related to sunrise or sunset.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_4JGBKr10Vs?wmode=transparent&start=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The secrets of elephant sleep, revealed…</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Existing <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1557589">research</a> done on captive elephants found that they slept on average between four and six hours a day. That’s because they have plenty of time to sleep. They aren’t having to go out and find the food they need to keep their large bodies going, they receive a higher quality diet and they are not at any risk of predation.</p>
<p>A large elephant needs to eat around 300 kg of low quality food daily. This leaves little time for sleep. One of the specialisations in the elephant brain are orexin neurons of the hypothalamus. These control the balance between satiety and arousal: if you’ve had enough to eat, the neurons become silent and allow you to go to sleep. If not, they keep you awake. </p>
<p>This balance and the quality of the diet explains the trend for larger mammals to sleep less, or herbivores to sleep less than carnivores and omnivores (like humans). The elephant data supports this emerging idea in sleep research, and helps explain why the elephant sleeps so little.</p>
<p>In captivity, elephants spend much of their time asleep lying down, but they also sometimes sleep standing. With combined data from the gyroscope and the activity meter we found that wild elephants mostly slept standing up. Lying down to sleep only happened every third or fourth day and for about an hour. </p>
<p>Mammals lose tone in their skeletal muscles during REM sleep. So for an elephant to have REM sleep it needs to lie down, as without any muscle tone it is very difficult to remain standing, unless they’re resting against a tree or a large rock. </p>
<p>One idea of the function of REM sleep is memory consolidation – experiences had during the day are converted into long-term memories during REM sleep. Elephants have good <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23728481">long-term memory</a>, but only go into REM sleep every third or fourth day. This suggests that the memory consolidation theory perhaps isn’t the answer to the function of REM sleep.</p>
<h2>Environmental cues</h2>
<p>Some nights the elephants went without sleep. This happened three nights for one elephant, two for the other. Not long after sunset on these days the elephants were disturbed, perhaps by hunting lions, poachers or even a bull elephant <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25091910">in musth</a>. For the remainder of the night the elephants hiked for a distance of around 30 km. This behaviour had never been recorded previously for elephants. It indicates that elephants really do need a lot of space, which is important in terms of elephant conservation – it seems that small reserves don’t give them enough room.</p>
<p>Lastly, the time the elephants went to sleep (sleep onset) and woke up (sleep offset) was not related to sunset and sunrise. Rather, both were strongly related to the “real feel” of the environment; a mix of temperature, humidity, wind speed and solar radiation. It appears that environmental cues are important for going to sleep and waking up at the right time. If we examine this more closely we might be able to adjust human sleep environments in a way to get ourselves a better night’s sleep.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Manger receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. </span></em></p>By understanding sleep across animals we can gain insights into improving the quality of human sleep. It can also help to bolster conservation management strategies for the animals in question.Paul Manger, Professor of Comparative and Evolutionary Neurobiology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/736952017-03-16T17:46:46Z2017-03-16T17:46:46ZEyes in the sky and on the ground are helping forest conservation in Cameroon<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158982/original/image-20170301-5501-1e86jku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Cameroon efforts are underway to halt rainforest loss and develop opportunities with locals.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arend de Haas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The highland rainforests of South West Cameroon are among the oldest forests on the continent. They comprise the richest flora and fauna in continental tropical Africa. The area is one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots. The region encompasses high levels of unique, as well as endangered species. These include the <a href="http://www.crossrivergorilla.org/">Cross River gorilla</a>, Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees and forest elephants. </p>
<p>But the region is also home to communities who rely on the land for their survival. Most of this unique forest is community land with no formal protected status. </p>
<p>The main driver of deforestation and forest degradation in this part of Cameroon, is <a href="http://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/OccPapers/OP-57.pdf">agriculture</a>. This can be in the form of large scale industrial agriculture, subsistence farming, particularly shifting slash and burn cultivation, and wood harvesting by the communities. Government initiatives like infrastructure development and industrial logging accelerate this process. </p>
<p>To curb the problem, a number of organisations including community-based groups, are working together to halt rainforest loss. At the same time, they are developing new livelihood opportunities with local people. These include the <a href="https://www.africanconservation.org/">African Conservation Foundation</a> and the <a href="http://www.erudef.org/">Environmental and Rural Development Foundation</a>.</p>
<p>The success and efficiency of conservation activities, like forest monitoring, law enforcement and management of protected areas, that are being established as part of this project, could be greatly improved by taking informed decisions based on up-to-date information, as close to real time as possible.</p>
<p>A new project has set out to do this. It facilitates information sharing between forest dependent communities – the eyes on the ground – and satellite images gathered by <a href="http://www.globalforestwatch.org/">Global Forest Watch</a> – the eyes in the sky. Local people help improve the accuracy of international monitoring instruments, by ground-truthing remote sensing data. This strengthens forest monitoring while immediate threats to critically endangered wildlife species are addressed through an early warning system indicating areas that have experienced recent forest loss.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159022/original/image-20170301-5492-1o43u3i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159022/original/image-20170301-5492-1o43u3i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159022/original/image-20170301-5492-1o43u3i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159022/original/image-20170301-5492-1o43u3i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159022/original/image-20170301-5492-1o43u3i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159022/original/image-20170301-5492-1o43u3i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159022/original/image-20170301-5492-1o43u3i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rainforest of Upper Bayang in the Cameroon Highlands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arend de Haas/ACF</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Eyes in the sky</h2>
<p>Global Forest Watch is run by the <a href="http://www.wri.org/">World Resources Institute</a> and uses satellite images to track tree cover loss in near-real time. It’s created <a href="http://www.globalforestwatch.org/map/3/15.00/27.00/ALL/grayscale/umd_as_it_happens?tab=countries-tab&begin=2015-01-01&end=2016-02-25">a system</a> that detects tree cover loss on an annual and weekly basis.</p>
<p>The initiative was developed by at <a href="http://www.glad.umd.edu/">a special lab</a> based at the University of Maryland in the US. It provides an unprecedented opportunity for understanding and monitoring the threats to forest ecosystems. The lab also provide tools to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of on the ground monitoring.</p>
<p>But there was a need to bring the data from the satellite images to the ground. To do this, we started testing the <a href="http://www.janegoodall.org/2016/11/21/monitoring-forests-2/">Forest Watcher</a>, an Android app developed in collaboration between the <a href="http://www.janegoodall.org/2016/11/21/monitoring-forests-2/">Jane Goodall Institute</a>, Google and World Resources Institute. It enabled us to download the data, customise the types of information to be collected, and train community members to validate tree cover loss data in the field. </p>
<p>One of the challenges we faced was making satellite data available and accessible to communities who live in remote areas without electricity or internet and are not computer literate. </p>
<p>To make the data available and accessible to local communities spatial information was transformed into a format that communities can manage and develop themselves. To do this <a href="http://www.iapad.org/about/about-p3dm/">Participatory 3-Dimensional Modeling</a> was used. This is an interactive, visual tool that facilitates the gathering of information and places it into a physical 3-dimensional model of focal areas. It <a href="https://www.africanconservation.org/news/cameroon-s-first-participatory-3d-mapping-for-forest-monitoring-and-conservation-management">can also be used </a> to display and disseminate Global Forest Watch data about tree cover loss, concessions and other relevant information.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159007/original/image-20170301-5497-4doxzg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159007/original/image-20170301-5497-4doxzg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159007/original/image-20170301-5497-4doxzg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159007/original/image-20170301-5497-4doxzg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159007/original/image-20170301-5497-4doxzg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159007/original/image-20170301-5497-4doxzg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159007/original/image-20170301-5497-4doxzg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New forest monitoring tools bring different generations together.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arend de Haas/ACF</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Eyes on the ground</h2>
<p>The physical 3D model of the landscape serves as a powerful tangible monitoring tool that’s available to community members who are able to gather and discuss the latest threats and developments in the highland rainforest. This means that they are able to take on a greater, more responsible role in protecting their natural heritage. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159018/original/image-20170301-5540-saapx8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159018/original/image-20170301-5540-saapx8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159018/original/image-20170301-5540-saapx8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159018/original/image-20170301-5540-saapx8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159018/original/image-20170301-5540-saapx8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159018/original/image-20170301-5540-saapx8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159018/original/image-20170301-5540-saapx8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participatory mapping using a modular 3D model of the project area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arend de Haas/ACF</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The project also brought out the knowledge of communities by engaging representatives of both genders and of all ages in the map making process. Local people said that they were losing the knowledge of the elders because they have no written history and information is no longer passed on to young people as they move to urban areas. This place-bound historical knowledge about natural resources and cultural or sacred sites, including their original names, is incredibly valuable and has not been documented before.</p>
<p>Hundreds of people have participated in forest mapping activities with great interest as chiefs, delighted with the information being provided, have mobilised their villages.</p>
<p>Communities are eager to embrace new technologies because they provide them with tools and skills that strengthens their position when dealing with the authorities and international stakeholders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arend de Haas is a director of the African Conservation Foundation and board member of the Institute for Biodiversity and Non-profit Studies. He receives funding from Global Forest Watch as a Research and Conservation Programme coordinator in the Cameroon highland rainforest. </span></em></p>Combining new technologies, including Global Forest Watch, a Forest Monitoring App and Participatory 3D Modelling, brings out traditional knowledge of the elders.Arend de Haas, Conservation Director at the African Conservation Foundation and lecturer and board member at the Institute of Biodiversity and Non-Profit Studies, University of BueaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/710902017-01-11T09:51:50Z2017-01-11T09:51:50ZChina’s ban on domestic ivory trade is huge, but the battle isn’t won<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152222/original/image-20170110-29024-l0gu2p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">China plans to ban the ivory trade. The hope is that prices will be driven downwards and elephant numbers will improve.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ross Harvey</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>China has <a href="https://newsroom.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/9578/China-Announcement-of-Domestic-Ivory-Ban-in-2017--English-Translation.aspx">published a notice</a> that the processing and sale of ivory and ivory products “will be stopped by December 31, 2017”. China’s credible commitment to this end follows <a href="https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/17/WorkingDocs/E-CoP17-57-02.pdf">a decision</a> taken at the latest Convention on International Trade in Endangered Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) conference to end all domestic trade in ivory.</p>
<p>China has made announcements of intent before, in May and September 2015. Concrete action was missing in terms of the duration of the ban and a timetable for implementation. Now both are effectively in place. </p>
<p>By March this year a portion of registered ivory sale and processing sites will stop operating. Sale activities on ivory and its products will cease. The remainder will stop by the end of the year. </p>
<p>The announcement doesn’t specify how long the ban will be in place, but the wording implies that the trade will not resume. </p>
<p>This is good news for elephant conservation in Africa. </p>
<p>Wildlife experts estimate that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/world/asia/china-ivory-ban-elephants.html?_r=0">50 to 70%</a> of poached ivory ends up in China. A <a href="http://danstiles.org/publications/ivory/43.Analysis%20of%20Demand.pdf">recent report</a> estimated that 200 metric tonnes (MT) a year of illegal ivory entered China-Hong Kong between 2010 and 2014. Only 6-8 MT of that annually was estimated to have been sold illegally. This suggests that a massive volume of ivory is being illegally stockpiled for speculative purposes. So it’s crucial to understand the impact that the ban will have on speculator behaviour.</p>
<h2>Owning the value chain</h2>
<p>African elephants are being slaughtered for their tusks at an alarming rate, according to the <a href="http://www.greatelephantcensus.com/final-report/">Great Elephant Census</a>. Mortality rates of around 8% exceed birth rates, constituting a serious threat to elephant survival. To satisfy demand in East Asia, organised crime syndicates have moved to try and control the entire value chain by vertically integrating each facet of the trade.</p>
<p>On the supply side this has meant the use of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jun/04/lords-resistance-army-funded-elephant-poaching">sophisticated weaponry</a> and <a href="https://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/EIA-Vanishing-Point-lo-res1.pdf">the infiltration</a> of anti-poaching agencies. It has also meant that there is <a href="https://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Inside-Story-lo-res.pdf">corruption</a> throughout the distribution route from state officials to the police, customs, port and tax authorities. </p>
<p>At the retail end of the supply chain, <a href="http://www.wwf.se/source.php/1578610/out%20of%20africa.pdf">anecdotal evidence</a> suggests that some syndicates have sought to open their own illicit outlets in addition to stockpiling ivory.</p>
<p>For as long as domestic trade remained legal in China, it was easy to launder illicit ivory into officially recognised legal outlets. This prompted the international community – at the last CITES conference – to <a href="https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/17/Com_II/E-CoP17-Com-II-06.pdf">vote overwhelmingly</a> in favour of putting an end to commercial domestic trade in ivory.</p>
<h2>But will it work?</h2>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.saiia.org.za/general-publications/1104-2016-09-19-snap-working-paper-for-saiia-rev/file">paper</a> published in September 2016 we examined how speculators might respond to a domestic trade ban in China. <a href="http://danstiles.org/publications/ivory/43.Analysis%20of%20Demand.pdf">Given the evidence</a> that a significant volume of ivory is being stockpiled, we sought to understand the incentive structures that might be driving speculator activity. </p>
<p>We distinguished between wholesale and private speculators. </p>
<p>Private speculators probably account for only a small proportion of total ivory consumption. They may be individuals purchasing ivory either as a collector’s item or as an “inflation-proof” investment vehicle. In this category, the market structure would likely be quite competitive.</p>
<p>Not so for wholesale speculators. These are likely to be large syndicates that are either oligopolistic or monopolistic in structure. They appear to have an incentive to drive elephants to the brink of extinction. Syndicates would not want potential competitors to access living elephant stock. If elephants were to become exceedingly scarce, the value of their ivory would skyrocket. Trade in the products of extinct species is difficult to regulate, and exceeds the CITES mandate. </p>
<p>Speculators would have had every incentive to stockpile ivory in anticipation of earning future monopoly rents prior to the announcement of a domestic trade ban in China. This explains the <a href="http://danstiles.org/publications/ivory/43.Analysis%20of%20Demand.pdf">discrepancy</a> between the volume of ivory entering China (as extrapolated from seizure date) and the volume being sold (even illegally).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152355/original/image-20170111-6422-x8m99d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152355/original/image-20170111-6422-x8m99d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152355/original/image-20170111-6422-x8m99d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152355/original/image-20170111-6422-x8m99d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152355/original/image-20170111-6422-x8m99d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152355/original/image-20170111-6422-x8m99d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152355/original/image-20170111-6422-x8m99d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152355/original/image-20170111-6422-x8m99d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A massive volume of ivory is being illegally stockpiled for speculative purposes in China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/animalrescueblog/11805693745/in/photolist-iZfz5p-iZfzov-iZfzEc-iZegvR-iZefSr-iZi8ey-iZeg9P-iZegrT-iZfyWt-iZgokY-iZgoBE-iZi8rC-hwc6Af-hwbQgB-hwbXGQ-rRX4zv-hwc8NG-huo4vn-rAaVND-rA4pM9-uvFsHp-uvsKqD">International Fund for Animal Welfare Animal Rescue/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The quicker the better</h2>
<p>Our paper argued that the Chinese domestic ban should be imposed as soon as possible, and for an indefinite duration. Chinese authorities have now, with minor (reasonable) exceptions, committed to doing so. That is good news – the quicker the better. The longer the ban takes to be implemented, the longer speculators have to sell ivory off. In that scenario the ivory price is only likely to decline slowly, if at all. The sooner the ban is implemented, the more ivory speculators will have to offload in a short space of time, driving prices down. Lower prices will disincentivise poaching. </p>
<p>Opponents of the ban typically argue that prices will rise in anticipation of future scarcity. But this depends both on who is buying and how long speculators believe the ban will be in place. </p>
<p>Ivory prices <a href="http://savetheelephants.org/about-ste/press-media/?detail=sharp-fall-in-the-prices-of-elephant-tusks-in-china">declined</a> by half in the 18-month period from June 2014 to December 2015. This suggests that anticipation of future scarcity was not driving prices up as expected. If speculators believed that the domestic trade would be banned, they may have gotten rid of their ivory more quickly. Demand may also have been declining as a result of lower income levels and the efficacy of demand reduction campaigns. </p>
<p>But if wholesale speculators believe that the ban will only be temporary they would have an incentive to maintain their stockpiles until legal sales resumed. In the meanwhile, they would continue to poach to maintain or build a monopoly on the available ivory stock.</p>
<p>So, it is good news that the official wording of the ban does not suggest the possibility of future trade. It may have been preferable to state this explicitly. But that may have been too politically prickly.</p>
<p>A domestic trade ban in China may spur what economists call a “fire sale” where stockholders offload large volumes of stock at the same time. This drives prices exponentially downwards. It remains to be seen whether this will happen. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/world/africa/africa-ivory-china.html?_r=0">Recent reports</a> suggest that ivory processing and sales are increasingly moving into Vietnam, simply moving the problem to a different geographic location with little effect on prices. </p>
<p>How prices respond to the news will provide some indication of whether the speculation in our paper was correct. Either way, the hope is that prices will be driven downwards, disincentivising poaching and protecting elephants.</p>
<h2>What’s still missing</h2>
<p>A domestic trade ban is only one spanner in a complex toolkit to achieve sustainable elephant populations. It is nonetheless a crucial one: a strong signal of change from a country that recently marketed the ivory trade as a heritage industry. </p>
<p>There are, however, other threats such as habitat fragmentation and encroachment. Add to this increasing human and elephant conflict, and a thriving bush-meat trade, and it’s clear that long-term elephant survival is at risk. </p>
<p>Another complexity is the availability of <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/wildlife-woolly-mammoth-ivory-trade-legal-china-african-elephant-poaching/">mammoth</a>, or fossil ivory, which can be traded legally.</p>
<p><a href="https://econ.ucalgary.ca/sites/econ.ucalgary.ca/files/naimafarahw15.pdf">Some argue</a> that its availability substitutes for elephant ivory and therefore slows the rate of elephant killing. Others worry that it simply provides another laundering mechanism because it’s plausible that elephant ivory will be passed off as mammoth ivory.</p>
<p>Ultimately, elephants need to be valued as being worth more alive than dead by two crucial constituents. Consumers need to make the cultural shift to seeing ivory as belonging to elephants alone. <a href="http://www.saiia.org.za/occasional-papers/ensuring-elephant-survival-through-improving-community-benefits">Community members</a> on the front line of conservation and human-elephant conflict need to receive significant benefits from keeping elephants alive and their habitats intact. Only then will the battle be won.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>During 2016, SAIIA received funding from Stop Ivory (UK). Ross works for SAIIA, an independent, not-for-profit think-tank. </span></em></p>China has decided to end all domestic trade in ivory, an act that could help elephant numbers all over Africa.Ross Harvey, Senior Researcher in Natural Resource Governance (Africa), South African Institute of International AffairsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/708732017-01-08T07:14:26Z2017-01-08T07:14:26ZWhy Zimbabwe’s use of elephants to pay off old debt to China is problematic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151813/original/image-20170105-18668-deutm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Zimbabwe are looking to sell 35 young elephants to China in the hopes of settling an old debt.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A bizarre story has recently come out of Zimbabwe. Grace Mugabe, the politically powerful wife of the ageing president Robert Mugabe, has come up with a plan to settle <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/zimbabwark-to-settle-mugabe-debt-vww9ctqrb">a debt to China</a> with 35 young elephants, eight lions, 12 hyenas and a giraffe. The debt was incurred in 1998 when Zimbabwe sent troops and bought equipment from China to help President Laurent Kabila in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Kabila needed help fighting off a rebel movement backed by Uganda and Rwanda.</p>
<p>Zimbabwe’s use of live wildlife as a commodity is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/23/zimbabwe-ships-live-elephants-to-wildlife-parks-in-china">nothing new</a>. And it’s not the only country to do so. It is quite common for southern African states to sell what they consider to be surplus animals to zoos or safari parks outside Africa. </p>
<p>In January 2016, the US Fish and Wildlife Service gave the go ahead for Swaziland to export 18 elephants to <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/160122-Swaziland-Elephants-Import-US-Zoos/">zoos in the US</a>. Between 2010 and 2014 an estimated 500 white rhinos and 20 elephants were exported from <a href="http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/28/live-elephant-and-rhino-trade-debated-at-wildlife-convention/">African range states</a>. </p>
<p>Animals are also exported to restock parks or reserves elsewhere on the continent. <a href="https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2016/05/20/overpopulated-conservancy-seeks-ship-excess-lions/">Zimbabwe’s Bubye Valley Conservancy</a>, for example, is arranging to send 8-10 lions to Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. The aim is to help them re-establish prides in areas depleted of lions.</p>
<p>The sale of live animals is <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141217-zimbabwe-china-elephants-zoos-tuli-botswana-south-africa/">highly controversial</a>, but not illegal as long as rules established by <a href="https://www.cites.org/">CITES</a> are followed. These require that live exports only be between two CITES members and that both parties’ management authorities for CITES ensure that the export permits are valid.</p>
<p>The authorities need to ensure that “the export of the animals would not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild” and would be taken to “to appropriate and acceptable destinations”. </p>
<p>But the removal of young elephants from their herds – as happened in Zimbabwe – is highly damaging to the animals and to the herd as a whole. This form of removal has been called a <a href="http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/grace-mugabe-pays-military-debt-to-china-with-35-zim-jumbos-report-20161227y">“a mad act of cruelty”.</a></p>
<p>The Zimbabwean embassy in China has denied the reports of the sale and there has been no word from the environment minister in Harare. The story will be embarrassing for China at a time when it is basking in praise over its announcement of a coming ban on <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/12/china-ban-ivory-trade-2017-161230183540915.html">ivory working and retail sales</a>.</p>
<h2>Why selling live elephants is a problem</h2>
<p>At the CITES Conference of the Parties in Johannesburg last year members of the <a href="https://cites.org/eng/news/Current_rules_commercial_international_trade_elephant_ivory_under_CITES_Proposals_CITES_CoP17_200716">African Elephant Coalition</a> – a 29 member grouping of African states opposed to any trade in ivory or the export outside the continent of live elephants – attempted to get the CITES regulation changed to limit exports to relocation inside Africa and to ban exports to other continents. It was opposed by southern African states and China and did not get sufficient support to go to a vote. Instead a US compromise proposal was passed tightening the export regulations and attempting to ensure that ivory or horn from exported live animals did not enter the illegal trade system.</p>
<p>One of the concerns raised by NGOs and wildlife activists about the export of live elephants to China is that they will at some stage be farmed and their ivory harvested to be sold at a huge profit. <a href="http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/grace-mugabe-pays-military-debt-to-china-with-35-zim-jumbos-report-20161227">This fear was expressed by conservationists</a> when news about Zimbabwe’s most recent debt-settling plan emerged. </p>
<p>There is also concern that animals go to zoos with <a href="http://varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk/index.php/2012/01/animal-performance-china/">poor welfare records</a> or where cruel methods will be used to make the animals into little more than circus performers.</p>
<h2>Zimbabwe’s justification</h2>
<p>Zimbabwean ministers and wildlife officials have for years defended the regular sale of elephants and other wildlife to China. They have justified it by saying they need to reduce pressure of numbers in over-stocked reserves and raise funds for conservation. But there is no proof that the money raised goes back into conservation and clearly using elephants to settle military-related debts does little for conservation. </p>
<p>The official Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority <a href="http://www.zimparks.org/index.php/mc/176-live-sales-of-elephants">website</a> justifies live exports as a means of sustainably supporting conservation and reducing pressure of numbers on eco-systems. Over-population of elephants, in particular, can damage habitats, put pressure on other vulnerable species and lead to conflict with local communities, whose crops may be damaged or destroyed.</p>
<p>But while a conservation case may be made quite cogently for limiting numbers, the export of live animals seems more related to profit than sustainable use conservation. And the fate of live animals exported is also being questioned. There are <a href="http://traveller24.news24.com/Explore/Green/shockwildlifetruths-zim-baby-elephants-heading-for-chinese-zoo-20161107">reports</a> that, when the young elephants were being captured in Zimbabwe, 37 were caught but only 35 were sold to China because two died soon after capture.</p>
<p>The Zimbabwean Minister of the Environment, Water and Climate, Oppiah Muchinguri-Kashiri strongly advocates the sale of animals to raise money. But she doesn’t appear to have a strong grasp of the facts of conservation and the trade in animals or their products. This is evident in how adamant she was that Zimbabwe could sell its ivory stockpile to China despite the CITES decision.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Zimbabwe is forging ahead with planned sales to raise desperately needed cash. Reports from the <a href="http://savetheelephants.org/about-elephants-2-3/elephant-news-post/?detail=cecil-the-lion-family-might-be-targeted-for-zimbabwe-export-to-china-zoo">Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force</a> in September last year said that the Zimbabwe Wildlife Department was capturing animals to meet an order from China for 130 elephants and 50 lions. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-35233259">January last year</a> the minister defended past sales and said they would be continued. In the previous six months Zimbabwe had sold 100 elephants to Chinese zoos at a cost of $40,000 each.</p>
<p>It is very clear that Zimbabwe’s environment minister and wildlife authorities have no qualms about the questionable trade in live animals. They are willing to sell animals to Chinese zoos and safari parks, some of which have less than <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150925-elephants-china-zimbabwe-cites-joyce-poole-zoos-wildlife-trade/">spotless records for animal welfare</a> and are <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2861424/Is-cute-cruel-Activists-fear-treatment-animals-Chinese-wildlife-park-home-biggest-population-koalas-outside-Australia.html">barely distinguishable from circuses</a>. </p>
<p>One destination for Zimbabwean elephants is the huge and widely criticised <a href="http://varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk/index.php/2012/01/animal-performance-china/">Chimelong Wildlife Park</a>, which includes a circus and stages a variety of dubious performances and stunts involving its animals. </p>
<p>It is hard to draw a clear line to show where justifiable sustainable-use and sheer exploitation for profit begins. But it is clear that Zimbabwe and China have crossed that line.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Somerville does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Zimbabwe are looking to resolve a debt to China by selling animals to them. But one of the concerns is that the elephants sold will eventually be farmed and their ivory harvested.Keith Somerville, Visiting Professor, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/702172017-01-02T08:11:17Z2017-01-02T08:11:17ZWhy elephants kept in captivity suffer from sore feet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150081/original/image-20161214-32207-n7jq8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elephant feet have peculiar structures that can also be seen in other large-bodied animals.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women across the world understand the pain that comes with wearing a new pair of high heels. Any person who spends all day standing at work will also know how taxing it can be on the feet if you’re wearing the wrong shoes. So stop for a moment to consider how elephants feel.</p>
<p>Elephants are the largest living terrestrial mammals. Their feet carry that huge body mass of around eight tonnes in the case of African elephants. To achieve this weight-bearing duty, elephant feet have peculiar structures that can also be seen in other large-bodied animals like rhinoceroses.</p>
<p>A close-up of the <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/215/9/1584/F1.large.jpg">elephant foot</a> shows elephants have five toes, the tips of which are in contact with the ground. They also have a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2006.00648.x/abstract;jsessionid=772CEF0E52DD2C137E4ABBBD55233886.f03t01">large fat pad</a> – equivalent to the human heel – that fills the shape behind the toes.</p>
<p>The pad has the ability to spread out and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2009.00611.x/abstract">potentially reduce pressure</a> when the foot hits the ground, similar to the human heel <a href="http://barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/Nature2010_FootStrikePatternsandCollisionForces.pdf">in barefoot runners</a>. Elephants also have enlarged false toes, or <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/334/6063/1699">predigits</a>, that are embedded on the pads. These also ensure pressure is shifted from the sole to the rest of the limb. </p>
<p>Fossils of large bodied animals show a noticeable correlation between body weight, the posture of the toes and the development of the <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/334/6063/1699">fat pad</a>. Approximately 40 million years ago elephants had small body masses (less than 2000 kg) and their toes were flat. As elephants started growing bigger than 2000 kg they adopted more upright toes, larger fat pads and <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/334/6063/1699">predigits</a>. The assumption is that the fat pad developed in large-bodied land animals like elephants as a mechanism to reduce foot pressure while supporting their large body mass.</p>
<p>The pad works well for elephants living in natural environments with ample space to move and forage. In the wild, elephants <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470292150.ch5/summary">exercise their feet</a> by walking on rocks, digging around and by rubbing their fat pads against the ground. These activities keep their feet moist and their fat pads stay supple. They also serve as natural pedicures, trimming elephant’s heels. </p>
<p>But this isn’t true of elephants kept in captivity. As a result they suffer excessively from various feet ailments which often turn out to be fatal.</p>
<h2>Problems in captivity</h2>
<p>Research on elephants kept in semi-natural habitats has shown that both <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/9/1584">Asian</a> and <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/10/160203elephants">African</a> species concentrate the lowest pressures underneath the fat pad and the highest pressures on the outside part of their feet. </p>
<p>The reduction of foot pressure underneath the fat pad can be attributed to the compliance of the pad which potentially functions as a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2006.00648.x/abstract">shock absorber</a> and pressure distributor. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZJ6UC1lapXE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Foot pressure in a walking African elephant kept in semi-natural environments.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Elephants are often kept in captive enclosures to protect them against poachers and as tourist attractions. But animals kept in enclosures with hard grounds (like concrete or tarmac) and small spaces can’t exercise their feet. </p>
<p>Hard surfaces with floors covered in urine and faeces can cause <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470292150.ch6/summary">infections around the pad</a>. A cracked or infected fat pad can’t absorb pressure effectively making the outside part of the foot <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/9/1584">more prone to diseases</a>. The <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470344484.ch20/summary">most-common problems</a> are toenail cracks, sole overgrowth, trauma, osteomyelitis, ankylosis of the joints and osteoarthritis. It is estimated that <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470292121.html">50% of captive elephant deaths</a> are caused by these afflictions. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155223">study</a> in Asian and African elephants in north American zoos estimated that elephants exposed to hard surfaces <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155223">for four hours each day</a> were more likely to develop joint stiffness or lameness. This was compared to those exposed to hard surfaces for <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155223">2.5 hours per day</a>. </p>
<p>Another <a href="http://www.idausa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/U-of-Bristol-Report.pdf">study</a> into the quality of zoos in the UK found that 80.4% of a sample of elephants kept in enclosures with hard ground had foot problems ranging from cracks to infection.</p>
<p>Managing foot diseases is <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155223">challenging</a> because they often only become evident when they have progressed to incurable stages. Diagnostic techniques like imaging are expensive and in most cases require general anaesthesia. Imaging or other hands-on methods are also impractical in most situations. </p>
<h2>Solutions</h2>
<p>There are a few things that can be done to keep the feet of captive elephants healthy.</p>
<p>Wherever feasible, enclosures should try and replicate the environment of a natural habitat and reduce an elephant’s exposure to hard surfaces.</p>
<p>Foot trimming is a popular foot care method to remove cracks and divots when elephants walk in less natural habitats. But trimming protocols vary and their effect is still unknown. <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/10/160203">Pressure platforms</a> – electronic systems with sensors that measure foot pressure during dynamic (walking) or static (standing) activities – are one way to go. They could be used to help keepers make better and more informed decisions to avoid affecting the mechanics of the elephant’s foot. </p>
<p>These <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/10/160203">pressure plates</a> could also be used as a diagnostic tool so that foot diseases are picked up earlier, just as podiatrists use pressure mapping to diagnose and treat human foot disorders.</p>
<p>Implementing these practical measures would help ensure that elephants held in captivity don’t suffer undue stress and pain. </p>
<p><em>The research that the article is based on can be found <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/10/160203">here.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olga Panagiotopoulou is affiliated to the University of Queensland. She is also a Research Affiliate with the Rory Hensman Conservation and Research Unit (RHCRU), in Limpopo, South Africa. </span></em></p>Foot problems are more rife in elephants living in captivity. The hard ground they walk on often gives them foot trouble. Generally, by the time the problem is picked up, it’s too late.Olga Panagiotopoulou, Lecturer in Anatomy, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.