Our catch phrase is on its way.
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
At the Zakouma game reserve in Chad poachers killed five elephants in January of this year, with the intention of taking the tusks of four of them. The fifth elephant was a tuskless baby, crushed to death when its dying mother fell on it – another instance of the senseless slaughter that continues on the African continent.
Yet, claims park director Rian Labuschagne, things could be worse. The number of elephant deaths at the hands of poachers is down over the past two years – and the number of births is up.
In 2002 there were 4,350 elephants living in the Zakouma reserve. By 2014 poachers had reduced that number to only 443. Thanks to various new measures being taken, the number has now reached 483.
Significantly, whereas there were no elephants being born during the peak of the poaching rampage, an aerial survey conducted last month shows that 81 elephant calves under 3 years of age were spotted.
Why the change in momentum? In 2011 African Parks, a non profit organization won a mandate to run Zakouma game reserve for the Chadian government. In 2013 finally a newborn elephant was reported in the park.
Rian Labuschagne and his group have improved conditions for the elephants of the park by:
1. providing park rangers with horses so that they can access all parts of the park year round, 2. providing elephants with satellite collars so that their movements can be tracked, 3. having airplanes patrol the park, 4. paying radio operators to report on poacher activity, 5. allowing tourists to visit the park and making use of its albeit modest tourist facilities (with Chadians allowed to visit the park free-of-charge), 6. building schools for the children of park workers, 7. learning to get “up close and personal” with individual elephants and groups of elephants.
Also helping to make the situation a bit better for the elephants is the fact that their low numbers makes them more difficult to find for poachers.
Readers are asked to refer to the following related installments for a deeper understanding of how we can save the African elephant: 178, 198, 252.
Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.