Poachers put elephants’ future in doubt
Severe declines in the number of Africa’s elephants could lead to ‘‘local extinctions’’ in at least six countries where poaching is out of control, according to the first continent-wide census.
Scientists found that the number of elephants fell by 30 per cent, or roughly 144,000, between 2007 and 2014 in the 18 countries that they surveyed, confirming conservationists’ fears that the species is facing an ‘‘elephant holocaust’’.
It estimated that there are only 352,271 savanna elephants left.
Some of the countries, such as Uganda, recorded significant increases. The number of elephants there went from fewer than 800 in the 1980s to 4864 today.
However, the authors of the Great Elephant Census warned that Angola, Mozambique and Tanzania had suffered declines that were much greater than previously known and expected.
‘‘Surprising and devastatingly low numbers of elephants were found in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Cameroon and southwest Zambia,’’ the authors added. ‘‘Populations there face local extinction.’’
More than 90 scientists and 81 planes were involved in the survey, which was funded by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, and led by the Botswana-based charity Elephants Without Borders.
As well as counting the number of elephants, the aerial spotters also counted elephant carcasses to get an indication of how many elephants had been poached.
In Cameroon, the carcasses accounted for 83 per cent of all elephants seen, while in Zambia’s Sioma Ngwezi National Park the ratio of dead to living elephants was even higher at 85 per cent.
‘‘Carcass ratios of more than 8 per cent are considered to indicate poaching at a high enough level to cause a declining population,’’ the report said.
In Mozambique, which has lost 53 per cent of its elephants in five years, the ratio was 32 per cent. Angola, which has lost a fifth of its elephants since 2005, had a ratio of 30 per cent, while Tanzania, which has lost 60 per cent in five years, had a ratio of 26 per cent.
Most of Africa’s elephants are poached for their tusks. The ivory is smuggled into China, the largest market, where it is carved into trinkets that are status symbols.