Introduction
Let’s talk a real elephant park WCS in Africa. One for the the African savannah elephant. It is also the largest land mammal in the world.
For a mature bull elephant may stand up to 13 feet tall. I mean at the shoulder more noteworthy and weigh 14,000 pounds. The most noticeable distinction between African savannah and also forest elephants is size.
Savannah
For now the savannah is larger and more importantly has bigger and more curved tusks. Asian elephants have much smaller ears than both African species and usually, only the male Asian elephant sports tusks.
African savannah elephants have large home ranges, spanning hundreds of square miles. As they move, they push over trees to get to their branches and roots. Thereby helping maintain the grasslands. For they more interestingly use their tusks and trunks to dig for water. Thereby creating pools that many other animals also need to survive. These elephants are important dispersers of seeds through their consumption of fruit.
Never Forget Matriarchs
In folklore, elephants are known for not forgetting. For the African savannah elephant, memory is a tool for surviving challenges. Those that may come intermittently over decades. Long-term memory tends to be vested in the older females. For they are most noteworthy called matriarchs. So without which the herd could die of starvation or dehydration.
1993 Drought
During the drought of 1993 in Tanzania, elephant matriarchs that remembered a similar drought 35 years before led their herds beyond the borders of Tarangire National Park in search of food and water. Groups with matriarchs that were not old enough to remember the previous drought suffered a 63 percent mortality of their calves that year.
Unfortunately, these large females are the most attractive targets for ivory poachers. The animals tend to have the largest tusks. For they may be easier to find than the males.
CREDIT: WCS MozambiqueCrucial Role
Elephants play a crucial ecological role in their habitats. They dig pools of water. Those that many other animals depend on. For they also open forest trails and clearings. Accomplished gardeners, they disperse seeds over many miles. Thereby making way for new life to grow. For in Central Africa, the tropical forests they help maintain. I mean they are among our most important resources. All to most importantly fight climate change.
Fast Facts
Scientific Name Loxodonta africana
Elephants have complex social behavior. When a member of the herd dies, they cover the body with grass and dirt and stay near the site for several hours.
African savannah elephants communicate across great distances at low frequencies that cannot be heard by humans.
Herd
An elephant herd consists of related females and their young and is managed by the eldest female. Adult male elephants rarely join a herd and lead a solitary life, only approaching herds during mating season.
African savannah elephants may live up to 70 years in the wild, longer than any other mammals except humans.
Trunk
An elephant’s trunk has more than 40,000 muscles and tendons. The trunk can lift large objects, yet its sensitive tip can manipulate very small things.
Challenges
Habitat loss and poaching are the biggest concerns for the survival of elephants. As the human footprint has grown in Africa, elephant habitats have been converted to farmland, deforested by industrial logging and mining, and otherwise developed by roads and settlements. Poachers kill elephants for their ivory and meat, and farmers sometimes kill them to protect their crops, which elephants often raid. The IUCN lists African savannah elephant populations as Vulnerable.
WCS Responds
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) works throughout much of the elephant’s remaining habitat. All to monitor and manage populations. As well to find novel approaches to reduce human-elephant conflict. One way to decrease elephant raids on human crops is to help farmers devise methods of keeping elephants away. Such examples include using chili pepper smoke. Also chili pepper spray blasted from guns. All which serves as a noxious airborne deterrent. WCS supports the Elephant Pepper Development Trust. It’s a program that sells hot sauce grown from alternative pepper crops to aid local farmers and elephant protection efforts.
96 Elephants
Wildlife Conservation Society, (WCS) along with numerous partners are part of a new global movement to protect Africa’s elephants. We were humbled to contribute to this effort through the creation of 96Elephants.org. This is a site to spread awareness and action to protect this noble species.
As poachers target the older matriarchs for their large tusks, a generation of young, orphaned African elephants is growing up without guidance. The consequences can be deadly. During Tanzania’s drought of 1993, matriarchs that endured a similar event decades earlier knew where to lead their herds for food and water. Groups with matriarchs too young to remember the previous drought lost more than half of their calves that year.
WCS has been supporting elephant studies in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park. For it’s one of the best parks in Africa. All to see large herds of calm elephants. Our main goals there are to protect migration routes and dispersal areas beyond the park’s relatively safe boundaries and to work with local Maasai and tourism operators to accomplish this.
Local Governments
Working with local governments to curtail poaching, WCS undertakes a fundraising effort. All to support game wardens in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In addition, the wardens suffered attacks by armed militias who were poaching elephants in the park. Similarly, WCS also sounded the alarm when poachers with automatic rifles. They killed 2,000 savannah elephants in Chad’s Zakouma National Park. WCS subsequently established a fund to help save the park’s surviving elephants. They are numbering fewer than 1,000. A WCS pilot and light aircraft that are based in Zakouma continually provide information to Chad’s park service about poaching activities and elephant herd locations.
No Poaching
Now as a result, WCS reports there have been zero instances of elephant poaching.. That’s all consequently for the past 12 months in Mozambique’s Niassa Reserve.
Finally, conservationists attribute the elimination of poaching to this effort. Because in the park to a collaborative effort with the Government of Mozambique and concession operators in the park. So combined with deployment of a special police rapid intervention unit. It’s an increased aviation program providing surveillance and the deployment of a helicopter and Cessna aircraft. Again similarly tough new sentencing of poachers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the reserve is located in northern Mozambique. It is one of Africa’s largest (17,104 square miles or 42,300 sq. km), wildest, and most spectacular landscapes. Finally it’s comprising 28% of Mozambique’s conservation areas.
Monarch butterfly populations have significantly declined over the past two decades. Especially due to habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide use [1]. Sustainable urban planning efforts must be incorporating green spaces into urban areas. That’s so they become important in protecting and conserving wildlife habitats. That’s including those of monarch butterflies [1]. The decline in monarch butterfly populations is a concerning issue. One that needs to be addressed by implementing conservation measures. Moreover and sustainable urban planning strategies [1].
Protecting wildlife habitats is crucial. That’s most importantly as they play a critical role in maintaining ecosystems [2]. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) focuses on preventing illegal hunting, protecting elephant habitat, monitoring elephant numbers, reducing ivory trafficking, and reducing the demand for ivory [1]. WCS works with governments, trains rangers, develops intelligence networks, and enforces laws to minimize illegal killing and poaching of elephants [1][2]. A new AI-powered camera system is being tested in Gabon to help protect African forest elephants, which could also benefit other threatened species [3].
References:
[1] Elephants – WCS.org [2] Opinion | Slaughter of the African Elephants [3] AI tech is helping to protect African forest elephantsI’m
Elephants at play
