Create a law that bans the poaching of Elephants in South Africa
The Issue
This petition was created out of pure love for elephants. The cruel and illegal act of poaching has seriously put elephants at risk of being extinct within the next ten years, unless we take action to solve this issue. Elephants are misunderstood creatures who are intelligent, unique, and caring. They play a vital role in the ecosystem in which they live, as well as in the cultures and traditions of Eastern societies.
About Our Friends: The Elephantidae
-Elephants have large ears and with deep wrinkles in their skin that lock in moisture and keep them cool. Since Asian elephants live in moisture-rich habitats, they have smaller ears and less wrinkles on their body.
-Elephant trunks have thousands of tiny muscles in them that allow them to do a multitude of things, from picking up a single blade of grass to moving large tree trunks.
-Elephants communicate with each other through a large repertoire of rumbles, growls, grunts, snorts, and roars. They use infrasonic calls for long distance communication, which could be up to 6 miles away! They even send vibrations through the ground that are received through the ultra-sensitive skin on the bottoms of their feet. Most elephant communication is so low that humans are unable to hear it.
-Adult elephants eat up to 400 pounds of food per day!
-Elephants are very intelligent and self-aware. They are one of only a few animals, including humans, apes, and dolphins that can recognize their own reflection in a mirror. Elephants can be trained to respond to over 30 commands. They have even scored, with high accuracy, on tests of visual cues that they were shown over a year earlier!
-They are one of the most emotional and social of all animals (even more than cats and dogs). Elephants are fiercely loyal to their herds and share special greetings with family and friends and even mourn the remains of other elephants, even if they were from different herds.
-Herds usually include adult females and calves and are ran by the Matriarch, which is the oldest female of the group. Matriarchs decide when and where the herd will eat, drink, and rest. Adult males will separate from the herd once they reach maturity (about fourteen years compared to female maturation of 9 years).
-A female elephant is pregnant for almost 2 years before finally giving birth to a 250 pound baby. A calf is nursed by its mother for up to 4 years.
-Young elephants are completely dependent on their family. Together the herd provides love and discipline. They teach the calves how to find food and water and even behave. Young calves need to touch or be touched by its mother or close relative every few seconds for reassurance.
-Calves aren’t sure what to do with their trunks at first. They swing it around in circles and even step on it!
-Play behavior differs between genders. Female calves run and chase each other, while males roughhouse and champion each other.
Why We Need Elephants:
-Elephants play a key role in maintaining the balance of all other species in the community.
-They pull down trees and break up thorny bushes, which help to create grasslands for other animals to survive.
-They create salt licks that are rich in nutrients for other animals.
-They dig waterholes in dry river beds that other animals can use as a water source, and their foot prints create deep holes that water can collect in.
-They create trails that act as fire breakers and water run offs.
-Other animals, including humans, depend on the openings elephants create in the forest and brush and in the waterholes they dig.
-Elephant dung (droppings) is important to the environment as well. Baboons and birds pick through dung for undigested seeds and nuts, and dung beetles reproduce in these deposits.
-The nutrient-rich manure replenishes depleted soils so that humans can have a nutrient rich soil to plant crops in.
-Elephant Droppings are also a vehicle for seed dispersal. Some seeds will not germinate unless they have passed through an elephant's digestive system.
-Without elephants, 1/3 of all big tree species would die out.
-Tusks are an elephant’s two front teeth. These tusks grow up to three meters (more than ten feet) long.
-Tusks are an elephant’s most useful tool, as they use it for foraging and digging, ripping bark off trees, and as weapons.
Ivory Wars
-It is estimated that 30,000 to 38,000 elephants are poached every year for their Ivory.
-Elephants populations worldwide have dropped 50% in the last century.
-With statistics like this the African elephant is doomed for extinction in 15-20 years, unless we can put a stop to these illegal activities through education and alternative recourses for income in communities that assist in the ivory trade.
-Ivory has become more valuable than gold. In fact, ivory has been called "white gold".
-The tusks of one elephant bring in the same amount of money 12 or more years of farming or herding.
-The problem is that the local communities see very little of this money. It is the middle men and the investors from other countries that see these profits.
-The Ivory trade is not only depleting the Elephant populations, but it is depleting the chances these local populations have to make a living through ecotourism.
-With approximately 5-10 million African elephants residing in Africa in the 1930's, there was less than 1% that remained (about 600,000) when they were added to the international list of the most endangered species in 1989.
-To help protect elephants, all international trade on ivory was banned following an agreement between governments in 1989, but the ban has been partially lifted since then. There is no law in South Africa against the poaching of elephants.
It is estimated that 96 elephants were killed in Africa each day during 2012. That translates to four elephants an hour or one elephant every 15 minutes.
-African elephants face extinction by the year 2020 unless we put an end to violent poaching of elephant tusks for the ivory trade! While other countries have laws prohibiting poaching, South Africa does not. Help our dear friends live peacefully by creating a law in South Africa to make poaching illegal!
Citations
http://africanwildlifetrust.org/tanzania-poaching/
http://www.soselephants.org/about_elephants.html
The Issue
This petition was created out of pure love for elephants. The cruel and illegal act of poaching has seriously put elephants at risk of being extinct within the next ten years, unless we take action to solve this issue. Elephants are misunderstood creatures who are intelligent, unique, and caring. They play a vital role in the ecosystem in which they live, as well as in the cultures and traditions of Eastern societies.
About Our Friends: The Elephantidae
-Elephants have large ears and with deep wrinkles in their skin that lock in moisture and keep them cool. Since Asian elephants live in moisture-rich habitats, they have smaller ears and less wrinkles on their body.
-Elephant trunks have thousands of tiny muscles in them that allow them to do a multitude of things, from picking up a single blade of grass to moving large tree trunks.
-Elephants communicate with each other through a large repertoire of rumbles, growls, grunts, snorts, and roars. They use infrasonic calls for long distance communication, which could be up to 6 miles away! They even send vibrations through the ground that are received through the ultra-sensitive skin on the bottoms of their feet. Most elephant communication is so low that humans are unable to hear it.
-Adult elephants eat up to 400 pounds of food per day!
-Elephants are very intelligent and self-aware. They are one of only a few animals, including humans, apes, and dolphins that can recognize their own reflection in a mirror. Elephants can be trained to respond to over 30 commands. They have even scored, with high accuracy, on tests of visual cues that they were shown over a year earlier!
-They are one of the most emotional and social of all animals (even more than cats and dogs). Elephants are fiercely loyal to their herds and share special greetings with family and friends and even mourn the remains of other elephants, even if they were from different herds.
-Herds usually include adult females and calves and are ran by the Matriarch, which is the oldest female of the group. Matriarchs decide when and where the herd will eat, drink, and rest. Adult males will separate from the herd once they reach maturity (about fourteen years compared to female maturation of 9 years).
-A female elephant is pregnant for almost 2 years before finally giving birth to a 250 pound baby. A calf is nursed by its mother for up to 4 years.
-Young elephants are completely dependent on their family. Together the herd provides love and discipline. They teach the calves how to find food and water and even behave. Young calves need to touch or be touched by its mother or close relative every few seconds for reassurance.
-Calves aren’t sure what to do with their trunks at first. They swing it around in circles and even step on it!
-Play behavior differs between genders. Female calves run and chase each other, while males roughhouse and champion each other.
Why We Need Elephants:
-Elephants play a key role in maintaining the balance of all other species in the community.
-They pull down trees and break up thorny bushes, which help to create grasslands for other animals to survive.
-They create salt licks that are rich in nutrients for other animals.
-They dig waterholes in dry river beds that other animals can use as a water source, and their foot prints create deep holes that water can collect in.
-They create trails that act as fire breakers and water run offs.
-Other animals, including humans, depend on the openings elephants create in the forest and brush and in the waterholes they dig.
-Elephant dung (droppings) is important to the environment as well. Baboons and birds pick through dung for undigested seeds and nuts, and dung beetles reproduce in these deposits.
-The nutrient-rich manure replenishes depleted soils so that humans can have a nutrient rich soil to plant crops in.
-Elephant Droppings are also a vehicle for seed dispersal. Some seeds will not germinate unless they have passed through an elephant's digestive system.
-Without elephants, 1/3 of all big tree species would die out.
-Tusks are an elephant’s two front teeth. These tusks grow up to three meters (more than ten feet) long.
-Tusks are an elephant’s most useful tool, as they use it for foraging and digging, ripping bark off trees, and as weapons.
Ivory Wars
-It is estimated that 30,000 to 38,000 elephants are poached every year for their Ivory.
-Elephants populations worldwide have dropped 50% in the last century.
-With statistics like this the African elephant is doomed for extinction in 15-20 years, unless we can put a stop to these illegal activities through education and alternative recourses for income in communities that assist in the ivory trade.
-Ivory has become more valuable than gold. In fact, ivory has been called "white gold".
-The tusks of one elephant bring in the same amount of money 12 or more years of farming or herding.
-The problem is that the local communities see very little of this money. It is the middle men and the investors from other countries that see these profits.
-The Ivory trade is not only depleting the Elephant populations, but it is depleting the chances these local populations have to make a living through ecotourism.
-With approximately 5-10 million African elephants residing in Africa in the 1930's, there was less than 1% that remained (about 600,000) when they were added to the international list of the most endangered species in 1989.
-To help protect elephants, all international trade on ivory was banned following an agreement between governments in 1989, but the ban has been partially lifted since then. There is no law in South Africa against the poaching of elephants.
It is estimated that 96 elephants were killed in Africa each day during 2012. That translates to four elephants an hour or one elephant every 15 minutes.
-African elephants face extinction by the year 2020 unless we put an end to violent poaching of elephant tusks for the ivory trade! While other countries have laws prohibiting poaching, South Africa does not. Help our dear friends live peacefully by creating a law in South Africa to make poaching illegal!
Citations
http://africanwildlifetrust.org/tanzania-poaching/
http://www.soselephants.org/about_elephants.html
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Petition created on December 17, 2013