elephant poaching

14 Stories

Botswana Is Irked by Germany's Elephant Suggestion

It offers to ship 20K animals to Germany so it can see what it's like living among them

(Newser) - A suggestion from Germany's Environment Ministry didn't go over so well in Botswana. President Mokgweetsi Masisi took issue with the ministry's recommendation that tighter limits be put in place on importing hunting trophies, saying that conservation efforts had led to a surging elephant population that hunting helped...

Suspected Poacher Trampled by Elephants in South Africa

Kruger National Park is trying to crack down on illegal hunting

(Newser) - Poaching wild animals isn’t safe for humans, either. Another suspected poacher was found dead in Kruger National Park in South Africa on Thursday, USA Today reports. Just last April, rangers caught three men hunting for rhinoceros and gave chase. One of them was caught, but another one came across...

Humans Are 'Literally Changing the Anatomy' of Elephants

Genetic mutation passes from tuskless females ignored by poachers in Mozambique

(Newser) - Human behavior is "literally changing the anatomy of animals," according to the author of a new study that finds decades of ivory poaching in Mozambique has encouraged the evolution of elephants without tusks . What was once a rare genetic mutation causing tusklessness in female elephants at Mozambique's...

Botswana Prez: Poaching Furor 'Nothing but Hysteria'

Pushes back at critics after reports of an elephant 'poaching frenzy'

(Newser) - Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi says criticism of his government's anti-poaching policy is "nothing but hysteria," following reports of a "poaching frenzy" in a country with Africa's biggest elephant population. The remark came after some conservationists expressed concern that Botswana's wildlife department had been...

Elephants Massacred After Anti-Poaching Unit Disarmed

Evidence of 'poaching frenzy' uncovered

(Newser) - A conservation group has made a horrifying find in Botswana, a country once thought to have been a bright spot amid the relentless slaughter of Africa's elephants. While conducting an aerial census of the country's elephants, they discovered the carcasses of 87 of the animals near a wildlife...

Poachers Still Killing Elephants, but Not for Ivory
They Tracked 19 Elephants,
Found Something Macabre
NEW STUDY
Mar 21, 2018 9:40 AM CDT

They Tracked 19 Elephants, Found Something Macabre

Poaching for elephant skin raises fears populations could get decimated in Myanmar

(Newser) - Poaching elephants for their ivory has already devastated populations, but poaching the animals for their skin could be disastrous, according to a new study detailing the "heartbreaking" practice in Myanmar. Poaching wasn't thought to be a major issue in the country at the outset of the three-year study...

One of Jane Goodall's Heroes Murdered in Tanzania

Jane Goodall describes Wayne Lotter as one of her heroes

(Newser) - He dedicated his life to saving elephants—and might have been killed as a result. Wayne Lotter, a director of anti-poaching NGO the PAMS Foundation, was shot and killed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Wednesday night during a taxi ride from the airport to his hotel, reports the Guardian...

There Are Just 25 'Big Tuskers' Left in the World. One Was Just Killed

Poachers suspected to have poisoned Satao II

(Newser) - One of the last "big tusker" elephants in Africa has been killed by poachers. Satao II, one of the oldest and biggest elephants on the continent, is believed to have been struck by a poisoned arrow; he was found dead Monday, before poachers could take his ivory. The elephant,...

Elephants Increasingly Born Tuskless Due to Poaching

In one area, 98% of female elephants are born without tusks

(Newser) - By 1931, all but 11 elephants living in what is now South Africa's Addo Elephant National Park had been killed, mostly for their ivory. Of the eight female elephants left, half had no tusks. Now 98% of female elephants in Addo are tuskless, the Independent reports. The normal rate...

The Great Elephant Census Returns Jarring News

Census finds numbers fell by a third in just 7 years

(Newser) - A century ago, there were more elephants in Africa than there were people in New York City. Now there are probably more people in Anchorage than elephants in Africa, with the pachyderm population down by a third just between 2007 and 2014, according to the biggest-ever study of elephant populations....

Ingenious Method Helps Track Elephant Killers

Fake tusk is implanted with GPS device in Africa

(Newser) - A National Geographic reporter looking into the increasing slaughter of elephants in Africa struck upon a great way to track the illegal trade of their ivory tusks: Bryan Christy enlists a world-class taxidermist to create fake tusks embedded with GPS devices. Christy's team then plants them in the black...

Prince Harry's Next Target: Elephant Poachers

He's officially out of the Army

(Newser) - Prince Harry formally ended his full-time military service in Britain's army today, wrapping up a career in which he qualified as an Apache helicopter pilot and completed two tours of duty in Afghanistan. The move was no surprise—the fifth in line to the British throne had revealed in...

More Elephants Being Killed Than Born

35K killed annually since 2010; deaths driven by illegal ivory trade

(Newser) - A new study tallying the African elephant population has made a stark finding: If poaching continues at its current rate, the animal may be extinct in a century, the BBC reports. "We are shredding the fabric of elephant society and exterminating populations across the continent," says the study'...

Poachers Kill One of World's Biggest Elephants

Satao, almost 50, was found mutilated, with his tusks hacked off, in Kenya

(Newser) - An enormous and iconic elephant thought to have been born in the late 1960s—considered one of the last great "tuskers," with ivory that weighed more than 100 pounds and was so big it touched the ground—has been killed by poachers in Tsavo National Park in Kenya....

14 Stories