Elephants, Ivory, .and Trade (2010)
Science
Tanzania and Zambia are petitioning the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to “downlist” the conservation status of their elephants to allow sale of stockpiled ivory.
© Jane Wynyard
Tanzania and Zambia are petitioning the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to “downlist” the conservation status of their elephants to allow sale of stockpiled ivory.
Hierarchical properties characterize elephant fission–fusion social organization whereby stable groups of individuals coalesce into higher order groups or split in a predictable manner.
The dietary and movement history of individual animals can be studied using stable isotope records in animal tissues, providing insight into long-term ecological dynamics and a species niche.
Human-elephant conflict is a significant problem in Africa and Asia, particularly where land? managed for conservation adjoins land under cultivation.
The impact of elephants on the woody plant community through debarking was investigated in Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves, Kenya.
Previous work has shown that African elephants Loxodonta africana will avoid African honeybees Apis mellifera scutellata. Here we present results from a pilot study conducted to evaluate the concept of using beehives to mitigate elephant crop depredation.
A dramatic expansion of road building is underway in the Congo Basin fuelled by private enterprise, international aid, and government aspirations.
While the use of stable isotopes in wildlife ecological research is growing rapidly, development of methods to establish time-specific isotope data from continuously growing animal tissues are lacking.
African and Asian elephants are in for tough times ahead. Their problems are complex. In southern Africa worries are still expressed about ‘too many elephants’ destroying woody vegetation in protected areas.
Two hundred years of elephant hunting for ivory, peaking in 1970–1980s, caused local extirpations and massive population declines across Africa.