Africa suffered, helplessly watching the 1/3 of its elephants in the last 7 years

The time has come for humanity to awaken and take action for a better future, aiming to protect the integrity of the ecosystem worldwide.

Earlier this week, a horrifying scene was discovered when the 26 murdered elephants were found at Bostwana's Chobe National Conservation Park - one of the most ruthless illegal hunting in history. activities of the park.

The news is only part of a series of illegal and blatant poachers that threaten the existence of all the remaining African elephants on the planet. A statistical survey published on Wednesday showed that 30% of African wild grass elephants had disappeared only due to hunting from 2007-2014, equivalent to 144,000 individuals, and numbers. that is constantly increasing with 8% being killed every year.

Meanwhile, another study is also sparking a wake-up call for us about the status of the close African wild elephant, which is even worse - by 62% from 2002-2011 - and probably It will take at least 100 years for them to return to their original size, as this is a species that has much slower reproductive habits than usual. So far, only about 100,000 wild elephants are estimated to remain.

Accurate statistics on African grassland elephants are given from the Great Elephant Census (GEC), funded by the co-founder of Microsoft Paul G. Allen and his family, with the participation of 18 countries. together provide information and data. The organization calculates only 352,000 grass elephants, a modest figure compared to 1.3 million in 1979.

" With these numbers, we hope the whole world will really awaken and join hands to protect the inherent ecosystem as well as the existence of this species of great importance, " Allen said. expression.

Although 84% of these elephants are kept in official and recognized protected areas of countries around the world, GEC also said that conditions for protection and supervision are not sufficiently strict. so the dead elephants found were no longer strange in these supposedly safe reserves.

"GEC is the perfect embodiment for the intersection of technology, science and the natural world ," quoted Tanya Sanerib from the Center for Ecological Diversity, who once applied for permission to give species. African elephants on the list of dangerous threats under the scope of the US Wildlife Protection Act.

" However, perhaps it is still not enough to prevent the rate of drop quickly and unexpectedly, more than expected in this animal. Recent figures show that if we do not act quickly and end not in the effort to prevent illegal hunting, ban illegal trade in ivory, and especially expand the scope and level of strict protection for African elephants, sooner or later, the Earth will not see their presence too. "

It is known that the African forest elephant branch (newly separated as a separate species) is a species that suffered many heavy losses. Scientific research and follow-up shows that on average, a female elephant breeds only when she reaches age 23, and the reproductive frequency is very small, only once in 5-6 years. As for grassland elephants, 12 is the threshold for their reproductive age and after 3 years can continue to produce a new breed of elephants.

"This is more serious than what we have ever calculated ," shared by George Wittemyer, Chairman of the Scientific Research Executive Board of Save the Elephants and professor of wildlife studies. at Colorado State University. " We really don't have time to realize the difficulty in their breeding process before ."

Wittemyer also commented that African forest elephants are living in an environment that is not entirely favorable and ideal for their behavior and habit, making the recovery of the number of individuals return as before. more difficult. Specifically, although there are still ecological diversity of other animal / plant species around them, most of the appropriate food is occupied by birds, monkeys and some other tree species, create certain difficulties in terms of ensuring nutrition."The animals living on the ground are definitely disadvantaged and always come after ."

All of these issues will be formally announced in the near future, as environmental advocates will join the Hawaii meeting held by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as well as the annual meeting of the Conference to discuss the Problem of Trafficking in Precious Animals was rare in late September in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The second event is perhaps the most important, because Namibia and Zimbabwe have revised and relaxed some of the limitations of the law prohibiting ivory trade , which took effect in 1989. Both countries have taken make their point that the number of elephants in their territory reaches a sufficient diversity to maintain safety even when exploiting their ivory aspects. (The GEC has reported Zimbabwe's elephants at 82,000 now, down 6% overall but in a certain region, that number could reach 74%. Namibia still has no further information given. )

Wittemyer also asserts that legalizing ivory trading has never been a right move."We need to continue fighting until the end of the problem is at least significantly reduced across Africa in general and the elephants in particular. That is the final core point. be united and clarify. "