from understanding a responsibility behind it to the evolutionary changes
influenced by it here are eight ugly truths about poaching in Africa before
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number eight responsibility the question of who is responsible for poaching in
Africa doesn't really have any easy answers the obvious blame would fall on
the poachers themselves but the vast majority of them are poverty-stricken
men trying to support their families some hunt the animals to consume or sell
the bushmeat but many others do it to feed an illegal market of animal
products which is always in high demand hunt in certain animals like rhinos and
elephants without special permits has been deemed illegal across most of the
African continent and the majority of these animals are
found in parks and reserves where they benefit from some protection there are
also worldwide bans on the trade of ivory and rhino horn
however poachers and traffickers still find ways to work around these
impediments an argument can be made that the responsibility for poaching lies in
the demand if people would stop buying products like leopard or zebra skins
ivory rhino horns and various other exotic animal products then the networks
that supply them would crumble therefore the question becomes why are people
buying these products number seven markets and myths
in Vietnam and China there's the belief that when ingested ground-up rhino horn
can cure anything from cancer to hangovers that it can get people high or
act as an aphrodisiac none of this is supported by any medical evidence and
since the horn is mainly made up of keratin it's sort of like hoping for
such miraculous effects after ingesting fingernails a kilo of ground Hirano horn
may cost upwards of $60,000 which is more than gold in China ivory is used to
create various works of art that to some degree act like symbols of status that
are often offered as gifts some Chinese shops a license to sell ivory whether
it's in the form of crafted items or entire tusks however they must provide a
type of ID that the products come from legal government stockpiles
unfortunately there are ways to work around them by recycling and recirculate
in the same IDs there's also a lot of illegal ivory in China and in 2013 alone
the government confiscated approximately seven tons zebra leopard and crocodile
skins a traffic merely for appeal as items crafted from them are regarded as
highly valuable in certain circles the bones of big felines such as lions
cheetahs and leopards are also traded illegally for use in traditional Asian
folk medicines despite research that they don't have any effect in improving
health up until fairly recently the US was the second biggest market for ivory
and throughout the trades history products have included buttons cones
pool balls and most notably piano keys however in 2013 under President Obama
the US issued a ban on the sale of ivory inside its borders and to send a message
to poachers six tons of illegal ivory were crushed many organizations all over
the world have been working to dispel the myths surrounding certain animal
products and to educate the public about the harmful effects of poaching number
six he
poaching has many devastating effects the most obvious of which is that
animals many vulnerable threatened or critically endangered a slaughter for
profit the animal populations in the wild decline in some species even face
extinction for example on March the 19th 2018 the world's last known male
northern white rhino died in kenya wildlife tourism which in certain
regions is a vital part of the economy receives bad publicity as a consequence
of this illegal practice unfortunately it gets worse poaching has become so
rampant in recent years that tribal people in Africa are often falsely
accused they're evicted from their lands so that natural reserves can be built in
an effort to protect the animals even these areas are becoming smaller in size
as poachers tend to use the edges to hunt animals for trade the profits
attached to poaching also enable corruption on many levels
from local politics to middlemen bribes despicable practices such as trophy
hunting as sometimes performed under legal circumstances with promises that
the money from the issued permits would be used to help the animals yet in many
cases the funds are never used as promised and there's a little follow up
to ensure that they are number 5 trade
according to the UN and Interpol trade and wildlife products generates around
23 billion dollars each year the basic inner workings of poaching aren't hard
to grasp once the horns tusks or skin is removed
from the animal poachers need to transport the items as soon as possible
when the items can't be moved right away poachers will hide them for a period of
time until it's safe transportation is done through international criminal
networks and middlemen and the items are often concealed in shipping containers
destined for different ports around the world
bribes ensure the entire process runs smoothly once they make it to their
destination they're collected by dealers who deliver to manufacturers or the end
customer it recently emerged that one of the largest black markets for such
products is on Facebook in secret groups even though this is against Facebook's
policy its reportedly difficult to track it's ever expanded user base number four
geo tagging there are many ways poaching takes place which have evolved over time
from basic track and kill to geo tagging African safaris are sought-after
experiences and many people visiting the continent do so hoping that they'll
return with incredible memories to make sure these memories last they take
photos using their smartphones unaware that they might be providing poachers
with the means to track down animals geo tagging is a smartphone function that
attaches geographic information to the pictures taken
so if tourists forget to turn off this feature and the pictures posted online
poachers can extract the metadata with ease to find out the coordinates and
location of certain animals rhinos are known to remain in the same area for
several days so even older photos can provide poachers with the information
needed many of them are familiar with the land
so even if geo tagging isn't turned on they can still recognize a mountain or
waterfall in a background of a picture to combat this several safari tours have
banned the use of cell phones altogether number three dehorning
rhino horn is more expensive than gold and consequently the population is
declined drastically due to poaching in recent years in an effort to protect
rhinos from poachers one extreme method practiced by conservationists is to
remove their horns all together after a rhino has been sedated they'll remove
its horn with a chainsaw or similarly powerful cutting device it's a painless
procedure for the animal the horn isn't attached to the Rhinos skull and is
mainly made out of melanin calcium and keratin is sort of the equivalent of
clipping a nail however in the wild females need their horns to protect
their cars from predators and males need them to fend off potential challenges
moreover dehorning hasn't really deterred poachers as even the money they
get for a stub is still substantial it's also an expensive procedure of close to
$1,000 per Rhino which has to be repeated as the horn grows back over
time has been estimated that to dehorn all of the rhinos from Kruger National
Park only once would cost anywhere from six to nine million dollars number two
horn poisoning in 2010 the Rhino rescue project began
filling rhino horns with toxic chemicals and the practice was picked up by other
conservationists after the Rhino was sedated a hole is drilled in his horn
after which a mixture of red dye and Paris citta sizes injected inside which
reportedly spreads throughout the horn the poison won't kill whoever ingest
instead it will make them violently ill with symptoms including stomach cramps
diarrhea vomiting and the risk of going into convulsions since the horn isn't
linked to the Rhinos bloodstream the animal isn't affected by the poison the
red dye lets the poacher know that the horn is tainted and signs are posted
warning them the horns of the animals in a region have been poisoned the dye also
shows up on x-rays making it difficult to smuggle the goods out of Africa there
are some potential drawbacks to this method some argue that the poison
remains in the drilling area and doesn't really flow through the horn even if it
does the poachers all middlemen might decide to bleach the horn powder and
sell it anyway regardless of the risks to the buyers health also people like
certain Asian businessmen who buy rhino horns as ornaments won't be affected by
the practice another issue is that there really isn't enough awareness that horn
poisoning exists to significantly impact the market number 1 tuskless elephants
when it comes to elephants poachers typically hunt the animals with the
largest tusks since that's what earns the most profit by recent estimates 80%
of all the raw ivory that's being traded comes from African elephants and from
2007 to 2014 an estimated 144,000 African elephants
were killed by poachers there were measures being taken to
protect elephants and anti poaching campaigns that are supported by millions
of dollars in donations from companies like Google and celebrities like
Leonardo DiCaprio or Angelina Jolie while these actions contribute to
stabilizing elephant populations who worry an evolutionary tendency has been
observed in recent years more and more elephants are born
without tusks an adaption that has been attributed to extensive poaching a study
shows that more than a third of the female elephants from Zambia's South
Luangwa National Park were born without their trademark teeth 98% of the females
in South Africa's addo elephant National Park have no eye free the touchless gene
which also affects the male population is passed on this means that in a few
years elephants might lose their tusks
entirely even if this implies they might be safer from poachers it will still be
a tragic outcome elephants use their tusks to dig for water or food to move
trees and branches around for self-defence and for sexual display
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