Global poaching crisis: ‘We’re losing all of our wildlife, and people are just sitting back and letting it happen’
By Rachel Nuwer
26 March 2012
Reeking of infection, the elephant stumbled into the Tanzanian camp where Thomas Appleby works as a safari manager. Its back legs festered with gangrene radiating from the open, pungent wounds that the animal had evidently endured for at least two long weeks. Ivory poachers had shot the elephant in both legs, but it had probably bolted before they could subdue the massive beast enough to hack off its tusks. The infection had slowly spread throughout the animal’s limbs, and Appleby had to put it down. “The poor thing, it completely tore my heart out,” Appleby said. “We are losing thousands—and I mean thousands—of iconic animals because of some kind of rapacious hunger from far off countries.” The ivory poachers who shot Appleby’s elephant were most likely African, but their orders probably came from thousands of miles away—from China or Vietnam. In many parts of Asia, traditional Chinese medicine, a taste for wildmeat, a desire to display pricey horn and ivory trophies, and a lust for rare pets have merged into a cultural infatuation with wildlife consumption. This voracity is taking its toll. The World Wildlife Fund declared the Javan rhino to be extinct in Vietnam in September. The Western black rhino was declared extinct in the wild in November. The Sumatran rhino is almost certainly now extinct in Thailand. Between January and October 2010, South Africa lost 230 rhinos to poaching—on average, one every 30 hours. Last year, South Africa lost a record 443 rhinos. In Asia, tigers are in a worse state than ever; fewer than 3,500 now live in the wild, occupying less than 7 percent of their historic range. “With the tiger, we are witnessing the tragic winking out of one of the planet’s most beloved animals,” wrote Elizabeth Bennett, the vice president for species conservation for the non-governmental Wildlife Conservation Society, in the journal Oryx. The world is in the midst of a global extinction crisis primarily driven by illegal hunting for highly valuable animal body parts. Having largely emptied its own jungles of furry, scaly, and feathery creatures, Asia’s thirst for exotic blood, bile, and bones has turned to the African continent. The Far East’s middle class is becoming more affluent; it is no coincidence that poaching on the African continent has spiked in recent years, as more and more people are able to afford luxury goods like ivory or exotic pets. “With this demand spreading to Africa, it’s only a matter of time before we see populations of animals in Africa start to decline in a similar manner to Asia,” said Chris Shepherd, the Southeast Asia deputy regional director of the non-governmental organization TRAFFIC that deals with illegal wildlife trade. Shepherd doesn’t think Asia’s demand will stop with Africa, either. Once the animals are depleted there, if nothing is done, “it’ll just keep spreading and spreading until nothing’s left,” he said. Shepherd is part of a group of increasingly desperate conservationists who deal with these statistics on a day-to-day basis. He witnesses illegal Madagascan tortoises openly displayed in Jakarta pet markets, despite Indonesian legislation that bans their trade. He deals with the logistical nightmare of sorting out 2,800 pounds of African ivory seized in Vietnam in a single week. On the worst days, he and his colleagues must draft the public extinction notices when another animal succumbs forever to the trade. Despite the scale of these crimes, politicians and the public are all too complacent. “We’re losing all of our wildlife, and people are just sitting back and letting it happen,” Shepherd says. […] [Warning: Brutal photo at original story.]
