Bush Bees: A Serious Threat

Elephant Poaching in Africa continues to be a serious threat. What local conservation organizations are finding on a weekly basis seems to becoming more and more severe. Below is a blurb from an elephant poaching piece I am working on, describing a typical poaching scenario.

Some East African conservationists have projected, that as a keystone species, the rate at which elephants are being removed will have a far greater impact on African ecosystems as a whole than any other large mammal poaching problem. The threat is serious, and unfortunately, ivory poaching is not cut and dry, elephants are not selectively taken off, and it is not being executed on a sustainable level. Elephant poaching operations usually include a team of poachers (5-15 men), carrying AK 47’s and/or heavy caliber hunting rifles, buckets or bags of ammunition (sometimes up to 400 or 500 rounds), weighing scales, axes, food and water, carrying bags, etc. Once the poachers have located a herd they will move in and regardless of size or age open fire into the group. One or two or more elephants may die immediately. The rest will move off in a panic, some having been wounded, protecting their family members and calves from imminent death. The dead elephants’ faces are hacked off with an axe, their tusks removed. Depending on the weight of ivory they were tasked with collecting, the poachers will return to their hub of business or continue until they have collected the amount of ivory requested. The herd of elephants will continue on in a panic and those who were caught in the crossfire will die days or weeks later. This scenario is happening on a daily basis not only in Tanzania but in many protected areas across the continent.