Tanzania's elephant catastrophe

[GliderGuider]

Tanzania's elephant catastrophe: 'We recalculated about 1,000 times because we didn't believe what we were seeing'

The team conducting the aerial wildlife counts of Tanzania in 2013 and 2014 knew poaching was becoming a major problem, but nothing could have prepared them for what they uncovered.

Tanzania had lost two-thirds of its once mighty elephant population in just four years, as demand from China for their ivory tusks sent a highly-organised army of rifle and chainsaw-wielding criminals into its game reserves.

“I had never seen anything like that – there were carcasses everywhere, whole family groups on their sides, between three and seven animals, wiped out,” he told The Telegraph.

Maybe Homo sapiens is a plague species after all...

[HassleCat]

1. China gets a pass

I don't understand the world attitude toward China. They seem to be able to get away with anything, and nobody says a thing. Is it because we, meaning the US, are guilty of some of the same crap? Capital punishment, political prisoners, civil rights abuses, etc? I mean, at least we have the decency to show a little guilt and promise to do better, those of us who are not Republicans, anyway. The Chinese government just denies doing anything wrong, the says everybody better shut up because it's China's internal business whether or not they use slave labor, execute people for political dissidence, etc.