Reply #10: A bit of perspective: Sierra Leone has never had a large elephant population [View All]

[HamdenRice]

When we think of elephant herds in Africa and the poaching problem, we're generally looking at the savanah (grasslands dotted with trees) in north-central, eastern and southern africa. These areas are also less populated than West Africa, which is more tropical and was much more heavily forested with tropical rain forest, where elephants generally don't live.

The range was tiny -- "up country" near the border with Guinea, where the forest transitions to savanah. S.L. hasn't had many elephants in a really, really long time.

Before the civil war in Sierra Leone, there were perhaps 50 - 100 elephants in the whole country. During the horrific war, all of Sierra Leone's resources were looted by war lords, and after the war there were only a few elephants left.

When you think of a game park in Sierra Leone, we're not talking about Tanzania's Serengeti or South Africa's Kruger here.

On the other hand, iirc, there was a separate subspecies of "forest elephants" in some parts of West Africa -- not sure if that includes S.L. -- that is highly endangered.