Entire Elephant Herd In Sierra Leone's Only Wildlife Park Wiped Out By Poachers - AFP

[hatrack]

Poachers "wiped out" the entire elephant herd in Sierra Leone's only wildlife park, wildlife managers said Thursday after police said they had arrested a gang of 10 poachers.

"It is likely that the elephant population is wiped out," Ibrahim Bangura, senior superintendent of the agriculture ministry's Conservation and Wildlife Management Unit. The six elephants were shot and "crudely butchered, their bodies slashed with sword marks and their tusks virtually wrenched from their skins," said Bangura.

Police said 10 poachers were arrested after the discovery of the elephant carcasses and those of four buffaloes in Outamba Kilimni national park, near the border with Guinea. The men, from Sierra Leone and Guinea, are being held in the northern town of Koinadugu.

"We believe the killing was done between September and October and this is a great blow to all of us," said Bangura. "We had treasured the elephant population in the park as they are very important to the development of ecotourism in the country."

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/SLeone_elephants_wiped_out_by_poachers_official_999.html

[mike_c]

1. human greed destroys everything it touches....

:cry:

[glinda]

2. Yes. This is really sad. Something must be done to help the animal population on the planet.

[Yupster]

5. Can we stop the human population growth?

Long term, I think that's the only hope as more people need more land and more resources.

[glinda]

6. I wish. Although it is starting to be controlled by floods, starvation, disease, etc...

[Nederland]

15. We could give the elephants guns

...and see if they treat us in kind.

[diane in sf]

18. you stop the population growth by getting kids thru 6th grade, you get them to school

by feeding them there. The birthrate is dropping all over the world, the earth's population should level and start dropping in the next 30-40 years according to UN studies.

[Richard D]

3. Tears n/t

[closeupready]

4. If you saw the Nova program on the evolution of people, you kind of see where this is going.

Everywhere people went, they killed off all larger mammals. We are on the way towards killing off elephants, polar bears, tigers, whales - basically all the magnificent animals that help make life worth living for.

[pscot]

7. Homo Demens

It's what we do.

[YankeyMCC]

8. "... this is a great blow to all of us," said Bangura.

Yes sir it is, the killing of these Elephants inflicts suffering on them, the local ecology, the humans who care, and us all. The greed and ignorance that inspired this heinous act will continue to afflict us all unless we find a way to face this greed and ignorance openly and turn our actions away from where it leads.

[Nihil]

9. Make the punishment fit the crime.

> ... shot and "crudely butchered, their bodies slashed with sword marks
> and their tusks virtually wrenched from their skins"

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the order was reversed when applying it
to the poachers.

:grr:

[HamdenRice]

10. A bit of perspective: Sierra Leone has never had a large elephant population

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.

[HamdenRice]

11. As you can see from this graphic, Sierra Leone barely registers on elephant range

Sierra Leone is on the west, left side of the bulge of Africa.

[Nihil]

12. Oh, that's alright then ...

... don't why people are making such a fuss about it ... it's not
as if it's behaviour that needs to be stopped then is it?

:eyes:

[HamdenRice]

13. It's kind of like saying all the elephants in the London Zoo were massacred--Britain's entire herd

The point is scale and environmental impact.

If this story were about, say, Mozambique, it would be much more disturbing because Mozambique has many, many times more elephants that Sierra Leone, and theirs live in semi-wild vast game parks and peasant areas.

Sierra Leone's national "entire herd" was equivalent to a zoo population in a country that has not had a large wild elephant population in recent history, and doesn't have a serious park system like the countries of eastern and southern Africa.

It's a terrible thing that happened, but given most readers' ignorance of African geography, the subject line is extremely misleading. Correcting a misleading headline is not "defending behavior" although I realize in DU's crazy logic, providing facts is often seen as some sort of defense of the underlying story.

My usual response: If you disagree with me on the environmental impact of the elephant slaughter in Sierra Leone, then you must be defending the slaughter of baby arctic seals in Canada for their fur!!11! It's just about as logical as your response was.

[joshcryer]

14. Or like saying "a whole school of dolphins were massacred in Taiji"?

"If this story were about South Florida, then it would be much more disturbing because South Florida has many times more dolphins than Taiji."

It's not the "correction" that you made, it's the callousness you display.

[HamdenRice]

17. Your steadfast support for the slaughter of baby arctic seals for their fur disgusts me !!!11!

[malakai2]

16. Were they forest elephants or savanna elephants?

That range map appears to lump both of them together.

[HamdenRice]

19. Good question -- there are now believed to be 3 species or subspecies

Savanah elephants, forest elephants and "west african elephants."

[Laura902]

28. I believe that they were forest elephants

...........but I am not 100% sure, that is what other news sources say

[GliderGuider]

20. We're destroying the talismanic animals.

It's one of the things that's eating away our souls.

[pscot]

21. What is this "soul" of which you speak?

Sounds like another mythillogical invention of Homo Demens' hyperactive grey cells.

[GliderGuider]

22. Almost

"Homo Demens' hyperactive grey cells" invent endless stories about what a "soul" might and might not be, and why it can't be "real" (from a grey cell's perspective at any rate).

Once one calms that cellular hyperactivity, allows the the smoke to clear, allows the muddy water to settle in the glass, it becomes as clear as the sun emerging from behind a cloud. The ground of being is that simple. It cannot actually be wounded itself, but its expression into our selves and our world can be damaged. For me, that's the definition of karma.

Destroying talismans tends to be very bad karma.

[pscot]

23. Ten millenia of increasingly horrible karma

are about to land on us like a thousand of brick. I admit, it clouds my wah. The public at large aren't going to see it as a transcendant experience, if they ever manage to get their heads around it. I have a very bad feeling about what's coming. I'm afraid our endgame is going to look like Beckett's version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: blood drenched mayhem played out on a bare stage, with one lifeless tree in the background. Probably just my hyperactive grey cells. I hope so.

[GliderGuider]

24. Sounds to me like some meditation is in order.

At least then we might meet our doom with enlightened equanimity, instead of remaining stuck in our shit as the barbarians' bludgeons fall...

[pscot]

25. I no longer meditate

Though I often sit quite still, staring at nothing. My wife thinks I'm losing my grip on reality, but my dog and I understand one another perfectly.

[GliderGuider]

26. Similar story here, though my wife just thinks I'm lazy.

"Why don't you get off your fat ass and do something once in a while?"
"Shush, my beloved. Can't you see I'm meditating? Ommmmm... Ommmmm... Ommmmm... "
"Ohferchrisakes. I'm going out."

The "meditation" thing is a perfect ruse.

[Laura902]

27. We are not the only ones

We humans share this earth we are destroying with creatures we don't think twice about killing, its disturbing:(