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IFAW / EPA
Celine Sissler-Bienvenue of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) examines a slain elephant in Cameroon.
At least half the elephants in Cameroon's Bouba N'Djida reserve were slaughtered because the west African nation sent too few security forces to tackle poachers, the World Wide Fund for Nature said on Thursday.
In what was described as one of the worst poaching massacres in decades, as many as 200 elephants have been killed for their tusks since January by poachers on horseback from Chad and Sudan, the fund said.
Rising demand in Asia for jewelry and ornaments made from elephant tusks is understood to be among the factors behind the spike in poaching.
"WWF is disturbed by reports that the poaching continues unabated," Natasha Kofoworola Quist, WWF's representative in the region, said in a statement.
It was the second major elephant-poaching report out of Africa this month. On March 5, the warden at Virunga National Park, a U.N. World Heritage Site in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said poaching had become so severe that rangers began using bloodhounds to track down poachers. The Virunga elephant population has fallen to fewer than 400 from an estimated 3,000 in the 1980s.
In Cameroon, about 20 fresh elephant carcasses were discovered last week, a WWF spokesperson said.
The government of the Central African state has sent special forces to track the poachers and end the killing spree in the north of the country, but the WWF said this may be too little, too late.
"The forces arrived too late to save most of the park's elephants and were too few to deter the poachers," Quist said. She said the organization regretted that a soldier was killed during a clash with the poachers.
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Bouba N'Djida reserve
Biologically diverse and protected only by unarmed rangers, Bouba N’djida is located near Cameroon’s porous northern border, where it presents a tempting target for poachers from Sudan and Chad, the magazine Nature reported. They typically cross into the park on horseback at the beginning of each dry season and return north before rains begin in April, using ivory profits to procure more weaponry.
Legalize ivory trade to save elephants, rhinos?
The International Fund for Animal Welfare, or IFAW, said the scale of this year’s killings was unprecedented.
IFAW said it was not clear how many elephants remained in Cameroon but a 2007 estimate put the figure at between 1,000 and 5,000.
Conservation groups have said the spike in poaching and illegal ivory trade in Africa was a direct consequence of China's investment drive into the continent and as the demand for ivory, used in jewelry and ornaments, grows in Asia.
In South Africa, rhinos are under assault by poachers, who killed more than 400 last year, NBC’s Rock Center reported.
More stories on this topic:
Rangers arrested for killing rhinos, selling horns
NBC's Rock Center reports on efforts to protect rhinos
Rhino dies during operation to protect it from poachers
This article includes reporting by Reuters.
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Well if the chinese are the ones who are promoting the problem maybe we should send tainted ivory with a poisen to get rid of the bastards
Betcha these governments though poverty stricken could afford a few old Viet Nam era Huey jet copters with M-60'S mounted on them, take out these XXXXing elephant poachers forthwith and would terminate the carnage.
MAYBE powdered rhino horn really DOES work as an aphrodisiac.
;)
After all, look at the population of China: 1.3 billion people; they didn't get that populated by just holding hands.
No, they got that population by conquering lots of territory.
Stop the demand for ivory. The US and other countries can join together and severely impact the economy of any country buying the ivory, and problem would be solved without firing a single shot.
Horrible. I see by the comments there is a lot of concern about this which is great. But when George Clooney talked recently about "people" dying of starvation in Africa there were a lot of haters (a ton of negative posts). I love elephants....and black people. Why not care about both of them?
Until the world realizes that the wild animals of the world are a priceless treasure that should be protected, cared for and respected, future generations will not have these same animals except perhaps in zoos. Asia has created a heartless cruel demand for parts of animals, often maiming the animal to die a slow agonizing death such as hacking half a rhino face off for a horn that has nothing more than the same material found on nails and hair. African poachers should be shot because they are using these animal parts not to trade for food but for weapons and self wealth at the expense of a defenseless animal. No easy solution exists because as long as buyers are NOT prosecuted by severe world courts, poachers like drug dealers will continue their dirty trades because the rewards to them are worth the risk. South Africa is recognizing the severity of this problem and has started handing out severe sentences, an Asian recently received eight years in a south african prison for rhino horn possession and several Americans have been arrested in the US as well. We need an International outcry to pressure the world to stop such barbaric practices.
Put a $5,000 bounty on the heads of poachers. I think I could make an easy 100 grand in one season. I would love to take a crack at hunting hunters. I have a mean streak a mile wide but I love critters.
Asians are what is wrong with this planet. The will consume every animal and resource until there is nothing left, they are that stupid. Wake up asians, ground up rhino horn is not going to make your tiny penis erect.
Probably done by people like the Trumps and other rich fat cats who like to hunt exotic animals for fun and sport. These people need to be prosecuted to the extreme of the law.
stupid,stupid stupid,going after the bad guys with no protection how come no guns
sounds like they want them animals killed you can't protect when the bad guys have guns
and you can't deafened your self
Amazing how few wild animals there now existing peacefully in China. If it moves or swims, its fair game and will undoubtedly be on the dinner table that night. Wonder why you never hear songbirds bringing the sweetest music to your ears in China? They are on the menu pal. Ivory will always bring high prices, and people like trinkets to build their bloated self esteem, while the most beautiful elephant, that protects its own and causes only minor damage to crops is slaughtered. When the elephants are gone, the price of ivory will skyrocket and create even more wealth for those who deal in the macabre. Environmental laws in all of Asia are non-existent, as they do not care, they simply are not concerned.
Pathetic and self absorbed peoples of Asia Minor.