Elephant+Population+and+Conservation+Issues

The elephant is a very beautiful and majestic animal. However there are some population and conservation issues. If population and conservation action are not in our future, elephants may become extinct in some parts of Africa within fifty years. In the early 1960’s, there were 3-5 million elephants in the world. From that point until 1990, an estimated 100,000 elephants were being killed per year. Eighty percent of herds were lost. In 1990, the //Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species// banned elephant hunting and business for ivory and meat. Over the last 100 years, the African Elephant population has decreased to 470,000-690,000.

The three main conservation issues with elephants are illegal hunting or poaching, habitat loss, and human conflict. Illegal hunting is still a problem today because of companies who need money that sell ivory or meat to make ends meet. These tiny markets keep the illegal national trade going. The second conservation issue is habitat loss. The main reason for habitat loss is that 60% of elephant land is outside of protected areas. Since so much of this land is unprotected, many humans build their farms, houses, and businesses on this land. This leads into my third reason for conservation issues which is human conflict. Where these farms and possibly homes border the elephant land, crops or cattle are likely to become damaged. The elephants can trample the area if they feel threatened or humans can report to Wildlife Authorities who can shoot them down if needed.

In conclusion, the population of elephants over the next couple decades is critical to their survival. The three main conservation issues play a major role in this as well.