Africa is in the midst of a poaching crisis. This we know. Tens of thousands of elephants are being killed for their tusks each year, feeding a demand for ivory on the other side of the world in Asia.
But how did we get here? Not that long ago, the continent's elephant populations appeared to be recovering after years of slaughter, as a ban on international trade in ivory trade took effect. Now, the poachers are back with a vengeance. In this video, we take an in-depth look at why the demand for ivory has sky-rocketed, how the illegal wildlife trade is a threat to global security and what is being done to save Africa’s elephants from extinction.
In my ongoing efforts to learn more about this poaching pandemic, I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Dr Paula Kahumbu, CEO of WildlifeDirect, who spearheads the “Hands off our Elephants” campaign in Kenya. She's a passionate, high-profile advocate in the fight to end the illegal ivory trade.
We spoke of the many complex issues that have helped to shape this unfolding disaster, but we also talked of the elephants themselves, and what Kahumbu has learned about these magnificent animals.
These are, after all, highly intelligent creatures. They’re long-lived; they display close familial bonds; they mourn their dead. This is no doubt why we find it is so uniquely disturbing to see them poached on such a vast scale.
For Kahumbu, perhaps the biggest blow came in 2014, when poachers in Kenya killed the iconic "big tusker" known to the world as Satao, one of the world's few remaining elephants with tusks big enough to almost touch the ground.
In the outpouring of sadness that followed the death, those who had known the legendary giant claimed that a lifetime of evading poachers had taught Satao, who had survived a previous attack, to not only fear strangers, but also some awareness that it was his tusks that put him in danger.
“He didn’t just know he was in danger. He did something that was so surprising. When people were near him he would turn his face and look into the bush. He would actually hide his tusks. He spent his whole life knowing that he was in danger because of his tusks," Kahumbu told me. "For filmmakers he was a real problem because here was this magnificent animal that would not face the camera."
While we can only speculate about Satao's behaviour, evidence continues to emerge of just how tuned in elephants are to humans and the potential danger we pose to them. In some parts of Africa, studies have shown they are capable of picking up on cues such as scent, clothing colour, language and even tone of voice.
"When elephants hear certain tribes-people who are known to be hunters, they behave in a certain way. They bunch up. They protect the most vulnerable individuals in the middle. They face out in a very defensive position," Kahumbu said.
We're also learning more about their sophisticated means of communicating that danger to other members of the herd.
"When an elephant is injured or hears a gunshot, they respond and can communicate that fear to each other. We've seen this. Their vocalisations are sub-sonic, so we cannot hear them, but we can record them and play them back and see how the elephants behave. They have a call that's 'let's go'. They have a call that's 'let's meet up later at a certain place'. They have calls that are 'back off or stay away'."
For Kahumbu, there is much we still have to learn about elephant intelligence, but what we know so far serves only to underscore their immense value. “They are the identity of Africa, but they are also global monuments."
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