Elephants Elephants - Wildpro - Twycross Zoo

populations using this method; the method is also very time-consuming and
labour-intensive. Elephants have also been counted using transect line
techniques, however dung counts are reckoned to be the most accurate
(Barnes 2001). A study in Tamilnadu in India compared direct-count transect
methods with dung counts (Varman et al 1995). This found that although
direct counts were faster they tended to overestimate elephant numbers; direct
counts are very difficult to conduct in forest habitats. A good summary of the
methodology using dung counts is given in Davies (2002).
ELEPHANT POACHING
Poaching for ivory is a problem for both African and Asian elephants, but
probably greater for the African owing to the fact that females also have tusks.
Ivory has been a valued substance from time immemorial and humans have
been making and trading in ivory artefacts from some 10,000 years. As males
tend to be poached more than females this can have a long term effect on the
sex ratio of populations. Tuskers in southern India have been particularly
badly hit (Sukumar et al 1998) and only abut 7.5% of bulls in Sri Lanka are
tuskers (Santiapillai et al 1999). A survey carried out in Asian countries in
1999 [Stiles & Martin 2002 #1680] found worked ivory for sale throughout
Asia. In Thailand more items were found for sale than in four African
countries (which included Egypt) and imported African elephant ivory was
also found. In Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, where there is a total ban, very
little worked ivory was on display in shops [Stiles & Martin 2002 #1680]. The
ivory trade is thought to be the major cause of the drop in population of
African elephants from an estimated 1.3 million in 1979 to around 626,000 in
1989 (Douglas-Hamilton 1987). Milner-Gulland (1994) examined rates of
decline of the African elephants which indicated that the rapid decline since
1950, particularly from 1970, was due to the increase in poaching for the Far
Eastern ivory markets. This increase started to drop around 1987. Egypt is
considered the major African country selling illegal ivory, much of it poached
in central and West Africa (Martin 2000). A survey carried out in Africa
showed that the prices for ivory decreased as a result of the ban but there is
still significant trade throughout the continent (Stiles and Martin 2001).
Although elephant hides are traded TRAFFIC research has failed to uncover
any linkages between elephant poaching and the trade in hides
(www.traffic.org).
Elephant culling has effects on social organization and behaviour due to the
fact that animals with larger tusks are selected first. It has been estimated that
336-388 tuskers have been poached over a 20 year period from the Periyar
Reserve of southern India (Sukumar et al 1998). This has resulted in a
depletion of the male population and a drop in fecundity of females. It also
appeared that a proportion of females, older than 15, were non-reproductive.
Similar evidence from Africa shows populations with skewed sex ratios (50
females to one male) and the proportion of females showing signs of
pregnancy and accompanied by recent offspring being reduced (Dobson and
Poole 1998). Evidence from Queen Elizabeth Park in Uganda suggested that
social structure was breaking down caused by stress due to factors like
excessive poaching. Heavily poached populations characteristically have
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