ELEPHANTS & IVORY

© IFAW/J He/Xishuangbanna, China
Earlier, we noted that elephant conservation
currently is based on an incomplete and
arbitrary selection of the available information
on the interrelationships between animals and
their environments. The biased selection of
the information that has been used to inform
decisions in conservation management is a
reflection of historical and, still prevailing, human
attitudes, values, objectives and experience, and
in no way represents the accumulated wisdom of
science and other ways of knowing.
Here, we briefly summarize what is broadly
known from a variety of disciplines about the
nature of animals – in particular, elephants – and
their relationships with humans and the biosphere.
This summary paints a very different picture
of elephants than the one that has dominated
our discussions in the previous chapters. It
illustrates the discrepancy between the totality
of our current knowledge and what is actually
used to shape elephant conservation policies and
management actions.
EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY – HUMANS
ARE ANIMALS TOO
Beginning with Darwin’s On the Origin of Species,
first published in 1859, and a later, more detailed
treatise, The Expression of the Emotions in Man
and Animals, published in 1872, we have come to
understand that all living organisms – humans and
elephants included – share a common ancestry. 122
We are all interrelated. Humans are animals.
We are a part of nature, not separate from it, and
certainly not above it. This conclusion is readily
apparent from studies of ontogeny, 123 comparative
anatomy, physiology and biochemistry, molecular
genetics, and trans-species psychology. 124
It is the very understanding of the continuity
among animals that motivates the widespread
convention of using so called “animal models”
in such fields as the medical sciences and
psychology, among others. Nonhuman animals
are used in lieu of humans when developing
and practicing new surgical techniques, or
when studying disease processes afflicting the
human body and mind. Likewise, pharmaceutical
companies test their products on nonhuman
animals – our kin – before they risk them on
humans – our species.
Nonhuman animals are used instead of humans
in experimentation and research not only because
they are physiologically and psychologically like
us, but also because they are arbitrarily classified
as being different from humans taxonomically.
In many parts of the world, it is not considered
unethical or illegal to do things to them that are
forbidden on humans. This profound contradiction
between what is known and accepted scientifically
and what is practiced ethically glaringly
underscores the selective use of science in our
dealings with other animals. 125
61