Not Enough Space on the Planet for Elephants

Posted by Dawn M. Smith Dec 21, 2008

Elephants everywhere are struggling to survive. Poaching will continue to be a problem as long as there is a market for ivory. And conflict with humans occurs more and more often as open land dwindles.

Areas where elephants face serious threats:

Human Elephant Conflict in Botswanna

Elephant Calves DIsplaced in India

Namibia’s unique rural program attempting to address the issue

Thailand’s logging ban causes problems for domestic elephants

Vietnam a Threat to Asian Elephant

Working Elephant Issues

Historically, elephant training has been a brutal activity. However a reduction in working elephant numbers is a mixed blessing. Fewer animals go through the training process but non-working elephants are a luxury that few can afford. This is where sanctuaries come in. These facilities will, however, quickly fill up leaving some elephants uncared for.

Elephant Rehabilitation

In countries where efforts are being made to rehabilitate elephants affected by human activities there are difficulties in finding safe, appropriate habitat to release the animals when they are ready to go back to the wild.

Sri Lanka’s Rehabilitation Program

India’s Rehabilitation and Conflict Mitigation Program

And this is the core of the elephant’s problems. There is nowhere in the world where there is enough space to support large healthy wild populations of elephant species. Which means elephant populations must be managed. How that is done remains to be seen. Culling of elephant herds in parts of Africa has met with serious opposition but there is some hope for contraception programs that are being developed.