Ian Raymond: The "intimate" collision of human-elephants ∣ to welcome World Elephant Day 2022

Introduction: The China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (IANDD) recently received a sharing from Ian Redmond, an international consultant, field biologist and natural resource conservationist, ambassador of the United Nations Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), about the "intimate" collision between humans and elephants in Elgon, Kenya. As World Elephant Day 2022 approaches, the International Department of the Green Society will now compile and sort it out as follows.

Ian Raymond is communicating with Nick, a more docile elephant than Kali∣ on Aug. 12, 2016

There is a moment when it is very clear before the collision occurs, when everything you do to avoid the collision fails... Now, as this inevitable effect approaches, time seems to slow down. Do your senses go into overdrive? Maybe it's an evolutionary trait: turning on our senses in an emergency to collect as much data as possible so that — if you survive — you have the ability to avoid the next time? Either way, it happened to me recently when I was knocked down by a four-ton man... No, not a four-ton truck, but an unusually angry elephant.

There's some irony in that — the person who coined the term "elephant friend" should have been trampled by a distinctly unfriendly elephant — but I'm pretty sure it's not personal. The brave tusk carly – as we call it – seems to hold a grudge against humans, and given what happened to her family and the forest where she lives, there are good reasons to be.

Why is that?

There are many inexplicable aspects of this incident. Ken has been tracking elephants for the Mount Elgon Elephant Monitoring Team (MEEM Team) for 13 years and has never seen an elephant behave like this. In my case, it's been 40 years since I first encountered an elephant on foot in the forest of Mount Virunga (a casual treat on the way to study gorillas). It's been 36 years since I first tracked elephants on Mount Elgon. I've also never seen an elephant leave a herd of other elephants and run 150 meters to deal with a perceived enemy.

It makes one wonder what happened in the first few days or hours that led to this unusual behavior. Elephants are not long-distance runners. If they suddenly slam into a person, they usually knock the person 18 meters, 36 meters or 54 meters away in response to the person or thing that makes them vigilant. In this case, when Carly started running, there was no obvious stimulation at the time, but apparently her thoughts didn't stop until she hit someone.

We know from the previous day's encounter that Carly's elephant herd is restless due to the charcoal burning activities of the local people – judging by the number of kilns seen recently, charcoal burning must be very common. We also know that between 2012 and 2014, at least 8 elephants may have been killed by poachers. Maybe Carly sniffed the rangers' gunshots and sparked memories? Could it be that she was injured in an attack and was still in pain? Could it be that the shouts of the cattle herders who were supposed to help, and the large number of curious bystanders, somehow reminded her of earlier poaching incidents, perhaps even due to the herds leaving the area en masse?

Apparently, some or all of these factors combined to convince the elephant that the 11 people standing 150 meters away posed a threat to her and her family. Obviously, it is necessary to carefully analyze this incident to draw conclusions and adjust the approach of the MEEM team to minimize the possibility of recurrence. But there is another important conclusion to draw.

A mountain forest that serves as a "water storage tower"

The truth is that some of Kenya's most important forests — storing carbon, rainfall and regulating the flow of water to the country's most productive agricultural regions — are being destroyed for profit by wealthy charcoal tycoons who exploit the rural poor while running million-dollar businesses. It's not just a matter of Mount Elgon. Charcoal is the most commonly used household fuel in most parts of Africa.

The illegal charcoal trade poses a significant threat to every woody plant within the trading network that fuels families living in towns and cities who have no other way of cooking food and boiling drinking water. Not only are animals and their body parts traded for profit, but so are their habitats.

Globally, before the upcoming impact, we know that as more and more data comes in, there is less and less time left to process the data and change the outcome. The impacts in question are those between humans and the natural world, a "perfect storm" of climate change, biodiversity loss, over-consumption of natural resources, pollution and ocean acidification – mutually reinforcing.

The scale of the problem may seem overwhelming, but at the local level, the solution is often clear. For Elgon Hill, enforce enforcement efforts to combat illegal charcoal trade, as well as better support those that are legal for charcoal trading, using renewable energy.

Ian Raymond

Ian Raymond is a Congolese tropical field biologist and natural resource conservationist known for more than 40 years of research on large apes and elephants. From studying and protecting mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), to conducting the first study of underground elephants in Kenya's Elgon Mountains, Ian Raymond has devoted his life to practicing nature conservation principles through investigation, education and advocacy.

Get the link to the original article:

https://www.academia.edu/48828564/For_the_Day_of_the_Elephants_Crash_Course_in_Conservation

The original author ∣ Ian Raymond

Compiled ∣ Sherry reviewed ∣ Greenery edited | today's headlines

Past Reading:

Wilderness biologist Ian Raymond, conservationist of natural resources, was invited to participate in World Elephant Day

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1706504974116962842&wfr=spider&for=pc

#Elephant##Animal##Wildlife##世界大象日 #