𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩
𝘣𝘺 𝘋𝘳. 𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘬
01 Elephants have captured the imagination of
individuals across the world. Majestic beings, they have
fascinated even those who may never have enjoyed close
04 contact with them.
It’s this empathy that has led thousands of people
worldwide today to join the International March for Elephants
07 organized by iworry, a campaign by the David Sheldrick
Wildlife Trust, to publicize the warning that the future survival
of elephants is at serious risk.
10 Some may wonder why elephants matter. I have been
privileged to live amongst them and have nurtured a lifelong
passion to protect them for over 55 years. My team and I have
13 hand-reared more than 160 orphaned elephants to date, some
from the day they were born. It’s a long-term commitment, and
I have known them intimately throughout infancy and
16 childhood into their teenage years and beyond.
Scientific studies of elephants have now led to the
acceptance of abilities that we have observed on a daily basis
19 for many years. Elephants share the same emotions as humans,
with a strong sense of family and the same sense of death. Like
us, they suffer with the loss of loved ones. Each has an
22 individual personality just like us. They can be mischievous,
playful, feel offended or foolish.
In many ways they are better than us, and they have
25 attributes that we humans lack, such as the ability to
communicate over distance using low range sound hidden to
human ears. They have telepathic capabilities, as well as being
28 sensitive to seismic sound through their feet. Yet for all the
worldly reverence for elephants, they are today being hunted
and killed at a catastrophic rate for something as simple as a
31 tooth.
The phenomenon of poaching elephants for their tusks
is not new. It was only through awareness campaigns and
34 international pressure that a ban on the international sale of
ivory was enacted in 1989. This ban provided a brief relief for
elephants by stopping an increasing trade that in some regions
37 caused the loss of up to 80 percent of herds.
However, poaching has escalated in already
devastated populations recently. The interest in ivory
40 stimulated demand, and the result is that elephants are now
being poached at the highest rate since records of their numbers
began. Current estimates put the figure at 36,000 elephants
43 killed annually, which means one elephant dying every 15
minutes.
To date we’ve arrested 1,406 poachers, and our
46 veterinary teams have successfully treated over 500 wounded
elephants.
As long as any trade in ivory remains—legal or illegal,
49 global or domestic—elephants will continue to be cruelly killed
for their tusks.
𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘵: <𝘸𝘸𝘸.𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤.𝘤𝘰𝘮> (𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘥).
Based on the article above, it is correct to say that