As most people know, the elephant population is depleting at a consistent rate. Why is this happening? Every year, a minimum of 20,000 elephants are poached; meaning that they are illegally killed. Poachers trade ivory on the international market, and are impelled by the demand for ivory in certain parts of Asia. In other continents Ivory is used for jewelry, art, religious objects, currency, etc..
Currently the poaching interventionalists are helping by strengthening the borders of protected reserves, increasing the number of anti-poaching patrols, and even dyeing elephant tusks. Dyeing elephant tusks make them worthless on the internet. Unfortunately, there are too many elephants to sedate for this tactic to be effective. Another reason why this wouldn’t work is that the dye would contaminate the water. This could poison many other species, leading to death.
So, why are we trying so hard to protect elephants? They play a big part in their ecosystem by maintaining foods rich in minerals. Many other species rely on mineral-rich foods. They also help maintain the largest tree species as seed dispersers.
How do you think we can stop the elephant ivory trade?
What do you think we should do about the elephant ivory trade?
Sources -
https://www.savetherhino.org/thorny-issues/dyeing-rhino-horn-and-elephant-ivory/
Replies
Good topic choice Emily. I do think your summary could be quite a bit longer.
We gotta protect them before they go extinct it makes me nauseous knowing people are poaching them and have no sense of remorse because of their gain. I saw someone say something about making them worth less on the black market and I second that statement. Anything honestly just to prevent them from going full on extinct.
I can not really come of with an idea of how we can stop the elephant ivory trade, sure you could try finding a diffrent paint thats wont contaminat the water, but that make take to long to actually make. I feel like a way we can stop people from even doing the trade is just getting more people to look for poachers. If there are more people then it might be harder for people to hunt elephants.
I think we need to do better at protecting these elephants from poachers because they are never going to stop until these animals go extinct. It is so cruel that people take the lives of these elephants to make money off their tusks and they should be stopped.
This is horrible. The elephant ivory trade needs to be stopped, but poachers realize how much money is being made from this cycle, so they continue to do it. Animals as majestic as elephants need to be protected. Biologists also need elephants to study ecosystems, especially the complex biosphere of the savanna and african jungles. Hopefully we as a people can help put tougher restrictions against the trade of elephant ivory.
I agree that this needs to be stopped. If elephants go extinct it will throw off the ecosystem. Unfortunately, the poaching will be difficult to stop due to the demand in other parts of the world.
I think that one of the best ways to prevent elephant poaching is to find some way to make the elephant tusks worthless on the black market that doesn't take as much effort as dyeing the tusks do. I think it's important to protect the elephants to keep the ecosystem stable and prevent their extinction.
I agree that we should look into other ways to make elephant tusks worthless. I think that if we could find a way to make the dye harmless then it could be worth the time and effort of sedating the elephants.
I think we need to do a much better job of protecting elephants from poachers. Right now there's a huge problem and it won't stop until elephants end up going extinct. I think it's cruel that people are killing such beautiful creatures just for their ivory and it needs to stop.
I think that we should find other ways to ensure the safety of elephants. If elephants go extinct, they will throw off the ecosystem and cause a lot of issues. I hope that we can find a way to prevent poachers from killing these elephants.
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