U.S. Marines Join Chad's Anti-Poaching Efforts

Did you know that wildlife crime is the largest direct threat to the future of many of the world's most threatened species? It is second only to habitat destruction in overall threats against species survival.

Having said that, Friends of Animals applauds a small team of U.S. Marines who are the newest recruits in Chad's efforts to stop a horrible string of poaching that has decimated the country's elephant population in recent years. A contingent of 15 troops from a special Marines task force will spend about a month in the central African nation, teaching approximately 100 of Chad's park rangers military tactics that will help them combat heavily armed poachers in an effort to protect elephants. Chad's elephant population dropped from more than 4,000 elephants in 2005 to just 450 in 2010 and, as a result, the government has prioritized protection efforts.

This marks a first-time partnership conducted under Department of State foreign assistance authorities with the Chadian rangers, whose primary mission is anti-poaching. Those involved will also have collateral duties of border security and countering illicit trafficking within the sovereign territory of the Republic of Chad to help bring greater stability to the region.

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, in 1979 there were an estimated 1.3 million African elephants. By 1989 only 600,000 remained. In 2010, the total had dropped to an estimated 470,000 according to IUCN's African Elephant Specialist Group. Today, fewer than 400,000 remain; some authorities estimate the number to be considerably lower. The loss of nearly a million elephants in a decade was due primarily to illegal killing for ivory in the context of an international trade. An estimate in 2009 derived from an analysis of ivory seizures put the number of elephants killed annually to supply the ivory trade at 38,000.

If such a rate were to continue, elephants could be gone from most of their former range in a decade. In addition to the ivory trade, another threat to elephants is the capture and sale of the animals for elephant-back safaris, zoos and circuses. South Africa, once the source of many wild-caught elephants (including the majority of the African elephants in U.S. and European zoos) has outlawed such capture. Yet other countries, including Burma, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania are still engaged in this practice.

You can help to put an end to the capture of wild elephants by not supporting circuses or zoos and instead supporting sanctuaries that provide homes for the animals once they've been discarded, just as Primarily Primates, run by Friends of Animals, does for primates.

The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn., is the nation's largest natural-habitat refuge developed specifically to meet the needs of endangered elephants. It is a non-profit organization, licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture designed specifically for old, sick or needy elephants who have been discarded by zoos and circuses. Utilizing more than 2,700 acres, it provides three separate and protected, natural-habitat environments for Asian and African elephants.

In an upcoming issue of Action Line we will have a book review of Carol Bradley's Last Chain on Billie, which will be released in July. It tells the story of one of the elephants at Elephant Sanctuary and how she escaped a miserable life under the Big Top.