The Seattle PI on Sunday editorialized on the plight of African elephants again being slaughtered in large numbers for ivory. Research done right here in Washington State by the University of Washington’s Center for Conservation Biology “shows elephants are again being slaughtered for their ivory tusks.”
Meanwhile on the “Kids’ Page” of the Seattle PI Comics, the Mark Trail hunter friendly comic strip emphatically states that “The very animal (elephant)that is considered one of Africa’s most valuable assets has become one of it’s biggest problems.”
Let’s look a little closer at the truth of what “Mark Trail” says. “The two main killers in East Africa are HIV/AIDS and wild animals, particularly elephants. Because of their large appetites and migration habits, elephants are destroying crops , killing farmers and terrorizing neighbors.” Right below this sentence we see what looks like a white skinned man being tossed in the air over the elephant’s head.
God, this sounds pretty horrible – AIDS/HIV and elephants!! Only problem is it’s not true that elephants are the number two killer.
The World Bank in a 2006 414 page report entitled “Disease and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa” reports that out of some 10,788,044 deaths in 2000 the following breakdown occurred.
1 HIV/AIDS………………………………….20.4% = 2,200,761
2 Malaria………………………………………10.1% = 1,161,662
3 Lower respiratory infections………..9.8% = 700,573
4 Diarrheal diseases……………………….6.5% = 550,190
5 Perinatal conditions…………………….5.1% = 442,310
6 Measles……………………………………..4.1% = 442,310
7 Cerebrovascular disease………………3.3% = 336,005
8 Ischemic heart disease…………………3.1% = 334,429
9 Tuberculosis……………………………….2.8% = 301,785
10 Road traffic accidents ………………..1.8% = 194,184
11 Pertussis…………………………………..1.6% = 172,609
12 Violence …………………………………..1.2% = 129,337
13 COPD………………………………………..1.1% = 118,668
14 Tetanus…………………………………….1.0% = 107,780
15 Nephritis and nephrosis………………0.9% = 97,092
16 Malnutrition ……………………………. 0.9% = 97,092
17 War …………………………………………0.8% = 86,304
18 Syphilis ………………………………….. 0.8% = 86,304
19 Diabetes mellitus……………………… 0.7% = 75,516
20 Drownings ……………………………… 0.6% = 64,728
21 All other specific causes…………..23.2%= 2,502,826
* numbers are calculated from %’s taken from table on page 77 in report cited above.
So where are the figures for deaths caused by wild animals particularly elephants in this breakdown. National Geographic in a documentary entitled “Elephant Rage” stated that about 500 people worldwide each year are killed by elephants. Even falsely claiming these deaths would all be in Africa, they would comprise only .000046% of the year 2000 deaths.
So where does macho hunter “Mark Trail” get off on claiming elephants as one of the two main killers in East Africa. Car accidents in the above table alone killed some 194,000 people. Measles some 442,000. After AIDS/HIV, the number two killer was a mosquito, killing some 1.16 million people.. But I guess mosquitoes are hard to shoot with guns, so they don’t qualify as killers.
The next drawing in the ‘Mark Trail” cartoon depiction shows 3 large elephants charging what again looks like a white skinned person who has his hands up in the air, like he’s trying to surrender. The commentary is “Their increase in population is a problem in many parts of Africa as they are turning farm ecosystems into desert areas. The elephant’s fondness for sweet potatoes and other cultures crops has made them a nuisance to some farmers.”
It’s a curious turn of phrase to call what was once a wild natural ecosystem that was populated by elephants as now a farm ecosystem and blame the elephants for turning it into desert areas. The website Bagheera: In the Wild notes that:
“The African elephant once roamed the entire continent of Africa, and the Asian elephant ranged from Syria to northern China and the islands of Indonesia. These abundant populations have been reduced to groups in scattered areas south of the Sahara and in isolated patches in India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.
Demand for ivory, combined with habitat loss from human settlement, has led to a dramatic decline in elephant populations in the last few decades. In 1930, there were between 5 and 10 million African elephants. By 1979, there were 1.3 million. In 1989, when they were added to the international list of the most endangered species, there were about 600,000 remaining, less than one percent of their original number.”
The World Wildlife Fund notes that
“In both Africa and Asia , elephant habitat is being replaced by agriculture – both by small-scale farmers and international agribusiness such as palm oil. Not only are the animals being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas, but farmers plant crops that elephants like to eat. As a result, elephants frequently raid and destroy crops. And after being persecuted for decades and hunted almost to extinction, a wild elephant’s reaction to a human can be similar to our reaction to a mosquito – swat it. So while many people in the West regard elephants with affection and admiration, the animals often inspire fear and anger in those who share their land.”
In a New York Times article last year where they discuss ‘‘Elephant Breakdown,’’ a 2005 essay in the journal Nature, Bradshaw and several colleagues argued that
“today’s elephant populations are suffering from a form of chronic stress, a kind of species-wide trauma. Decades of poaching and culling and habitat loss, they claim, have so disrupted the intricate web of familial and societal relations by which young elephants have traditionally been raised in the wild, and by which established elephant herds are governed, that what we are now witnessing is nothing less than a precipitous collapse of elephant culture .
It has long been apparent that every large, land-based animal on this planet is ultimately fighting a losing battle with humankind. And yet entirely befitting of an animal with such a highly developed sensibility, a deep-rooted sense of family and, yes, such a good long-term memory, the elephant is not going out quietly. It is not leaving without making some kind of statement, one to which scientists from a variety of disciplines, including human psychology, are now beginning to pay close attention. “
Unfortunately spreading falsehoods and depicting the threatened elephant as a killer because that is how hunters like to view their sport of killing wild animals only helps to further erode efforts to not have the wild elephant’s only future be a trophy head on someones wall like of old or ivory trinkets in someone’s jewelry box. It’s time for Mark Trail to go the way of the elephant hunter of the past. The Seattle PI should cancel the strip.
