1000 Flowers for the Planet - #575 Observe World Elephant Day

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #575 Observe World Elephant Day

Today is World Elephant Day – a day to pay attention to the plight of the world’s elephant populations. The current population estimates are about 400,000 for African elephants and 40,000 for Asian elephants with African elephants on the ‘vulnerable’ list and Asian elephants on the ‘endangered’ list. There is argument that these numbers are much too high.  Isn’t it a shame that a) we have lists to categorize species into ‘endangered’, ‘vulnerable’, ‘extinct’ etc. and b) that people are arguing over the exact numbers? I think there’s something wrong with our behaviour. Let’s concentrate on positive ACTIONS that will ensure a sustainable future for elephant herds in their natural environment. The solution lies in concentrating on the human population levels and bringing our own numbers down to a level that the planet can reasonably sustain (not an easy problem to solve, but it is the elephant in the room, so an appropriate day to discuss the issue). Humans encroach on elephant habitats, humans poach elephants for their ivory tusks, humans hunt elephants for trophies – elephants don’t have any natural predators. Their numbers decrease because of US so we’re the ones who need to change our behaviour and deliver the solutions to prevent elephant extinction. Visit a site that will teach you more about what can be done such as http://iworry.org/ or http://www.elephantconservation.org/ or https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org

Remember – one elephant is killed (that’s killed, not ‘dies naturally’) every 15 minutes – at this rate there will be none roaming wild within ten years. Do something!