Asian elephants being skinned to extinction

One of the elephants found in Myanmar with its skin removed.

Sick new poaching trend

As if elephants didn’t have enough to deal with due to the ivory trade, now they are being persecuted for their skin.

The UK’s Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, recently announced plans to ban the sale of all ivory products. But this doesn’t affect the current poaching methods or save the 20 elephants recently killed.

Why? Because in a sick new trend that has been circulating for the last 3 years or so, elephants are now being hunted in Asia only for their thick hides.

The 20 were killed by poisonous darts – some of them mothers and calves. The skin was half-peeled off whilst their bodies were still warm, and their remains left in the forest to rot.

Traditional beliefs across Asia have exacerbated this trend of using elephant skin to make bracelets, further decimating their declining numbers.

This horrifying poaching epidemic stems from this lucrative business opportunity with claims being made the elephants are “killed to order,” as herds are “tracked, slaughtered and every bit of skin taken,” by Monica Wrobel, the head of conservation at the Elephant Family charity.

Jewellery demand leading to extinction

Demand for bracelets and necklaces has grown through the misconception that the jewellery wards off illness.

Across China, this demand has grown to the point that dealers are necessitating more and more skin from smugglers. Jewellery is even now being sold on websites.

Once removed, the skin is polished to make blood-red beads which can sell for up to £75 each.

The skin is polished and made into beads as shown above.
In 2016, rangers found 60 dead elephants in Myanmar, which has become the epicentre of this poaching crisis before the skin is smuggled into Xishuangbanna, south west China.

This year, investigators found 66 trunks in just one haul. A further two herds were slaughtered, and six others were skinned in a period spanning only the summer months.
Elephant skin products on sale close to the Chinese border with Myanmar.
It is now feared that if this rate continues, these endangered animals could  soon be slaughtered to the brink of extinction in a region that, 20 years ago, was a safe haven for these sentient beings.

Due to trafficking hubs in Viet Nam and Thailand, fears are growing that the extinction of Asian elephants could lead to poachers moving across to Africa.

With an estimated 97% decline in African elephants since 1990, this would be catastrophic for their already precarious situation there.

Last chance

Mothers and calves, who used to be immune from ivory hunting poachers, are now targets, creating havoc in the natural order of replenishing and reproducing numbers.

Using poisonous darts means a cruel and prolonged death which, according to WWF’s Myanmar director, Christy Williams, can take “up to three days.”


Williams believes this is the last chance for elephants in Asia, as poaching and skinning reaches “unprecedented levels.”


Their numbers – once a 10,000-strong population - are being decimated in a lawless countryside haunted by a humanitarian crisis which is hindering conservation activities as military violence erupts.


Traditionally, elephant skin was used in China for medicinal purposes to ease ailments such as stomach pain, skin problems and arthritis. However, until recently, the skin tended to come from animals that villagers had killed for meat.


But, in 2014, the correlation between butchered animals found with their skin removed and beaded jewellery seen at Myanmar’s borders with China, highlighted this gruesome trend.


Now China has banned ivory products, it has paved the way for a new market to emerge.


Combatting the sick trend

Several charities are now working with Myanmar’s government to deploy anti-poaching teams, fit tracking collars to elephants and create a crackdown in the illegal market of wildlife.

There is a clear need for wildlife groups and individuals to make calls for all elephants products to be banned and made illegal across the globe.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rare black servals caught on camera!

Big cats face BIG trouble

The true cost of what we eat