ELEPHANTS

This week Australian, and world media outlets focused on the miraculous birth of a 100 kilogram baby Asian elephant at Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo. It was miraculous not only because the birth was the result of artificial insemination, but also because during the mother's difficult labour it was thought that the calf had died. Zoo staff and veterinarians had pronounced the calf dead while still in the womb as they could find no signs of life. It is now believed that the calf had gone into a coma-like state, probably as a reaction to the trauma it was experiencing.

Although the male calf is described as still 'very weak' it has tried to take its first steps and has accepted a feed of several litres of colostrum, a form of milk produced by nursing mothers which helps to build up disease resistant anti-bodies in the baby. The baby elephant's mother, Porntip was artificially inseminated 22 months ago as part of the zoo's breeding program. The mother has been trying to encourage the young calf to suckle and has been gently caressing the calf with her trunk.

At present there are between 15 and 20 thousand elephants in captivity around the world. Some of these are in zoos, such as Taronga, but others are in circuses or other forms of limited freedom. In the wild, both the African and the Asian elephant are listed as endangered species. The Asian elephant only exist in small herds in Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Thailand. These herds total between 30,000 and 44,000 individual elephants. Latest estimates of the number of African elephants which exist in the wild today are about 400,000 individuals.

One of the main reasons for the demise of elephant populations has been the ivory trade. This trade had been steadily growing since the 1940s but with the increased availability of automatic weapons during the 1970s and corrupt governments willing to take their share in profits a severe strain was put on wild elephant populations. In 1986 concern over diminishing elephant populations resulted in the implementation of an ivory quota system, where each tusk was marked and coded with its country of origin. In this way the trade in ivory could be monitored and regulated.

However the illegal ivory trade continued. Burundi and South Africa were singled out as the two main offending countries. Controls put into place were relatively easy to evade. For instance by 1988 Burrundi had only one live elephant left in the country yet they continued to export approximately one-third of the world's supply of raw ivory.

Hong Kong and Japan have been the two main importers of elephant ivory, between them taking over half of the world's supply. The tusks are used to make carvings for sale as jewellery and art. In Japan the ivory is cut into small blocks for signature stamps (called 'hanko'). In 1999 an illegal shipment from Rwanda to Japan of 420 kilograms of cut ivory blocks was seized in Paris. This suggests the trade still continues.

In 1989 a ban was placed on the trade of all African elephant parts, including ivory. However seizures of ivory between 2004 and 2007 suggest that as many as 20,000 elephants are being killed annually to feed the world's ivory markets. At times these bans have been relaxed in part. In 2002 Botswana, South Africa and Namibia were approved to export elephant skins and trinkets made from ivory to certain destinations. In 1997 Zimbabwe were allowed to export dried elephant skins, ears and feet-most were sold to Japan and the US (in the US now you can buy elephant skin boots). The export of elephant tusks as hunting trophies is allowed each year from 8 African countries, most of these going to the US (some 400 sets annually). It is feared the relaxation of bans may lead to an increase in the demand for ivory and again put pressure on endangered elephant populations.

The 20 year ban on the international trade in ivory comes up for renewal in June of this year. Five African countries: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi have been lobbying for the abolition of this international ban. They have even agreed to set up a joint ivory marketing board to sell to countries which are not part of the agreement, such as Taiwan and Korea. This weekend, March 13 two African nations, Tanzania and Zambia, will ask the United Nations for exemptions from the bans already in place. You can sign a petition against these exemptions by following the link: .http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_more_bloody_ivory/98.php?cl_taf_sign=6NJXypzF

(The photographs on this post are from the Elephant Breeding Centre at Chitwan, Nepal. They include a rare set of twins born in captivity)