Talk held at symposium Compassionate Conservation, University of Oxford, 1 to 3 September 2010. Joyce Poole & Petter Granli, ElephantVoices. (www.elephantvoices.org)
HMCS Max Bernays Pre-Deployment Brief (May 2024).pptx
Elephants on the edge: The use and abuse of individual and societies
1. Elephants on the edge:
The use and abuse of individuals and societies
ElephantVoices
Joyce Poole & Petter Granli
ElephantVoices
Compassionate Conservation: Animal Welfare in Conservation Practice
Symposium, University of Oxford, 1-3 september 2010
3. A pillar of her society
ElephantVoices
Echo - 1945-2009 - died from drought & old age
successfully led her family for over 38 years
4. Some elephant attributes
• Very long-lived • respond to the bones of elephants with
special contemplation.
• Unusually large social network
• appear to have rudimentary
• Close and enduring cooperative social understanding of death
relationships
• development includes social learning
• large and complex brains and behavioral innovation
• accumulate and retain social and • Capable of use and modification of
ecological knowledge rudimentary tools
• remember scents and voices of other • Capable of vocal learning
individuals for decades
• Show empathetic behavior
• ability to make subtle discriminations
between predators is age related • Self-aware
• behavior in the wild and in captivity • long-life, memory, intelligence, and
suggests ability to use long-term sociality, may make elephants more
memories to "keep score" and to vulnerable to trauma and its longer-
retaliate for wrongs done term psychological consequences
• show reconciliatory behaviour
5. Commercial use of African Elephants
Non-consumptive use:
• photographic tourism
Consumptive use:
• capture for captivity
• trophy hunting
• ivory trade
ElephantVoices
• Bush meat trade
Photographic tourism Amboseli
6. Commercial use of African Elephants
Non-consumptive use:
• photographic tourism
Consumptive use:
• capture for captivity
• trophy hunting
• ivory trade
• Bush meat trade
Captured, female housed
alone, zoo, South Africa
7. Commercial use of African Elephants
Non-consumptive use:
• photographic tourism
Consumptive use:
• capture for captivity
• trophy hunting
• ivory trade
• Bush meat trade
ElephantVoices
Ed, a trophy?
8. Commercial use of African Elephants
Non-consumptive use:
• photographic tourism
Consumptive use:
• capture for captivity
• trophy hunting
• ivory trade
• Bush meat trade
Amboseli Trust for Elephants
Recent poaching - young male Amboseli
9. Families, Bond Groups, Clans,
Populations & beyond to Strangers
ElephantVoices
Gail and descendants waiting for Grace
10. Individuals: building blocks of society
• When a mother dies her
orphaned calves die, too
• families likely to split
after matriarch death
• smaller families have
lower reproductive
success
• families with young
leaders less able to make
appropriate decisions in
times of crisis
ElephantVoices
11. The importance of female
longevity in elephant society
ElephantVoices
Chloe, age 50, & her family react with alarm to the sounds of lions
12. The importance of female
longevity in elephant society
ElephantVoices
Chloe steps forward to assess the threat
13. The importance of female
longevity in elephant society
ElephantVoices
Chloe decides to attack
14. The importance of female
longevity in elephant society
ElephantVoices
Chloe calls in the troops for a group attack
15. Male elephant society
relatives & friends
ElephantVoices
Handsome, Gomer & friends at rest
16. longevity is key to male
reproductive success
• average male life expectancy is
24 years, including illness,
accident, predation, drought &
human-induced deaths
• only 1/2 of males born survive
to peak competitive ages of
musth, whatever their cause of
death
• Males begin to reproduce
successfully by age 40, when
3/4 of males will have already
died
Cynthia Moss
• Dionysus lived to age 65 -
becoming one of Amboseli’s Dionysus
most successful males
17. longevity is key to male
reproductive success
• average male life expectancy is
24 years, including illness,
accident, predation, drought &
human-induced deaths
• only 1/2 of males born survive
to peak competitive ages of
musth, whatever their cause of
death
• Males begin to reproduce
successfully by age 40, when
3/4 of males will have already
died
• Dionysus lived to age 65 -
becoming one of Amboseli’s
most successful males
ElephantVoices
Dionysus
18. Capturing calves for sale to
elephant-back safaris, zoos, circuses
ElephantVoices
Mother, allomothers and newborn calf
19. Capturing calves for sale to
elephant-back safaris, zoos, circuses
NSPCA
Captured “Tuli baby”
20. Deprivation in captivity
• 25% of living captive
elephants in USA wild
caught Zimbabwe
• 50% of 87 Zimbabwe
elephants on record have
died, though many not
accounted for
• One shipment of 63, 14
died within a week of
arrival before they were
accounted for
• The practice continues
Junia Machado
Terezita stands alone & swaying
wild-caught in Zimbabwe
10 years in a Brazilian circus
14 years in Sao Paulo Zoo
21. Deprivation in captivity
• 25% of living captive
elephants in USA wild
caught Zimbabwe
• 50% of 87 Zimbabwe
elephants on record have
died, though many not
accounted for
• One shipment of 63, 14
died within a week of
arrival before they were
accounted for
• The practice continues
Junia Machado
Teresita stands alone & swaying
wild-caught in Zimbabwe
10 years in a Brazilian circus
14 years in Sao Paulo Zoo
22. Deprivation in captivity
• 25% of living captive
elephants in USA wild
caught Zimbabwe
• 50% of 87 Zimbabwe
elephants on record have
died, though many not
accounted for
• One shipment of 63, 14
died within a week of
arrival before they were
accounted for
• The practice continues
Junia Machado
Teresita stands alone & swaying
wild-caught in Zimbabwe
10 years in a Brazilian circus
14 years in Sao Paulo Zoo
23. Deprivation in captivity
• 25% of living captive
elephants in USA wild
caught Zimbabwe
• 50% of 87 Zimbabwe
elephants on record have
died, though many not
accounted for
• One shipment of 63, 14
died within a week of
arrival before they were
accounted for
• The practice continues
Junia Machado
Teresita stands alone & swaying
wild-caught in Zimbabwe
10 years in a Brazilian circus
14 years in Sao Paulo Zoo
24. Deprivation in captivity
• 25% of living captive
elephants in USA wild
caught Zimbabwe
• 50% of 87 Zimbabwe
elephants on record have
died, though many not
accounted for
• One shipment of 63, 14
died within a week of
arrival before they were
accounted for
• The practice continues
Junia Machado
Teresita stands alone & swaying
wild-caught in Zimbabwe
10 years in a Brazilian circus
14 years in Sao Paulo Zoo
25. Deprivation in captivity
• 25% of living captive
elephants in USA wild
caught Zimbabwe
• 50% of 87 Zimbabwe
elephants on record have
died, though many not
accounted for
• One shipment of 63, 14
died within a week of
arrival before they were
accounted for
• The practice continues
Junia Machado
Teresita stands alone & swaying
wild-caught in Zimbabwe
10 years in a Brazilian circus
14 years in Sao Paulo Zoo
38. Family Structure, 1989
100
80
Percent of families observed
Amboseli, Kenya
Mikumi, Tanzania
60
40
20
0
Intact, matriarch>30 Intact, matriarch<30 Missing adults Mostly orphans
Poole, 1989
39. demographic signature
of poaching persists
• Females orphaned
become “floaters”
lacking a social
network
• Reproductive output is
severely compromised
• 30% of families
contain only one
adult female
• Fearful & aggressive
behaviour prevalent
• Tusklessness is
common
Courtesy of Amy Gambrill & Gorongosa NP
Gorongosa’s tuskless & angry leaders
40. Not forgotten
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Esmeralda’s bones are visited regularly
41. Not forgotten
ElephantVoices
where five elephant trails converge
42. Conclusions
• individual building blocks of societies are often forgotten,
purposefully ignored and disposed of as organizations and
nations barter away lives in the name of economics,
sustainable utilization and politics.
• Higher priority needs to be given to the consequences of
consumptive utilisation. these practices inflict enormous
impact on individuals and societies.
• Compassionate conservation means accounting for the well
being of individuals - acknowledging that they have value in
their own right and realizing the full impact of our actions on
their societies.
• Compassion for the interests and lives of other beings must be
incorporated into conservation in order to secure the health
of our planet, its web of species and our own survival.
www.elephantvoices.org