Collateral Damage: The Effects of Poaching on Local Communities

Collateral Damage: The Effects of Poaching on Local Communities

Poaching has become a pandemic in Africa. Across the continent, many animals are killed or removed from their home environment mainly due to human greed. Endangered animals’ numbers are dwindling, and conservation groups around the world are focusing on how best to save these beautiful creatures from undeniable decline. However, with all this focus on the animals, many forget the other victims involved in poaching hot zones: the communities.Continue reading “Collateral Damage: The Effects of Poaching on Local Communities”

Collaring Elephants: Inside their social circles and movement patterns, we learn how to better protect them

Collaring Elephants: Inside their social circles and movement patterns, we learn how to better protect them

written by Victoria Baldwin, Y4AW intern of July, 2015

It takes twenty-six of my hands to palm the girth of an average elephant collar. Harnessing an animal that size isn’t tangible until you hold the leather and buckles, pass the weight between your arms. Nothing about it feels right, clasping something around a neck that big, one of the last giants; but collaring is necessary these days. It serves as one of the ways we can keep track of how many elephants are left, understand their social circles, migration patterns and how they interact with their habitat. With an elephant poached every fifteen minutes, efforts to keep these giants on our earth are essential. After spending some time with the non-profit organization, Elephants Alive, and hearing from Craig Spencer, warden of Balule Nature Reserve, I have a more comprehensive understanding of how dire the situation is. Seeing what people have done to these animals does not make me proud to be human.Continue reading “Collaring Elephants: Inside their social circles and movement patterns, we learn how to better protect them”

Wildebeests – what’s with all the hate?

Wildebeests – what’s with all the hate?

After spending several weeks in the bush, I have become more and more aware of how unappreciated gnus, or “wildebeests” are. Everyone calls them dumb and ugly, and safari vehicles do not bother to stop for pictures. So what is with all the hate? Is it just because they are so common? I find them kind of fascinating. They are basically built like a horse with a humpback, have a long face and horns. I think they are pretty interesting, so I thought I would do some research and write about them so my readers can appreciate this species a little more.Continue reading “Wildebeests – what’s with all the hate?”

Rhinos today – then what?

Rhinos today – then what?

After spending nearly a month in the South African bush, I have become more and more intrigued with the rhino horn poaching issue. After extensive research on the matter, I have found that it is a real crisis and if things keep progressing at this rate, the rhino will go extinct within the next decade. Before coming to South Africa for my Youth 4 Africa Wildlife (Y4AW) internship, I had no idea that rhino poaching was in such a critical state, which I think is one of the biggest problems. A lot of South Africans do not know the severity of the situation, so of course, this uncertainty and ignorance to the subject matter extends to an international level as well. South Africa has, by far, the largest population of rhinos in the world, which only adds more pressure to national rhino conservation projects. It is estimated that at the current rate, rhino deaths will overtake the births between the years 2016 and 2018; thus leading to their extinction within approximately 10 years. So, what is so attractive about rhino horn and why has its popularity seemed to increase all of a sudden? What exactly is poaching, and how does it differ from hunting?Continue reading “Rhinos today – then what?”

A Lion’s Portrayal in the Media

A Lion’s Portrayal in the Media


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A few weeks ago, an American tourist in one of South Africa’s Lion Parks lost her life when a lioness approached the vehicle and fatally wounded the victim. In an unfortunate situation, the victim, Katharine Chappell, was responsible for her own death as she leaned outside her vehicle to take a photo of the lioness, neglecting the blatant warnings throughout the park. In doing so, Chappell and the rest of her party ignored the signs located throughout the park alerting park-goers to stay inside their vehicles and to keep their windows up at all times.Continue reading “A Lion’s Portrayal in the Media”

Inside the Mind of a Poacher

Inside the Mind of a Poacher

Say you are on a safari with your family. You are in the wild, surrounded by the beautiful South African savannah, and you notice on the horizon a female white rhino and her calf sauntering towards your vehicle, grazing as they go. Maybe you see their beauty, maybe you are afraid of their power, or maybe you just see this little creature traipsing about its disinterested mother. You take a photo, cherish the beauty you were lucky enough to witness, and drive away. Now say you are a poacher. Standing in front of you, assault rifle and machete in hand, all you see is a $200,000 dollar keratin horn. Having studied the beast you know exactly where to place your shots and deliver those immobilizing blows. You sneak up and position yourself for that perfect shot. As soon the deafening bang of your rifle breaks the savannah’s sweet silence you jump out at the dazed mother, slashing wildly at its spine. Terrified and confused the mother frantically swings her head looking for her baby, growing weaker and weaker as you persistently chop at her back. Finally, the giant collapses and you step back breathlessly, your heart pounding with triumphant adrenaline. Not wasting any time, you move to its face and begin hacking mercilessly at the living rhino’s snout, harvesting as much of the precious horn as possible. You deliver the final blow, releasing the horn. Deaf to the mother’s groans of pain you drop your machete, lift up your gory prize with a smile on your blood spattered face, and disregard the faceless animal painfully struggling with every breath it takes. You hop in your car and flee the scene leaving the baby rhino nudging at its unrecognizable mother, crying for her to get up again.Continue reading “Inside the Mind of a Poacher”

One of the Few Remaining Giants

One of the Few Remaining Giants

As a mega-herbivore, a plant-eater of more than 2,000 pounds in size, the rhinoceros is a largely visible and incredibly important portion of the African ecosystem. Due to its size alone, the rhinoceros does a brilliant job of clearing small shrubs and trees as it moves through an area. By clearing a plentiful amount of plants with its body, the rhinoceros helps to create new walkways for smaller animals, new habitats for flora to grow, and newly reachable food sources for other grazers. The rhinoceros should receive more credit than just as an ecosystem engineer, as it provides many more ecosystem services than just clearing plants.Continue reading “One of the Few Remaining Giants”

Extinction: Why Should We Care?

Extinction: Why Should We Care?

Our world is made up of carefully balanced ecosystems, where different components rely on each other. With increasing human interference over the past decades, these natural cycles have been disrupted and destroyed. As wildlife starts disappearing from ecosystems, the whole system is thrown out of balance. This cycle can essentially be described as the trophic pyramid, which refers to “the basic structure of interaction in all biological communities characterized by the manner in which food energy is passed from one trophic level to the next along the food chain.” Generally speaking, the first level starting from the bottom consists of ‘the producers’ or green plants. Those are consumed by herbivores, which find themselves on the second level of the pyramid. The third level consists of primary carnivores, which eat the herbivores. Secondary carnivores eat the primary carnivores thus completing the pyramidContinue reading “Extinction: Why Should We Care?”

The Cost of Cub Petting

The Cost of Cub Petting

Every year, thousands of tourists get caught in the trap that is cub petting. Captivated by the baby lions, tourists readily throw money at lion farms for the chance to get a photo and play with the cute and cooperative cubs. Even celebrities have been drawn in to the practice. Recently, Trevor Noah, a huge South African celebrity and new host of The Daily Show, was photographed with a captive-bred lion. In the caption of the photo, he claimed he was against the breeding of lions for canned hunting, yet he didn’t even realize that most of the cubs and young lions bred for tourist entertainment are sold to canned hunting farms once they reach a mature age. The industry, which makes its profit by allowing visitors to pet and play with baby lions, deceives tourists by telling them that their money benefits the cubs. Instead, our handling of the young lions costs them a great deal. The cubs live a short life, one that is completely controlled by humans.Continue reading “The Cost of Cub Petting”