DAR ES SALAAM Jan 3 (Reuters) – The number of
elephants in two wildlife sanctuaries in Tanzania has fallen by
nearly 42 percent in just three years, a census showed on
Tuesday, as poachers increasingly killed the animals for their
tusks.
The census at the Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National
Park revealed elephant numbers had plunged to 43,552 in 2009
from 74,900 in 2006.
It was carried out by the east African country’s wildlife
authority, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, as part of a
government plan to conserve wildlife.
The rapid fall prompted President Jakaya Kikwete to order an
investigation, his office said on Tuesday.
Conservationists estimate Tanzania has a total elephant
population of between 110,000 and 140,000, making it one of the
largest sanctuaries in Africa.
But in recent years, Tanzania and neighbouring Kenya have
suffered a steep rise in poaching as criminals killed elephants
and rhinos for their tusks and horns for sale in Asia.
TRAFFIC, a conservation group that tracks trends in wildlife
trading, said in a statement last week that 2011 had been a
record year for ivory seizure. It pointed to a surge in elephant
poaching in Africa to meet Asian demand for tusks for use in
jewelry and ornaments.
Elephants, the world’s largest land mammals, are also under
pressure in many parts of the continent from loss of habitat to
humans, pollution and climate change. Their number has fallen to
470,000-685,000 from millions just decades ago, conservationists
say.
Kikwete also ordered the Tanzania Wildlife Research
Institute to investigate the disappearance of the rare
Roosevelt’s sable antelope from national parks, and to look for
ways of re-introducing the animal in at least in one of the
parks, the statement said.
The last Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) in 2007 agreed to a nine-year moratorium on any
further trade in ivory, after some 105 tonnes of elephant ivory
had been sold from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe
to China and Japan.
(Reporting by Fumbuka Ngw’anakilala; Editing by Duncan Miriri
and Alessandra Rizzo)
