{"id":6642,"date":"2012-01-04T01:12:53","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T23:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/01\/elephant-population-in-tanzania-sanctuaries-drops\/"},"modified":"2012-01-04T01:12:53","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T23:12:53","slug":"elephant-population-in-tanzania-sanctuaries-drops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/elephant-population-in-tanzania-sanctuaries-drops\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephant population in Tanzania sanctuaries drops"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">DAR ES SALAAM<\/span> Jan 3 (Reuters) &#8211; The number of<br \/>\nelephants in two wildlife sanctuaries in Tanzania has fallen by<br \/>\nnearly 42 percent in just three years, a census showed on<br \/>\nTuesday, as poachers increasingly killed the animals for their<br \/>\ntusks.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The census at the Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National<br \/>\nPark revealed elephant numbers had plunged to 43,552 in 2009<br \/>\nfrom 74,900 in 2006.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It was carried out by the east African country&#8217;s wildlife<br \/>\nauthority, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, as part of a<br \/>\ngovernment plan to conserve wildlife.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The rapid fall prompted President Jakaya Kikwete to order an<br \/>\ninvestigation, his office said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Conservationists estimate Tanzania has a total elephant<br \/>\npopulation of between 110,000 and 140,000, making it one of the<br \/>\nlargest sanctuaries in Africa.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>But in recent years, Tanzania and neighbouring Kenya have<br \/>\nsuffered a steep rise in poaching as criminals killed elephants<br \/>\nand rhinos for their tusks and horns for sale in Asia.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>TRAFFIC, a conservation group that tracks trends in wildlife<br \/>\ntrading, said in a statement last week that 2011 had been a<br \/>\nrecord year for ivory seizure. It pointed to a surge in elephant<br \/>\npoaching in Africa to meet Asian demand for tusks for use in<br \/>\njewelry and ornaments.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Elephants, the world&#8217;s largest land mammals, are also under<br \/>\npressure in many parts of the continent from loss of habitat to<br \/>\nhumans, pollution and climate change. Their number has fallen to<br \/>\n470,000-685,000 from millions just decades ago, conservationists<br \/>\nsay.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Kikwete also ordered the Tanzania Wildlife Research<br \/>\nInstitute to investigate the disappearance of the rare<br \/>\nRoosevelt&#8217;s sable antelope from national parks, and to look for<br \/>\nways of re-introducing the animal in at least in one of the<br \/>\nparks, the statement said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The last Convention on International Trade in Endangered<br \/>\nSpecies (CITES) in 2007 agreed to a nine-year moratorium on any<br \/>\nfurther trade in ivory, after some 105 tonnes of elephant ivory<br \/>\nhad been sold from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe<br \/>\nto China and Japan.\t<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Fumbuka Ngw&#8217;anakilala; Editing by Duncan Miriri<br \/>\nand Alessandra Rizzo)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DAR ES SALAAM Jan 3 (Reuters) &#8211; 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}