Elephant Pictures: Killed Female Highlights Poaching Rise

Elephant Elder
Photograph by David Hamlin, National Geographic
Khadija, an African elephant matriarch in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve, stands with members of her herd in late June, just weeks before she was gunned down by poachers and stripped of her tusks.
When this photograph was taken, Khadija was suffering from bullet wounds from a failed poaching attempt. She survived her injuries after being treated by members of the Nairobi-based nonprofit Save the Elephants. But on July 12 she was targeted again and killed.
Khadija was about 45 years old when she died. She left behind eight orphan elephants, including three of her own female calves. (Get the inside story of an orphan-elephant rescue center in the most recent issue of National Geographic magazine.)
According to a paper in this week's issue of the journal Nature, more Samburu elephants have been poached in the past 2.5 years than in the previous 11. In fact, 2011 has been especially bad for the Samburu herds: The highest poaching rates yet were recorded in the first five months of this year.
"Khadija is actually the eighth or ninth known elephant to be poached this year," said George Wittemyer, scientific director of Save the Elephants and a co-author of the Nature article.
Also read a Q&A about the recent rise in elephant poaching with Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton >>
—Ker Than
Published August 17, 2011
Medicine for the Matriarch
Photograph by David Hamlin, National Geographic
Khadija lies unconscious from a tranquilizer dart in a picture taken earlier this summer, a few weeks before she was killed by poachers. The mature elephant had been drugged so rescue workers from Save the Elephants and the Northern Rangelands Trust could approach her to remove bullets from a failed poaching attempt. The team also used the opportunity to fit her with a radio collar.
"We only put radio collars on select elephants," Wittemyer said. "In [Khadija's] case, we wanted to treat her wounds from this first gunshot barrage, monitor her health, and see where she was going, to possibly gain insight on where she was attacked."
Now that Khadija is dead, the survival of the orphans in her herd—which range from 4 to about 12 years old—is uncertain, scientists say. (See more pictures of Samburu's elephants.)
"Family groups that are led by a younger, less experienced female tend to have higher mortality rates, especially during drought periods," Wittemyer said. "They don't have the ecological knowledge of where to go [for water and to forage] during harsh periods or know how to respond to threatening situations."
(Also see "Elephants, Other Iconic Animals Dying in Kenya Drought.")
Published August 17, 2011
Herd of Trumpets
Photograph by David Hamlin, National Geographic
Eight young elephants in Khadija's herd trumpeted from a safe distance (above) as rescue workers removed bullets from the sedated matriarch in late June.
Save the Elephants founder Douglas-Hamilton says the recent spike in elephant killings in Samburu is driven in part by rising demand for ivory in Asia—China in particular. (Also see "Elephants Decimated in Congo Park; China Demand Blamed.")
"The price of ivory is so high now that it provides an exceptional incentive to local criminals to turn toward elephant poaching," said Douglas-Hamilton, who is also a co-author on this week's Nature article about elephant poaching in Samburu. (Douglas-Hamilton is a past grantee of the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)
"The only way to stop [the poaching] is to lower the demand for ivory, and that means reaching the hearts and minds of the Chinese people."
Published August 17, 2011
Elephant Collar
Photograph by David Hamlin, National Geographic
Rescue workers outfit an unconscious Khadija with a sturdy radio collar in a picture taken in late June.
Until recently, Samburu had been an elephant success story, said Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants. Elephants at the reserve, ravaged by poaching in the 1970s and '80s, had been recovering and had become one of the tamest and most trusting populations in Africa. (Related pictures: "Dying Elephant Elicits 'Compassion.'")
But a report recently released by Save the Elephants warns that "above average human and natural caused mortality" caused the Samburu elephant population to decline by more than 16 percent—or 119 elephants—since 2009.
African elephants are currently listed as vulnerable, which means they're facing a high risk of extinction in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Published August 17, 2011
Elephant's Struggle
Photograph by David Hamlin, National Geographic
Even when the tranquilizer had worn off, Khadija was unable to get back on her feet, and rescue workers were forced to use desperate measures to get the elephant upright again so she could rejoin the herd.
Male elephants surpass females in size by the age of 18 or so, which means poachers can get more ivory from males, making them more common targets. Recent poaching of male elephants in Samburu has created a population with more than double the number of females to males, Wittemyer said.
But "poachers are now also targeting adult females, resulting in the loss of one or more in most families and leaving roughly one in five groups with no mature females," he wrote in the Nature article. "The number of orphans in the population is increasing rapidly."
(Related: "African Elephants Slaughtered in Herds Near Chad Wildlife Park.")
Published August 17, 2011
Back on Her Feet
Photograph by David Hamlin, National Geographic
Eventually rescue workers got Khadija standing and released her to the wild, as seen in a picture taken in late June. But it wasn't long before another encounter with poachers proved fatal.
In the wake of her death, the fate of Khadija's herd is still unclear. One of the older orphans could take over as matriarch, but even if the group sticks together, their future offspring could be at risk.
"There's evidence that mothering skills in part are learned from a young female's family," Wittemyer told National Geographic News. "So we don't know if [Khadija's death] is going to affect the survival of these orphan's calves when they do breed." (Related: "'Never Forgetting' Helps Elephants Survive, Study Says.")
Published August 17, 2011
Shattered Lives
Photograph courtesy Save the Elephants
The protective casing of Khadija's radio collar was shot (above) when the elephant was killed by poachers in July.
Save the Elephants is taking steps toward thwarting poachers, including providing supplies and vehicles to local communities and anti-poaching units so they can respond to incidents more quickly.
"We need to have local people sitting up on hills with their mobile phones and telephoning us when they hear gunshots, and there needs to be a quick response to the gunshots," Douglas-Hamilton said.
"We're dealing with what we hope is a short-term spike, and if we get onto it fast, it won't be a tectonic change" for the Samburu elephants. (Also see "Record Ivory Cache Traced to Zambia Elephants, DNA Shows.")
Published August 17, 2011
Dying Young
Photograph courtesy Save the Elephants
Save the Elephants founder Douglas-Hamilton examines the body of a dead elephant calf in Samburu National Reserve in July. The animal was not part of Khadija's group and appears to have died of natural causes—but that may mean the calf lost its mother and starved, the conservationists say.
(See pictures of elephant orphans at a Kenya rescue center.)
Such orphans are often the indirect casualties of poaching, driven by the high prices ivory can fetch. According to the Nature article, the ivory from the largest male elephant poached in Samburu was worth the same as about 1.5 years' salary for a wildlife ranger or 15 years' salary for an unskilled worker in Kenya.
To combat such prices, likely driven by demand in Asia, Save the Elephants is working with the for-profit Heritage Group on a campaign to educate people in China about how the ivory trade is decimating African elephant populations.
"I don't think the Chinese are the least bit aware of what the buying does," Douglas-Hamilton said. "If the buying stops, the killing can, too."
Published August 17, 2011
Poaching Aftermath
Photograph courtesy Save the Elephants
Local community scouts and members of Save the Elephants stand by the body of Khadija the day after she was killed by poachers for her tusks in July.
Save the Elephants' Douglas-Hamilton recalled being horrified when he heard the news: "I saw it happen before in the 1970s and 1980s," he said. (Related: "17 Elephants Butchered for Ivory in African Park.")
"We had a holocaust of elephants in those days. I hoped to never see it repeated, and now I'm worried we're at a new tipping point."
Published August 17, 2011
Burning Contraband
Photograph by Sayyid Azim, AP
Save the Elephants' Douglas-Hamilton stands in front of confiscated ivory as it burns at Kenya Wildlife Training School in Manyani in July. The burning was done to prevent the illegally obtained ivory from being sold on the black market.
When it comes to demand for elephant ivory, "we often talk about China, because they're the emerging force out there, but the U.S. is the number two market," Wittemyer said. (See "U.S. One of Largest Ivory Markets, New Study Says.")
"The U.S. is by no means innocent."
Published August 17, 2011