e is for elephants: November 2012

Friday, November 30, 2012

From Angola to D.C.

How big was the world's largest elephant?

Josef J. Fenykovi tracked down and shot this male rogue African bush elephant by the Cuando River in Angola on November 13, 1955. After shooting it, Fenykovi donated the elephant to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. It is still on display in the center rotunda of the museum and it is still the largest known land animal ever hunted.

Info about Fenykovi's Elephant:

Height: From ground to withers, 13 feet 2 inches.
Length: From trunk tip to tail tip in straight line, 27 feet 6 inches; Whole skin from trunk tip to tail tip, 33 feet 2 inches.
Feet Length: Front, 2 feet; rear, 2 feet 1 inch.
Feet Circumference: Front, 5 feet 7 inches; rear 5 feet 2 inches.
Body Circumference: The widest point, 19 feet 8 inches.
Total Hide: weighs 2 tons

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Elephant Mouth Anatomy 101, Part Two

Did you know that an elephant's tusks are actually considered incisor teeth? The elephant uses it's tusks for digging, fighting and moving objects. Like we humans, an elephant is right-tusked or left-tusked, the same way we are right-handed or left-handed. The more dominant tusk, called the master tusk, is usually smaller due to more use. The largest elephant tusk ever recorded was 11.5 feet long, weighing 214 pounds! Remarkable!

In this picture, it is easy to tell the master tusk is on the elephant's left side.

After learning that elephants are being slaughtered with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades for their tusks (National Geographic Magazine "Blood Ivory" October, 2012), I no longer see ivory as beautiful, unless it is attached to a living elephant in the wild. Please join me in refusing to buy ivory products.

Rwanda, Africa

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

NBA Center Plays Tough "D" For Elephants

Last year saw more large-scale ivory seizures than any year in the last two decades. But retired NBA center Yao Ming is doing his part to spread the e is for elephants anti-poaching message. He is making a documentary called "The End Of Wild." Check out this trailer!

Click here if you have trouble viewing this video.

A big (up high!) high five to Yao Ming for traveling to Kenya and teaming up with the Wild Aid Organization and Ol Pajeta Conservancy to raise awareness of illegal poaching.

At Nairobi National Park, 7'6" Yao laid a wreath at a memorial monument for fallen Kenyan Wildlife Wardens.
Photo by Simon Maina / Getty Images

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Page A18, The New York TImes

“We’re here today because poachers of endangered species, who profit from wildlife crime, should not have a market in Manhattan,” the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said at a news conference this summer.

This ivory was seized from two stores in Midtown Manhattan, whose owners pleaded guilty July 12, 2012 to state charges. More than $2 million worth of goods were seized.

Photo by Todd Heisler

Article by David M. Halbfinger

The New York Times

Wildlife crime is not a problem in far away lands with "foreign" people.

It's happening right here.

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Monday, November 26, 2012

Page A1, The New York Times

"Africa is in the midst of an epic elephant slaughter. Conservation groups say poachers are wiping out tens of thousands of elephants a year, more than at any time in the previous two decades, with the underground ivory trade becoming increasingly militarized."

Written by Jeffrey Gettleman

The New York Times, September 4, 2012

"Garamba National Park, in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is a battlefield, with an arms race playing out across the savanna."

Beautiful photo by Tyler Hicks

locator map of Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Sunday, November 25, 2012

A Problem Of Supply And Demand

The ten Asian countries with the most ivory seized between 1989 and 2011

India--- 14,800 lbs.

Singapore--- 17,700 lbs.

Malaysia--- 18,800 lbs.

Japan--- 19,000 lbs.

Philippines--- 23,500 lbs.

Vietnam--- 29,600 lbs.

Taiwan--- 40,500 lbs.

Hong Kong--- 45,500 lbs.

Thailand--- 47,100 lbs.

China--- 90,600 lbs.

Statistics from National Geographic "Blood Ivory" October, 2012

This seized illegal ivory represents a fraction of the ivory that is successfully smuggled into Asia each year.

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Saturday, November 24, 2012

The High Price Of Captivity

Today I had the opportunity to meet and pet an elephant in captivity. While it was an amazing interaction, taking care of an elephant in a zoo costs 50 times more than simply protecting that same elephant in the wild!

Let's keep the elephants in the wild, protected, where they belong!

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Friday, November 23, 2012

Elephant Mouth Anatomy 101, Part One

Did you know that all elephants have 24 teeth, eight less than the average human adult? An elephant loses it's teeth just like we humans. However, it loses it's teeth throughout it's life.

And did you know that those teeth have to last an elephant a long time? Elephants can live up to 70 years old! (If not hunted for their tusks!)

An elephant's molar

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Thursday, November 22, 2012

How Do You Like Your Eggs?

Poachers are slaughtering an estimated 10,000 elephants in Tanzania annually.

---John Burnett of NPR news

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Picture of the Day

The Serengeti is a geographical region in Africa, hosting the largest migration of land mammals in the world. It is located in north Tanzania through southwest Kenya.

This NG picture was taken by Steve Fujinaka in February of this year as a submission for My Shot.

As you look at this cute baby elephant, ask yourself: who or what are you thankful for?

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

One Fish, Two Fish, What Was Dr. Seuss's Last Wish?

Isn't it interesting that Dr. Seuss wrote a book about an elephant protecting an imaginary species, the microscopic "Whos"? Was his message that it is our species that should be protecting the elephants?

"Even though the ivory trade was banned 20 years ago, a shocking 104 elephants are still being killed every day for their tusks. This alarming level of illegal hunting could drive the African elephant to extinction across much of Africa in just 15 years."

Wildlife Extra

Hereford, England

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Monday, November 19, 2012

Are Elephants Really Afraid of Mice?

"The elephant hates the mouse above all other creatures."

Pliny the Elder

77 A.D.

It has been told in many stories that elephants are afraid of mice. However, I (and the Mythbuster Team) had always dismissed this wacky idea.

Check out these animals in the wild in South Africa!

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Sunday, November 18, 2012

Pick Your Favorite, People!

Yes, I know, this is a blog for elephants, but it's okay to have an infatuation with other endangered species too!

Check out the beautiful photos below by WWF.

I challenge you to narrow down your favorites and pick only one!

Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered