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Asian Elephants
Threats
The continually growing human population of tropical Asia has encroached upon the elephant's dense but dwindling forest habitat. About 20 percent of the world's human population lives in or near the present range of the Asian elephant. Fierce competition for living space has resulted in human suffering, a dramatic loss of forest cover, and reduced Asian elephant numbers to around 25,600 to 32,750 animals in the wild.
Asian elephant populations are highly fragmented, with fewer than 10 populations comprising more than 1,000 individuals in a contiguous area, greatly decreasing their chances for survival.
Most of the National Parks and reserves where elephants occur are too small to accommodate viable elephant populations. The conversion of forested areas to agricultural use also leads to serious elephant-human conflicts. In India, up to 300 people are killed by elephants each year.
Habitat loss and conflict with humans
Male Asian elephant in natural environment. Rajaji National Park, North India
© A. Christy WILLIAMS / WWF-Canon
As human populations grow and people settle in areas that were once the sole domain of elephants, human-elephant conflicts become increasingly common. Elephants need a lot of space and a lot of food. As forest cover becomes fragmented, elephants destroy plantations and fields in their quest for food. They uproot and scatter other plants, trees, and groundcover as they forage. This puts them in direct conflict with farmers settling into elephant habitat. A single elephant can devastate a small farmer’s crop holding in one feeding raid. This makes elephants the target of retaliatory killings, especially when people are injured or killed.
Genetic threat
There has been concern about the genetic effects of reduced numbers of male big tuskers. The danger arises when they are eliminated, and poachers find it worthwhile to kill immature males for their small tusks. When tuskers are killed, the number of males in a population decreases, resulting in skewed sex ratios. This may lead to inbreeding and eventually to high juvenile mortality and overall low breeding success. Removing large tuskers also reduces the probability that these longer-living lone males will mate and exchange genes with females of different sub-populations. Habitat loss also creates the danger that elephants are becoming confined to habitat ‘islands’ as isolated populations that cannot follow ancient migratory routes or mix with other herds, and as a result could become inbred.
Capture of wild elephants
The capture of wild elephants for domestic use has become a threat to some wild populations where numbers have been seriously reduced. India, Vietnam, and Myanmar have banned capture in order to conserve their wild herds, but in Myanmar elephants are still caught each year for the timber and tourist industries or illegal wildlife trade.
Unfortunately, crude capture methods have led to a high mortality level. Efforts are being made not only to improve safety but also to encourage captive breeding rather than taking from the wild. With nearly 30 percent of the remaining Asian elephants in captivity, attention needs to be paid to improved care and targeted breeding programs.
Illegal wildlife trade
Even where suitable habitat exists, poaching remains a threat to elephants in many areas. In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) banned the international trade in ivory. However, there are still some thriving but unregulated domestic ivory markets in a number of countries which fuel an illegal international trade. Although most of this ivory comes from poaching of African elephants, Asian elephants are also illegally hunted for their ivory, as well as for their skin. In some countries, political unrest is disrupting anti-poaching activities.
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