Elephants and People

Governments throughout the world have often tried to conserve their endemic wildlife by use of national parks. Within these parks, wildlife can thrive without the threats of poaching and other dangers caused by humans. These parks are not always successful in their purpose of saving wildlife, though. In Africa, many national wildlife conservation parks are threatened by poachers who illegally hunt the animals in the parks.
Recently, The New Yorker magazine, April 5, 2010, published an article titled “The Hunted” about two biologists who fought against poaching and tried to protect national parks in Africa from poaching. The biologists—Mark and Delia Owens—started out studying wildlife in the Kalahari desert of Botswana. After seeing hunters kill many migrating wildebeest, Mark and Delia went to the government of Botswana to try and stop the hunting. Instead of doing this, the government banned Delia and Mark from the country.
The Owenses now focused their efforts on trying to conserve animals in the North Luangwa park of Zambia. Poachers there were destroying the elephant population—it went from 70,000 elephants to 5,000 elephants. The park guards could not stop them because the poachers were better armed and had more people. Delia and Mark aided the park rangers by providing them with more pay, food, and weapons. The rangers were given permission to kill poachers on sight. Both poachers and rangers were killed in the minor war that raged to protect the elephants. In the end, the rangers won, and the elephants and other animals in the park are now safe from poachers.
How important is it for us to preserve endangered species? Biological diversity is a necessity for a healthy ecosystem—it maintains a balance among organisms. Excessive killing of organisms takes away from this diversity, and ultimately brings ecosystems out of balance, which destroys them. Therefore, the fight to conserve the elephants, whales, and other hunted species is extremely important for the survival of the different habitats and ecosystems of the world.