Elephant meat: popular, and a threat - AP

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Last updated June 6, 2007 12:43 p.m. PT

Elephant meat: popular, and a threat

By CHRIS TOMLINSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The markets in the Central African Republic
offer all of the jungle's delicacies, including monkey, chimpanzee,
antelope and, if you have the cash, even elephant.

Hunters kill the elephants and cut off the ivory. Then, over grills
fueled with green tree branches, they smoke the meat for a day,
charring the outside to preserve it for the trip to town. The main
market is in Africa, where elephant meat is considered a delicacy
and where increasing populations have increased demand.

Most people believe international demand for ivory is the biggest
threat to elephants. But while wildlife experts are meeting in the
Netherlands through June 16 to discuss the ban on the ivory trade,
forest elephants - perhaps the most endangered elephant species
in the world - are being hunted to extinction not only for their
tusks, but for their meat.

"These elephants get poached a lot more than the eastern and
southern African elephants," said Karl Amman, a wildlife
photographer and investigator into the illegal trade in animals.
"I am convinced the poaching of forest elephants in the Central
African region is for the meat and ivory has become a byproduct."

-snip-

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1105AP_Africa_Eating_Elephants.html

[Dogmudgeon]

1. We should at least reintroduce elephants to North America

Africans, as a rule, don't get nearly enough protein in their diets, so when elephant bushmeat (and their own money) is available, they buy it up. And since agriculture seems to be a non-priority these days, that situation is not likely to change.

Many species are doomed to extinction. But we can save a few by relocating them. In the case of elephants, they were once common in North America, disappearing only 10,000 years ago. They would be an excellent candidate species for reintroduction.

--p!

[Nihil]

2. Yeah ...

... I bet even that kid at the petting farm would be able to hit an
elephant in a paddock!

> Many species are doomed to extinction. But we can save a few by
> relocating them.

An alternative would be to spread viral rumours about bush-meat
causing impotence, rhino-horn containing depleted uranium and
whale-meat being full of melamine ...

(Shooting poachers on sight works for me too :-) )