Trophy hunting psychologically damaging to elephants

[Techno-Druid]

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If you were an elephant, you might be puzzling over human behavior this week. On Monday, the animal-rights attorney Steven Wise filed a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of three privately owned Asian elephants, arguing that the animals are “legal persons” who have a right to bodily liberty and should be free to live in a sanctuary. Then, on Thursday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the remains of elephants legally hunted in Zimbabwe and Zambia could now be legally imported to the United States as trophies.

The idea that killing more elephants will help save the species is counterintuitive, and its line of reasoning is difficult for many conservation organizations to support: Let rich hunters pay hefty sums to shoot elephants, and use the money to help conservation efforts and local communities. Supposedly, the villagers won’t then need to poach elephants to feed their families and pay their kids’ school fees. Still, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, a respected organization that sets the conservation status for all species, supports the notion.

But the evidence that “hunting elephants saves them” is thin. The hunting-safari business employs few people, and the money from fees that trickles down to the villagers is insignificant. A 2009 report from the IUCN revealed that sport hunting in West Africa does not provide significant benefits to the surrounding communities. A more recent report by an Australian economic-analysis firm for Humane Society International found that trophy hunting amounts to less than 2 percent of tourism revenue in eight African countries that permit it.

“It was an awful time,” Poole recalled, “because on one side, the elephants learned to trust tourists—generally white people—in cars. From our studies, we know they can smell the difference between whites and local people. They also distinguish us by our languages. They know people who speak Maa, the language of the local Maasai people, may throw spears at them; those who speak English don’t.” However, the tables were turned on the Tanzanian side of the border. There, white people in cars who drove up close to see an elephant might lean out with a camera—or a rifle.

“The elephants didn’t run because they didn’t expect to be shot,” Poole said. Two of the large males she was studying were lost this way to trophy hunters. She and others protested to the Tanzanian government, and these particular hunting blocks were eventually closed.

Poole does not know how the loss of these big males, who’d fathered many calves, affected the other elephants. Female elephants, though, do mourn family members who die, and are especially troubled when the matriarch, their leader, passes.

I think this is deeply troubling. Unlike the ungulates mostly found (and hunted within Africa), elephants are incredibly emotionally complex and actively rely on one another for survival. They're also one of the only species besides from humans that can develop PTSD and have been known to attack villages after culls, many believing these to be acts of retaliation.

[Celista]

They're also one of the only species besides from humans that can develop PTSD and have been known to attack villages after culls, many believing these to be acts of retaliation.

My dog cried for three days after her best friend the cat passed away. Animals mourn. If you work with abused animals in shelters you can see the long term effects of abuse on some of them, including nightmares.

I am fairly certain PTSD is not limited to elephants, even if its manifestation may be somewhat different from species to species.

[Techno-Druid]

My dog cried for three days after her best friend the cat passed away. Animals mourn. If you work with abused animals in shelters you can see the long term effects of abuse on some of them, including nightmares.

I am fairly certain PTSD is not limited to elephants, even if its manifestation may be somewhat different from species to species.

Dogs can definitely develop PTSD based off traumatic events and memories. To clarify I never said elephants are the only other species capable of developing PTSD, but one of the few known to.

They're the only other species to bury their dead and are probably up there with certain cetaceans in terms of emotional complexity.

[Deleted]

Trophy hunting should be allowed, except the hunters get no weapons. Go prove what a man you are by killing these animals with your hands!

No that is not fair, better to give them equal weapons so the hunter gets to carry as many spears as he can carry. The elephant has tusks and a trunk, the man gets sharp sticks and a club.

[ArguesWithStrangers]

Lol I'm pretty sure the psychological effects are the least of their worries. Harambe had it coming by the way.

[Deleted]

The man has teeth and his arms/legs. If he can't finish the fight he shouldn't pick it.

The elephant is welcome to use whatever it can craft using local materials as well.

[PACOX]

The people who can afford such "sport" have enough money/power/infuence to not give a damn about what the rest of the world thinks about their "sport". Even in the world of hunting for sport, these big game hunters arent always viewed in a favorable because their practice is akin to shooting fish in a barrel. High powered rifles, guides who know where the animals are/guarding the "hunters", animals with few predators. All the money these people have couldn't they just shoot the elephants with darts to say they "got it"? There is nothing honorable in the world of hunting about shooting elephants. If these people didn't have money we'd be saying they similar to people who go around killing cats and dogs.

[Nazrark]

Should hunt the way humanity used to. Just chase the other animal until they die of exhaustion and claim victory.

[Super Kami Dende]

The man has teeth and his arms/legs. If he can't finish the fight he shouldn't pick it.

Well he can, as Man has proven many times, we can finish any fight against an Animal. It's why we invented Weapons.

[LilSaihah]

No that is not fair, better to give them equal weapons so the hunter gets to carry as many spears as he can carry. The elephant has tusks and a trunk, the man gets sharp sticks and a club.

No we should just let people have the gun.

But the elephant has a gun too. An elephant-sized gun.

[Kalis]

I saw a video of an elephant hunt, all perfectly legal. The man had paid for guides to find him an elephant to shoot, he shot once and then all the guides opened fire. It was odd, he’d paid all that money for other people to kill an elephant and he was elated.

Deer stalking, pheasant shooting and the like I can understand, you kill them and get to eat them, but why would you want to pay all that money for other people to kill an animal you aren’t even going to eat? It’s not really trophy hunting or food hunting.

[melodramocracy]

"B... but people rely on that game hunting moneeeeyyy reeeeeeeeeeeee" is about as useful as claiming that slavery should make a comeback because it's economically efficient.

[Delana]

You do realize that not having trophy hunters willing to drop 6 figures to hunt an elephant is the only reason there are still elephants in Africa, right?

[Deleted]

"B... but people rely on that game hunting moneeeeyyy reeeeeeeeeeeee" is about as useful as claiming that slavery should make a comeback because it's economically efficient.

We're capable of economic efficiency without slavery, conservation efforts in poor countries however, have far less reliable forms of income without hunting.

[Techno-Druid]

You do realize that not having trophy hunters willing to drop 6 figures to hunt an elephant is the only reason there are still elephants in Africa, right?

Bull elephants will often form coalitions with older more experienced ones. Older, wiser elephants can be vital for the long term survival of younger, less experienced elephants.

Seems as if they're doomed either way...

[Video Games]

Me too which is why i don't platinum very many games

[Thoughtful Trolli]

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I think this is deeply troubling. Unlike the ungulates mostly found (and hunted within Africa), elephants are incredibly emotionally complex and actively rely on one another for survival. They're also one of the only species besides from humans that can develop PTSD and have been known to attack villages after culls, many believing these to be acts of retaliation.

If you could save 1 million human lives and restore them to at least a comfort above abject poverty where all their basic needs are met though they must work for them, by dissolving and eliminating the entire remainder of elephant species forever, I know which choice I'd make.

Obviously, ur not worth a dime, you human sellout scum. (but that's just a retort based on the choice I imagine YOU would make.)

[Techno-Druid]

If you could save 1 million human lives and restore them to at least a comfort above abject poverty where all their basic needs are met though they must work for them, by dissolving and eliminating the entire remainder of elephant species forever, I know which choice I'd make.

Obviously, ur not worth a dime, you human sellout scum. (but that's just a retort based on the choice I imagine YOU would make.)

Just one million out of seven billion humans? For the extinction of a keystone species that indirectly positively effects humans by maintaining the ecosystem which they hunt and farm on? Seems like a pretty bad choice.

[Deletedaccount1]

Just one million out of seven billion humans? For the extinction of a keystone species that indirectly positively effects humans by maintaining the ecosystem which they hunt and farm on? Seems like a pretty bad choice.

I can't imagine that there's enough elephants left in the wild for them to truly be a keystone species.

[Techno-Druid]

I can't imagine that there's enough elephants left in the wild for them to truly be a keystone species.

There are around 700,000 elephants in the wilds of Africa. Not a large number by any measure, but their impact is important anyway within the ecosystems they're present in. It's one of the primary reasons Harvard scientists like George Church are trying to recreate the mammoth in some shape or form to reintroduce them back to Siberia to turn the low-diversity tundras into rich, steppe.