A Faceless Crime

The poaching problem became real today. 

For our last wildlife management class, we went to Kimana Game Sanctuary to complete a field activity in which we were assigned a species and have to write a management plan for the species.  My species was hartebeest, which is a large antelope species that is quite rare.  Needless to say, I didn’t see any hartebeest, but at least I know my management plan will be to increase the population of hartebeest in the area. 

Game sanctuaries are maintained and patrolled by game scouts, which are employed by NGOs.  The KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) may come in for extra help, but the game sanctuaries are primarily local communities responsibility.  This being said, it is very easy to come and go on game sanctuaries and there is little patrol.  There are no distinct boundaries, the game sanctuary just blends into farmland whenever it ends. 

Anyways, my car was driving around looking for our certain species when our driver, Sopiya, saw something strange in the distance.  It looked like a big, gray lump.  Through binoculars we could see it was an elephant on its side.  The good thing (or not so good depending on circumstances) about being in a game sanctuary versus a national park is you are allowed to off road and drive wherever.  We were able to drive right up next to the lump.  The closer we got, the worse the situation became.  It was a dead elephant with no face. 

Sopiya said it had probably been dead for about two days.  The smell was putrid.  The sight was worse.  An incredible, majestic elephant with it’s face cut off.  It’s trunk left behind.  There is only one reason an elephant would be missing it’s face.  Poaching. 

We have learned about poaching all semester, but seeing it up close, seeing the direct effect of poaching was too much.  It made me sick to my stomach.  Cutting off the face makes this crime seem so heartless, like the people who killed the elephant didn’t even care that this was a living creature.  It was only a good that can be sold for money.  I realize there are factors behind poaching such as poverty, but poaching is still sick and wrong.  Though, we learned from several sources that poachers are usually not the people entrenched in poverty, instead people who are well off and can afford fancy equipment. I don’t know who poached this elephant, but whoever it was took a life for the sake of money.

I’m adding a picture of the elephant.  Not to sensationalize the story or to add to the entertaining aspect of my blog, but to show you, to make people aware that this happens.  Poaching is not just a problem to learn about in a classroom or read about in a paper, it’s real and it affects all of us.  Poaching affects the social structure of animals, it affects the populations, it affects the vegetation, the habitat.  In short, it affects everyone in our global community.  And we need to stand against poaching, we need to stand against poverty, we need to realize that we all share this world and we need to start acting to ensure everyone is taken care of and that the environment is conserved.