An orphan elephant with its keeper in Kenya, where drought has led to many animal deaths
It’s become commonplace for nature series to end with a stark warning about our planet’s future, in the same vein as a parent making a child finish their vegetables. When that parent is Sir David Attenborough, though, we’ll happily eat our greens.
The final episode of A Perfect Planet (BBC One) tackled Earth’s newest and most destructive force. No, not social media “influencers”. It’s us actual humans.
The 94-year-old naturalist began with a reminder of his credentials, not that it was needed. “For over 60 years, I’ve been privileged to witness the natural world in all its wonder,” he said in that familiar impassioned whisper. “But the planet I saw as a young man has changed beyond recognition.”
The country’s Environment Ministry is defending the January 29 auction as a conservation strategy, but conservations say the move is based on false population statistics, disputed claims of human-elephant conflict and puts 3% of Namibia’s last elephants up for sale
Namibian elephants in Etosha. Conservationists estimate that between 73 to 84 percent of the government’s quoted elephant population figure consists of ‘trans-boundary’ elephants, those moving between Namibia, Angola Zambia and Botswana. They put the resident elephant population in Namibia at 5,688. They are worried that with 170 heading to the auction block, Namibia is losing 3 percent of its elephant population.
Courtesy: Stephan Scholvin
The country’s Environment Ministry is defending the January 29 auction as a conservation strategy, but conservationits say the move is based on false population statistics, disputed claims of human-elephant conflict and puts 3% of Namibia’s last elephants up for sale
Namibian elephants in Etosha. Conservationists estimate that between 73 to 84 percent of the government’s quoted elephant population figure consists of ‘trans-boundary’ elephants, those moving between Namibia, Angola Zambia and Botswana. They put the resident elephant population in Namibia at 5,688. They are worried that with 170 heading to the auction block, Namibia is losing 3 percent of its elephant population. Courtesy: Stephan Scholvin
Namibia is selling the wild elephants, despite the outcry. Photo supplied
The Namibian government will put 170 wild elephants up for sale today, 29 January, justified by false population statistics and disputed claims of human-elephant conflict. More than 100,000 people have signed a petition condemning the action… writes
Don Pinnock, Daily Maverick.
See petition here.
The Namibian government says it has too many elephants and that the 170 are problem-causing animals. According to professional guide and conservationist Stephan Scholvin, about 90 are to be captured on former indigenous San ancestral lands which have been seized and distributed to political elites. They sold logging rights in the area to the Chinese, who have “completely decimated” the endangered African rosewoods.