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The Reporter (Addis Ababa)

Ethiopia: 'Elephants Are Considered to Be a Keystone Species'

Bruck Shewareged

15 December 2007

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interview

Prof. Jeheskel (Hezy) Shoshani is an Evolutionary Biologist, and studied elephants for over thirty- five years. He is also a conservationist.

He has been with the Biology Department of Addis Ababa University since April 2007. He is also involved in a project to protect elephants found in the newly-formed Kafta-Shiraro National Park in Tigray region, northern Ethiopia.

Prof. Shoshani says he is worried about recent poaching incidents that threatened the elephants in the park.

Prof. Shoshani spoke to Bruck Shewareged about the danger that elephants face in Ethiopia, and what could be done to avert that danger. Excerpts:

How seriously are elephants in Ethiopia threatened?

In Ethiopia, there are nine isolated elephant populations. Each one of them is separated from the other. The highest number of elephants is found in Babile. These nine elephant populations are not able to communicate with each other because of human interference. The second highest population is, possibly, in Kafta-Shiraro National Park.

At the moment, relatively speaking, there isn't much threat as far as poachers are concerned. The threat might come from crop raiding, i.e. if the elephants enter farmlands, the farmers could kill them.

In Kafta-Shiraro, we have a new problem. There elephants are being killed not because they are destroying crops, but to remove their tusks. What do they do with their tusks? That, we don't know. Where is the market? That, we don't know, too. Whether the market is through Sudan to other places like Dubai, we cannot be sure. This is something we need to investigate.

The newly-formed Kafta-Shiraro park is found along the border with Eritrea, where there is tension. How secured is the park?

It is a three-month-old park. It was established at the end of July, 2007. The elephants move between Ethiopia and Eritrea. This has been part of the annual movement of elephants for thousands of years. This is not something just specific to Eritrea and Ethiopia. It happens in many places. They just move.

As far security is concerned, at the moment it is relatively safe except for these new incidents of poaching. This is quite alarming, and it is a cause for concern.

Apart from poaching, are these elephants threatened by environmental degradation?

At the moment, there isn't enough assessment of that park. It is a new park. It is a difficult question to answer. I think, it is better to say "I don't know".

How important are elephants in maintaining the ecological balance?

Elephants are considered to be a keystone species. By keystone species is meant species that can modify the habitat, and other animals benefit from that modification. For example, during the dry season, the elephants dig a hole for water. So after they dig water holes and finish drinking, other animals like monkeys, gazelles, birds etc come to drink from the water holes that the elephants have dug.

The other point is that elephants are very large animals. In fact, the African elephants are the largest living terrestrial mammals today. So, for such large mammals, they need a large home range to live in. A home range is an area where the animal moves around to search for food and water.

So to protect them, you need to protect a very large area. In the same place, you are also protecting other animals and plants. And this is another important part of the protection of large mammals. You can say elephants are keystone or super-keystone species.

What is the perception of the people around the Kafta-Shiraro park about the elephants? Do they feel threatened by the elephants that they are contributing their share to their culling or extermination elimination? Or are they friendly to the elephants?

In general, they would like to protect them. Specifically, they like to see how they can benefit from the presence of the elephants. It is a natural desire for every one to draw mutual benefit. So we are trying to do our utmost to make sure that the local people benefit from the establishment of the park and the protection of the elephants. If we are successful, they will have incentive to protect them.

You argue that continued killings of elephants could affect their genetic makeup. Would you elaborate on that?

Every animal has its charismatic character. And the elephants' most charismatic character is the tusk. The tusk is like a tooth, like yours and mine. And the tusk grows throughout the elephant's life. The tusks do not stop to grow until the elephant dies.

Now, if you remove the elephants with large tusks from the population, when they breed, the population will be left with smaller tusks. The more of these larger tusks you remove, the smaller the tusks will be in the next generation. That's where the effect will be. Without their tusks, the elephant cannot display their ability to give the best offspring to the next generation. It is a phenomenon of natural selection.

Would you tell us about the patterns of poaching, not just in Ethiopia but in general? What makes elephants exposed to poachers? Why are they not being able to defend themselves in a more effective manner?

Throughout history, mankind has used tusks for different purposes. Even Queen of Sheba brought the tusks of elephants to King Solomon as presents. The preciousness, the value of the tusks goes back to, at least, the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon's time, or even before that.

For generations, the elephants' tusks have been valued like gold. If you keep elephant tusks, it they are a hedge against inflation. In recent times, some people developed a culture of using tusks for many things. For instance, in Japan, they use tusks as personal stamps. They need a large amount of tusks to produce them.

They have middlemen to secure the tusks. The middlemen go to the poachers. The poachers get very little money. The middlemen get more money, relatively speaking. The shopkeeper gets more. This is how the market works. But eventually, the customer has to pay the price for the killings of the elephants.

Usually, farmers are not at ease with elephants as the latter are likely to enter farms and destroy their cereals or other plants. So, isn't it a real challenge to involve the people in protecting the elephants?

But one has to keep in mind that the elephants were there before human settlement. The humans came, and encroached upon the land where the ancestors of the present-day elephants have been for a long, long time. So when one says, "the elephant came into my farm", it is really not correct. The opposite is correct. Human beings had come to the land, and the elephants have continued to migrate as they have been doing for many, many generations.

The elephant-human conflict is ancient. And with the growing human population, the best way is to find a solution where both sides can benefit. We must strike a balance.

Can you tell us experiences in other parts of the world where this balance has been struck?

In South Africa, for example, in Kruger National Park, they have reached some sort of understanding. This park is especially designated for wildlife. When the elephants exceed the park's accommodation capacity, they will either kill some of them or they leave them to grow until their number eventually decrease by natural selection. These are the two possible ways. And this is one example.

You are involved in a programme together with national institutes and regional bureaus to work with the community around Kafta-Shiraro park to protect elephants. Would you tell us more about the nature of the programme?

It's just the beginning. The park was established in July of this year. Recently we began an awareness programme. We meet representatives of the local community and try to explain to them the importance of the programme.

Some of them have a basic understanding. But their constituents, meaning those who depend on them, need to know what benefit they will get.

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