Thread: Is it wrong to try to get my hands on some of this?

Originally Posted by gregs656

But, the last sentance of that blub would allow me to be correct to some degree. We all have our priorities. I appreciate that there has been a huge fall in the over all population, but I didn't actually disagree with that in the first place...Oh, I'm sorry I was confused by this statement you made earlier: "I believe there are more elephants in parts of Africa than have ever been seen before..."

My comments in blue

Well, there are, at least much greater concentrations due to the national parks.

This is what I have been taught, both in college and in Kenya when we were shown some of the damage elephants do. I think kenya once had an elephant population around 140K, it's about 30K now I think. Concentrations are different though.

I could be repeating something, but my Dad is a vet and has worked with the Krueger Park (probably one of the best game reserves in the world, the only place you can see all the big five at once) and he did a lot of work with elephants and breeding and making sure the herds were healthy. When an animal dies of natural causes, or the herd gets too big and they cull one or two, then the ivory is sold, but it is very very expensive. BTW, culling the herd IS necessary, as elephants aren't these harmless things everyone talks about and sees at the zoo. In the wild they knock whole trees down, strip all the bark off of them, eat all the foliage, etc. A manageable herd size this will be fine, if the herd overpopulates they begin to literally destroy acres of habitat, which will eventually lead to their starvation, and the starvation of other species as well.