The Effect Poaching Has on the African Elephant Population

The Effect Poaching Has on the African Elephant Population

Abstract

African Elephants have experienced adverse effects of human activity such as poaching. Studies have been conducted in different parks such as Amboseli National Park in Kenya, which illustrates how female elephants that live in a high poaching area experience high levels of a stress hormone called glucocorticoids. Poaching also causes social groups to not have a uniform mtDNA haplotypes because they lose their core group that causes weaker social bonds. The male elephants have to compete for reproductive opportunities with other males in the population. The older males have an added advantage because they show more musth than younger males. However, poaching increases male reproductive skew because it does not entirely eliminate all old males in a population. This causes a problem in maintaining genetic diversity in the elephant population. However, some human activities are positive, such as initiatives by local and international organizations like The Nature Conservancy and WWF that have put in place different measures to stop poaching in Africa.

Lian Kariuki

Wildlife Ecology

Dr. Peter Smith

11/19/14

Kariuki 2

Table of Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..3

2. Discussion………………………………………………………………………….3

a. Disruption of Kin-based Association Patterns………………………..3

b. Poaching’s Effect on how Elephants Socialize……………………….4

c. Reproductive Skew of Male Elephants……………………………….5

3. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...….7

4. Work Cited…………………………………………………………………………9

Kariuki 3

Introduction

Human beings have the capability of affecting wildlife either negatively or positively. The adverse effects of human activity, can either permanently alter the physical environment or can cause changes to an animal’s behavior. The way human beings use and manage the land can change the structure and composition of the landscape, this includes agriculture and off-road vehicle use to name a few (Steidl and Powell). There are also less obvious human activities that can affect wildlife adversely, such as wildlife viewing and hiking. However, some of the direct negative activities include poaching and retribution killings. The African Elephants have been victims of human activity especially poaching. This research paper will explore the effects of poaching that have led to the disruption of kin-based association patterns, decreased quality of how the elephants socialize, and increased reproductive skew of the male elephants.

Discussion

Disruption of Kin-based Association Patterns

Elephants are social mammals. Therefore, their kinship can determine the quality and strength of their social bond. For example, female elephants live in groups to form cooperative relationships with the other female relatives (ARCHIE & CHIYO). Elephants benefit from having relationships with their kin compared to others. A study of female elephants conducted at Amboseli National Park, Kenya demonstrated that members of the same core group, which is a fundamental unit of female relationships and are composed of two to twenty matrilocal adult females and immature offspring, spent 90% more of their time with related females in the same group (ARCHIE & CHIYO). This showed that the members of the maternal kinship were almost only mothers, offspring and maternal half siblings (ARCHIE & CHIYO). The benefits of the

Kariuki 4

elephants belonging to a group includes a decrease in a female’s stress response and increases her reproductive output (GOBUSH & WASSER 2008). However, when a female elephant lacks social bonds and lives in a home range within an area of high poaching risk, the female experiences high levels of glucocorticoids, which are stress hormones. The result of experiencing chronically high glucocorticoids has inhibitory effects on immunity, growth, and reproduction (Romero, 2004). There are also other factors that may disrupt these families such as severe drought, climate change, disease, and land compression (Wingfield, 1994). However, one of the human activities that contribute to disruption of kinship is poaching.

Poaching’s Effect on how Elephants Socialize

An additional effect of poaching is removing the older elephant population. The older population is important to the elephant community because the older female population cooperate to defend young animals against predators. They do this by forming a tight defensive ring around the young animals (Dublin, 1983). They also provide important social links between younger members of a marline, and are also thought to serve as repositories of social and ecological knowledge (McComb 200.2001;Foley 2002). However, the older animals are eliminated due to poaching, which disrupts the kin-based association patterns in elephant societies (Wittemyer 2009). A study done on the effects of poaching on kin-based social associations in five African elephant population by the University of Notre Dame illustrates that populations that have experienced heavy poaching tend to have more social groups that do not have a uniform mtDNA haplotypes. 95% of the core groups in Amboseli had uniformity of mtDNA haplotypes, compared to 91% in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya, and 67% at the Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda (Nyakaana 2001; Wittemyer 2009). This shows that areas where there was less poaching had a greater percentage of uniformity of mtDNA compared to the more

Kariuki 5

heavily poached areas. The loss of uniformity of mtDNA haplotypes within the core groups is said to occur due to the female elephants that lose their core group to poaching and join a new core group with females they are not related to (ARCHIE & CHIYO). Therefore, female elephants from disrupted core groups tend to have weaker social bonds, higher glucocorticoid levels and a lower reproductive