http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/elephant-relocation-scheme-fails/
Summary: There has been searches in order to preserve the lives of both elephants and humans without hurting the other. In order to prevent the killings of elephants and people by the other, there were relocation's of elephants to different areas. and what they expected wasn't what resulted. People believed the elephants would be now peaceful and out of harms way, but instead they wandered from the relocated area. The relocated elephants also killed more people than those elephants who were kept in their original environments. Human-elephant conflicts are continuous, about 70 people and 200 elephants die each year due to those conflicts; and it was thought that the safest thing to do was to move the elephants to national parks. There was a study conducted where 12 "problematic" male elephants were relocated, and another 12 "problematic"male elephants were kept in the natural environment. Two of the relocated elephants were killed in the national park, and the rest of the elephants wandered off- some even returning to their beginning area of stay. Five more elephants died after release and some of those relocated elephants were responsible for the killings of people. The 12 elephants who were kept in their own environment, however, didn't kill anyone- one of the elephants was killed and shot. There are only 35,000 to 50,000 Asian elephants and there are searches of new possibilities to keep both humans and elephants out of entanglements.
|
Reflection: In my opinion, elephants shouldn't have to be relocated anywhere. They are amazing creatures who are scared and protective of their kind; the reason for the killings of people might not have been intentional, but a way of life. Similar to the lions, tigers, and other predators- they have their own way of acting and we respect it by knowing what they could do if we were to provoke them in anyway. Those elephants who weren't relocated didn't kill anyone, but yet an elephant was killed. Nature and those animals living within nature is an example of how we as humans should be; they are caring for their environment and respect it by limiting their selves to what they know they can have. Most of us, on the other hand, just want more and more without caring what or who we have to get out of the way to get it. The killings of people aren't allowed, so then why should the killings of animals be allowed? I understand animals like chickens are a source of food, but we eat more than we really need. So I believe that to find a solution, we have to understand that we are part of the problem as well.
|