Poaching

Hi everyone
Remember in my last blog, I told you I would write a blog about poaching? Well, here it is.  Poaching usually happens to the animals considered the big 5. Rhino, elephant, leopard, cape buffalo, and lion. They are hunted for trophies. The rhino for its horn, elephant for its ivory tusk, leopard for its skin, cape buffalo for its head, and lion for its claws and teeth. They are also hunted because they are big and the most dangerous to hunt.

Rhinos and elephants are the most hunted/poached nowadays. The rhino horn is used for aphrodisiac. Since it gets turned into dust, it is easy to sneak out of the country. A few weeks ago 5 rhinos were given to Tanzania from South Africa. This was a gift and while we were on safari, one of the gifted rhinos was poached in the Serengeti. Since it is such a large area, it's almost impossible to keep it patrolled. 

In 2007, there were three men in the Ngorongoro who poached three elephants.  Eight rangers found the camp of the poachers so the poachers shot at the rangers killing 2 and injuring one of them. The rangers shot back and killed 2 of the poachers and injured one. They interviewed the one who was injured, and found out that he was from Somalia. The three poachers had disguised themselves as Masaai so that no one would suspect them.

Poaching doesn't happen very often any more, but it still happens. Some of the international laws forbidding the export of ivory has helped decrease elephant poaching. I hope everyone who wants to will do their share to help stop poaching.  There is a good kids book on this topic called Akimbo and the Elephants. Emilia and I both liked it.

Good bye for now.....