One of the most dangerous jobs of all times: Wildlife Rangers

Photo from the Game Ranger Association of Africa

An African elephant is poached for its ivory every 26 minutes, according to IFAW. The difference between life and death for these endangered animals is often a wildlife ranger.

However, being a ranger is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Recent survey showed that almost 80% had faced a life threatening encounter while protecting Africa’s remaining wild places.

On May 2022, a 36-year old field ranger in the Kruger National Park, Respect Mathebula, was tragically killed during a confrontation with a buffalo. Though it is an unfortunate loss, death amongst rangers are not rare occurrences. Since 2020, about 150 rangers have died during their duty from different and oftentimes gruesome circumstances. In 2021, our partner, the Game Ranger Association of Africa, recorded at least 15 rangers killed by poachers, militia, and terrorists. Many also die from illnesses bred from harsh working conditions.

Portrait of the recently killed KPN ranger, Respect Mathebula. Photo by UN Environment/GEF Rhino Project

“Very few people have the courage and necessary skills to perform the important undertaking other than Rangers.” the Acting Chief Executive of South African National Parks (SANParks), Dumisani Dlamini, remarked after the Mathebula’s death. To protect the endangered wildlife, many of these rangers put themselves between a bullet and an animal, sacrificing their lives for a cause that they believe in. Many forget that these rangers, though brave, are individuals with friends, families, and a community they belong to. Their deaths not only bring deep emotional distress, but also financial burden upon those around them.

There are currently 40,000 rangers worldwide, yet only 1,600 of them carry accident insurance. For only USD50 per annum, good cover can be bought to protect those who are protecting our wildlife. With your help, their families have something to fall back upon should something go wrong.

Sources:

https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2139

https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/dangerous-job-south-african-wildlife-rangers-despite-new-technology

https://www.sapeople.com/2022/05/05/kruger-field-ranger-tragically-killed-during-confrontation-with-buffalo/


Lake Victoria Run

A total journey of 3,500km around Lake Victoria for The Elephant Foundation.

In July 2022 Wong Chun Kiu (CK) will run from New York to Los Angeles, a distance of some 4,500km to raise funds and awareness for the Hong Kong Network for the Promotion of Inclusive Society (HKNPIS). He will also run around Lake Victoria in the autumn of 2024 to raise funds for The Elephant Foundation (TEF) and at the same time raise awareness of the causes we support as part of our 10 year anniversary. This will be a distance of about 3,500 km.

Each epic journey will take approximately 4 months, involves a significant amount of planning and is a sizeable logistical exercise. While the Trans America Run has been in the planning for a while and is about to begin The Elephant Foundation is just starting the planning for the 2024 run. For this both charities need support and a good following to give CK the boost he needs to complete the programmes. The Elephant Foundation is arranging a dinner at the Hong Kong Club on 7th July where CK can be met and where he will talk about the journeys ahead of him.

Our Fundraising dinner is set for the 7th of July 2022, therefore please click on the Dinner RSVP button below and email us to participate in this dinner for a good cause!

Date: 7th July 2022 (Thursday)

Price: HKD1,500 (per person)

Venue: The Hong Kong Club




Happy the Elephant Isn't Legally a Person, Top New York Court Rules

News Source : The New York Times

Happy the elephant. Image source: BBC

An Asian elephant named Happy that has been at the Bronx Zoo for more than 40 years will remain there after New York’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that she is not a person, in a legal sense, and therefore not entitled to a fundamental human right.

By a 5-to-2 vote, the Court of Appeals rejected an animal-advocacy organization’s argument that Happy was being illegally detained at the zoo and should be transferred to a more natural environment.

The dispute hinged on whether the cornerstone legal principle of habeas corpus — which people assert to protect their bodily liberty and to contest illegal confinement — should be extended to autonomous, cognitively complex animals like elephants. No, the court said.

“While no one disputes the impressive capabilities of elephants, we reject petitioner’s arguments that it is entitled to seek the remedy of habeas corpus on Happy’s behalf,” Janet DiFiore, the chief judge, wrote. “Habeas corpus is a procedural vehicle intended to secure the liberty rights of human beings who are unlawfully restrained, not nonhuman animals.”

But in a lengthy dissent, Judge Rowan D. Wilson said the court had a duty “to recognize Happy’s right to petition for her liberty not just because she is a wild animal who is not meant to be caged and displayed, but because the rights we confer on others define who we are as a society.”

Judge Jenny Rivera, in a separate dissent, wrote that Happy was being “held in an environment that is unnatural to her and that does not allow her to live her life as she was meant to: as a self-determinative, autonomous elephant in the wild.”

The ruling ended what appears to be the first case of its kind in the English-speaking world to reach so high a court. And while it keeps Happy where she is, the outcome is unlikely to quell the debate over whether highly intelligent animals should be viewed as something other than things or property.

The case was brought by the Nonhuman Rights Group, an animal-advocacy organization, as part of a long-running legal push to free captive animals. Last month, even as Happy’s fate hung in the balance, the group asserted a habeas claim seeking to have three elephants removed from a Fresno, Calif., zoo.

In a statement on Tuesday, the group focused on the dissenting opinions, saying they offered “tremendous hope for a future where elephants no longer suffer as Happy has and where nonhuman rights are protected alongside human rights.”

The group had sought to have Happy moved from the Bronx Zoo, which it called a “prison” for her, to one of two vast elephant sanctuaries, which it described as more natural settings that would make Happy’s life happier.

“She’s a depressed, screwed-up elephant,” Steven Wise, the group’s founder, said in an interview before the ruling was announced.



Elephant Kills Woman Then Returns to Funeral and Tramples Corpse

Another example of human-wildlife conflict.

An elephant that killed a woman in India returned to her funeral and trampled on her corpse, local police have said.

The 70-year-old woman, Maya Murmu, was attacked by the wild elephant as she walked to collect water in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district, Indian news outlet The Print reported.

The elephant had strayed from the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary, which lies about 10 miles from the city of Jamshedpur.

After the elephant attacked Murmu, she was rushed to hospital, but she succumbed to her injuries, Lopamudra Nayak, an inspector at the Rasgovindpur police station, told The Print.

Later, as family members gathered to perform a funeral for Murmu, the wild tusker appeared once again.

It approached the pyre and grabbed the body, The Print reported. The elephant then trampled on her body again, and threw it away before fleeing.

The funeral was completed a few hours later.

Duncan McNair, a lawyer and founder of conservation charity Save The Asian Elephants, told Newsweek that this incident is a reminder that although gentle creatures, elephants can be "dangerous and deadly."

However, McNair said these incidents rarely happen without the elephant having been provoked in someway. "These endangered elephants can be deadly dangerous, particularly when provoked or abused," he said.

He said that Asian elephants are particularly subject to "torture and stabbing" for easy use in the tourism industry.

"Elephants are generally benign, and passive ... they don't rush out of nowhere to attack people that pose no threat to their safety, or babies or to anything like that," he said. "[This incident] is surprising because it shows no provocation of the elephant..."

McNair said the elephant coming back and handling the body during the body, could be down to their "extraordinary cognitive abilities."

"It's just possible that if [the elephant] was in proximity still at the time of the funeral, and that's not clear, that it will have recognised the remains. And it may have seen or smelled that and it may have associated that woman with some catastrophe to it or it's herd. That is quite possible," he said.

Conflict on the Rise

Human and elephant conflict is on the rise across the world because the loss of the animals' natural habitat is forcing elephants into closer proximity with residential areas.

Climate change is also making life harder for elephants. As the temperature increases, water sources are more likely to dry up, causing elephants to hunt out new resources, and this can cause them to come into contact with humans. Odisha's Mayurbhanj district has suffered severe droughts in recent years.

Fragmented habitats can cause "crop raiding" instances, when elephants stray onto farmlands in search of food and water, ruining growing crops as they do so.

News source from Newsweek, retrieved on June 13th 2022

Non-Profit Organization

The Elephant Foundation supports Rangers Insurance, Elephant Adoptions and Education Sponsorships in Africa. Our non-profit organisation in Hong Kong mainly raise awareness of the impacts of poaching endangered species (e.g., Elephants and Rhinos) through education talks with schools, corporate engagement and a series of fundraising events.