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poaching data is becoming apparent, and poaching levels are
sufficiently high to warrant concern. The small and fragmented
elephant populations in West Africa are particularly vulnerable
to increases in poaching, which can severely distort sex ratios
and lead to local extinctions. Historically, elephant populations
of less than 200 are known to die out within a matter of a few
decades (Bouché
et al.
2011). This has happened in several
elephant populations in West Africa, but a recent example is
Comoé National Park in Côte d’Ivoire, where poaching associ-
ated with the country’s recent civil war has reduced elephant
populations to near extinction (Fischer 2005; CITES 2012a).
Eastern Africa has experienced a three-fold increase in report-
ed illegally killed elephants in MIKE sites from a PIKE level of
about 0.2 in 2006 to almost 0.6 in 2011. In Tanzania, PIKE lev-
els were higher than 0.7 across the country’s five MIKE sites.
Many of these reports on illegal killings came from the Selous
Game Reserve in southern Tanzania, which is recognized as the
largest game reserve in the world and also an UNESCO World
Heritage Site (Baldus 2009). In 2011, more than 65 per cent
of the 224 carcasses encountered on patrols had been killed by
poachers (CITES 2012a). Ruaha Rungwa National Park, where
PIKE levels were higher than 0.9 in 2011, is another disturbing
example of elephant poaching in Tanzania. Kenya showed simi-
lar poaching levels in 2011, with two thirds of the 464 carcasses
reported in MIKE sites identified as illegally killed, particularly
in the Tsavo National Park and the Samburu Laikipia ecosystem
(CITES 2012a). Uganda harbours a much smaller elephant popu-
lation and has not reported as many carcasses as its neighboring
countries. Still, the Murchison Falls National Park and the Queen
Elizabeth National Park reported PIKE levels of 0.8 and 0.9 re-
spectively in 2011. In 2011, an estimated 7 per cent of the elephant
population living in MIKE sites in Eastern Africa were killed.
Southern Africa shows the lowest PIKE levels of any sub-region,
but here MIKE data also suggest an increasing trend in poach-
ing over the last decade. In 2006, the PIKE level in all MIKE
sites in Southern Africa combined was 0.3 and therefore slightly
higher than that of Eastern Africa that same year. By 2011, the
PIKE level had almost doubled, and for the first time was higher
than 0.5 (CITES 2012a). In particular, the Niassa National Re-
serve in Mozambique reported a very high PIKE level. Of the 85
elephant carcasses registered at this site in 2011, 75 were identi-
fied as being illegally killed (CITES 2012a). In 2011, it is esti-
mated that 4 per cent of the total elephant population living in
MIKE sites in Southern Africa were killed illegally.
Figure 11:
Percentage of total elephant populations in MIKE
sites being killed illegally in 2011.