Numerous cultures came to value Ivory tusks as quality material in art and manufacturing. People have also linked certain health advantages to its organic composition. Unfortunately, such a market trend proved to be detrimental to the well-being of different populations of animals such as hippopotamus, mammoth, narwhal or walrus. However, the ivory trade affected African and Asian elephants most by far. Researchers observed that the smart animals adapted their daily routine to escape from the greedy hands of poachers.
Researchers Tracked Elephant and Poacher Activity in Real Time
Usually, elephants like many other types of herds are extremely strict when it comes to their routine. They used to look for food in broad daylight and use the benefit of bright light to migrate. For rest times, they take advantage of the cover of darkness to sleep a few hours while still standing on their feet.
However, researchers started noticing sudden shifts in elephants’ behavior. This event coincided with the rise of global trade in ivory. This perpetual hunt for their tusk led them to praise nocturnal behavior better. Therefore, the giant mammals are now traveling under the protection of the night. During daytime, they rest in hiding places.
Festus Ihwagi is yet to publish his study. Nonetheless, he announced some pretty insightful findings. The researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands tracked down 50 members of a herd through GPS devices for ten years starting with 2002.
The study covered the entire period of the poaching crisis. He collaborated with NGO Save the Elephants and Kenya Wildlife Service which helped him monitor every move of 28 females and 32 males around the Laikipia-Samburu environment.
Researchers kept track of when exactly elephants migrated the most in 24 hours. Another set of data was withdrawn from the Illegal Killing of Elephant database and regarded poachers’ highly active hours during the day and night.
The Ivory Trade Led Elephants to Turn into Nocturnal Mammals
This is how they found out that poachers still preferred to start their illegal activities during the day. On the other hand, GPS trackers signaled how elephants started to increase their nocturnal migration. This way, elephants showed that they fear humans more than any other predators.
Their adapted behavior might save elephants from poachers, but they face greater threats at night. Lions and hyenas have excellent night time vision that makes it easy for them to hunt young calves as they are not hiding at night any longer. In the past decade, the ivory trade reduced the elephant populations from 415,000 members to only 111,000.
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