THE ELEPHANT POPULATION IN ZAKOUMA NATIONAL PARK - CHAD

摘要

In the 1970s and 19805, the wildlife in Zakouma National Park, in southeastern Chad, had suffered from periods of political instability, recurrent drought and a serious epidemic of rinderpest. The conservation measures implemented as from 1989, with support from the European Union, soon restored most of the large mammal species. However, the results of recent aerial counts carried out from 2005 to 2009 reveal a steep decline in the elephant population. From an estimated total of about 3 900 individuals in 2005, the population began to decline in the 2006 dry season, when only 3 000 animals were counted. Their numbers then dropped steeply to 940 individuals in 2008 and only 620 in 2009. This dramatic decline, amounting to almost 70% of the elephant population, is correlated with a large number of carcasses of recently shot elephants, which have been found mainly in the eastern part of the protected areas in the valleys of a large hydrographic network. Poaching, which has always been a threat to the Zakouma elephants, had never before reached such proportions and coincides with the reopening of the international ivory trade in 2006.