stats
globeinteractive.com: Making the Business of Life Easier

   Finance globeinvestor   Careers globecareers.workopolis
The Globe and Mail /globeandmail.com
Home | Business | National | Int'l | Sports | Columnists | The Arts | Tech | Travel | TV | Wheels
space


Search

space
  This site         Tips
space
  
space
  The Web Google
space
   space



space

  Where to Find It
space

Breaking News

  Home Page

  Report on Business

  Sports

  Technology

space
Download The Globe


Print Edition

  Front Page

  Report on Business

  National

  International

  Sports

  Arts & Entertainment

  Editorials

  Columnists


  Headline Index

 Other Sections

  Appointments

  Births & Deaths

  Books

  Classifieds

  Comment

  Education

  Environment

  Facts & Arguments

  Focus

  Forums

  Health

  Obituaries

  Real Estate

  Review

  Science

  Style

  Technology

  Travel

  Wheels


 Leisure

  Cartoon

  Crosswords

  Food & Dining

  Horoscopes

  Online Personals

  TV Listings/News


 Specials & Series

  All Reports...

  War on Terror

space

Services
  Where to Find It
 A quick guide to what's
 available on the site

space
  Web Advertisers
 An index of our
 advertisers

space

 Newspaper

  Advertise

  Corrections

  Customer Service

  Help & Contact Us

  Reprints

  Subscriptions


 Web Site

  Advertise

  E-Mail Newsletters

  Free Headlines

  Help & Contact Us

  Make Us Home

  Mobile

  Press Room

  Privacy Policy

space
GiveLife.ca

    

PRINT EDITION
Reticent Ivory Coast elephants step out for dinner
space
space
space
By ALISTAIR THOMSON
Reuters News Agency
  
  
Email this article Print this article
Friday, January 4, 2002 – Page A9

MONT PEKO, IVORY COAST -- A large round footprint in the mud shows where an elephant had stood while devouring the succulent pods from cocoa trees.

"They have destroyed everything; what can we do?" asked a woman cradling a young child outside her mud house.

It is rare for people to complain about elephant sightings in Ivory Coast. Despite its name -- or rather because of it -- most visitors to the West African country leave without so much as a glimpse of the reclusive creatures.

The herds that remain after centuries of hunting tend to stay deep inside half a dozen parks and protected forests, such as Mont Peko in the west of the country. Experts are not even sure how many elephants are left.

Hugo Rainey, a British zoologist, was studying hornbill birds in Mont Peko when the elephants sallied forth last month, destroying the cocoa crops.

"Every night there was drumming and whooping to keep the elephants away," he said. "But in spite of the drumming, we found the elephants had been raiding crops about 300 metres from our camp."

"I haven't seen that before in Ivory Coast; normally the elephants here are so shy you never hear about them," he said.

Such reticence is not surprising. During the 1980s, when poachers killed an average of 200 African elephants a day for their tusks, the population plummeted to an estimated 625,000, down from 1.3 million in 1979. A 1989 international ban on ivory trading is credited with saving the species.

Herds in southern and eastern Africa have since recovered, but populations in West Africa appear to have lagged behind.

Estimates of Ivory Coast's herds range from a few hundred to the low thousands. In a 1998 report, the African Elephant Database listed 51 definite sightings and said dung counts and other clues suggested there could be as many as 500 in the country.

"We don't know how many elephants there are," said Tano Sombo, head of Ivory Coast's nature protection service.

"We don't know if they are venturing out of traditional havens in the national parks more now because there are more of them, or because their habitat in the parks is being destroyed."

Ivory Coast's lush primary forests have been slashed by uncontrolled logging, and a recent study estimated that only two-fifths of the country's forests remain.

After trees have been felled, the land is often used for cocoa plantations or subsistence farming, leaving the elephants with an ever-decreasing territory.

In Mont Peko, farmers asked the local authorities to help scare off the elephants, but little happened beyond a couple of officers coming to shoot guns into the air.

"In Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe crop raiding by elephants is more of a problem, so there are projects to curb it without harming the elephants," Mr. Rainey said. "Here there are none."

On elephant paths through Mont Peko's virgin forest, occasional piles of fibrous dung sprouting rice and cocoa seedlings bear witness to stolen crops.

Elephants feast on rice and the yellow and red cocoa pods whose beans make Ivory Coast the world's top cocoa producer. They love the leaves and nutritious tuber of cassava, which they unearth by gripping the stem with their trunks, kicking away at the base and destroying everything around it.

Frustrated farmers are reluctant to take action against the invaders, and not only because of the legal ban on hunting. Most locals believe elephants are protected by a spell and say anyone who tries to harm them will be cursed.

Ivory Coast's elephants are mainly forest dwellers, shy and smaller than their savannah cousins.

Their ears are often tattered, torn as the animals move through dense forest.

The desire for ivory is not the only threat to the elephants here: They are also hunted as food.

"Elephant meat is good. People say different parts taste different: Some bits are like chicken, some like beef," said Venance Ollo from the northeastern Ivory Coast, where elephant flesh is prized.


Return to Main Africa Page
Subscribe to The Globe and Mail
Sign up for our daily e-mail News Update
 
Email this article Print this article

7-Day Site Search
    

Breaking News



Today's Weather
space

Inside

Film Friday
The magic of moviegoing

Déjà vu in 2002

Johanna Schneller
Why some burn bright as others fade from sight




space

space  Advertisement
space

space
War on Terror
space

Globe Poll


space
Do you consider Canada the world's leading hockey country?
Yes 
No 
space

space




space

Special Series




Great Cities: An Insider's Guide
Each week a Globe correspondent will walk you through the best and worst of their cities.



space

Home | Business | National | Int'l | Sports | Columnists | The Arts | Tech | Travel | TV | Wheels
space

© 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Help & Contact Us | Back to the top of this page