The 2006 Zakouma elephant slaughter refers to a series of

poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...

massacres A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "b ...

African elephant African elephants are members of the genus ''Loxodonta'' comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant (''L. africana'') and the smaller African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''). Both are social herbivores with grey skin. ...

s in the vicinity of Zakouma National Park in southeastern

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

. These killings were documented in aerial surveys conducted from May through August 2006 and total at least 100 animals. This region has a four-decade long history of illegal killing of elephants. Chad's elephant population was reduced to around 20,000 in the mid-1980s and was roughly 3,000 as of 2010, according to Stephanie Vergniault, head of SOS Elephants in Chad. The elephant nominally has Chadian governmental protection, but the implementation practices of the government (backed with assistance from the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

) was largely insufficient to stem the slaughter by poachers. The

African bush elephant The African bush elephant (''Loxodonta africana''), also known as the African savanna elephant, is a species of elephant native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of three extant elephant species and, along with the African forest elephant, one ...

(''Loxodonta africana'') species occurs in several countries of Eastern and Central Africa. The most recent aerial surveys in Chad were conducted from August 3–11, 2006, overseen by J. Michael Fay, a

Wildlife Conservation Society The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a global 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization, headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, with a mission to save "wildlife and wild places across the globe". Founded in ...

conservationist and ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

-in-residence. They found five separate massacre sites.

Reporting details

Fay reported that he saw five men at a base camp, who ran when his

airplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...

approached. On another occasion, he saw one man on horseback with an

automatic weapon An automatic firearm or fully automatic firearm (to avoid confusion with semi-automatic firearms) is a self-loading firearm that continuously chambers and fires rounds when the trigger mechanism is actuated. The action of an automatic firea ...

, who fired on his airplane. "Zakouma elephants are getting massacred right before our eyes ... We hadn't been in the air more than two hours when we saw our first

carcass Carcass or Carcase (both pronounced ) may refer to: * Dressed carcass, the body of a livestock animal ready for butchery, after removal of skin, visceral organs, head, feet etc. *Carrion, the decaying dead body of an animal or human being, also c ...

. It was fresh, maybe just a few weeks old, not far from the park headquarters, and the animal's face had been chopped off, the

tusk Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine tooth, canine teeth, as with Narwhal, narwhals, chevrotains, musk deer, water deer, muntjac, pigs, ...

s removed", Fay related to reporters. Fay and ''National Geographic'' photographer Michael Nichols documented what they found i
''Ivory Wars, Last Stand in Zakouma''

History of Zakouma National Park

Zakouma National Park is located between Sarh and

Am Timan Am Timan (Arabic: أم تيمان, ''ʾUmm Tīmān'') is a city in Chad and is the capital of the region of Salamat. Most of economy comes from Salamat region such as fish, vegetables and anomalies meat, etc. In Arabic, Am Timan means "mother o ...

, in the southeastern part of

. Created in 1963, it was Chad's first national park, and has an area of almost 3000 square kilometres. It is entirely surrounded by the Bahr Salamat Faunal Reserve. Zakouma was neglected during the period of civil conflict, but a restoration programme, supported by the

, began in 1989 and is continuing in 2006. Elephants within the park have protection from the Chadian government, but the elephants who migrate outside Zakouma to forage in the

rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * '' ...

, are not subject to the same patrol protection as within the park. According to Stephen Sautner of the

: "All hunting of elephants in Chad is illegal, and the sale of ivory has been banned since 1989, though black-market trade is increasing."

Logistics of ivory trade

Killing elephants for

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...

has been a major cause of the decline of the African elephant population since at least the 1970s. Most of the ivory harvested is imported into

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. For example, between 1996 and 2002 forty-five tonnes of ivory in transit to China were seized by authorities. China agreed to reduce imports of ivory; however Chinese official Chen Jianwei has indicated that many

Chinese people The Chinese people, or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with Greater China, China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation. Chinese people are known as Zhongguoren () or as Huaren () by ...

are confused about the legality of ivory imports.Ivory trade
(PDF) bornfree.org

Relation to regional conflict

Zakouma is about 260 kilometres west of the conflict area of

Darfur Darfur ( ; ) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju () while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë , and it was renamed Dartunjur () when the Tunjur ruled the area. ...

, and is in the path of recent warfare in Chad, thus overall security is low and the national border is "porous in this isolated region."

Conservation action

WILD Foundation The WILD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that was founded in 1974 by two South Africans and based in Boulder, Colorado. History The WILD Foundation was founded in 1974 by South African game ranger Ian Player and his Zulu mentor Magq ...

partnered with The Wildlife Conservation Society and others to deter and detain poachers using aircraft surveillance. The aircraft will focus on park borders, where elephants are not protected.

References

External links

Ivory Wars
produced by Mediastorm {{DEFAULTSORT:Zakouma Elephant slaughter 2006 crimes in Chad 2006 in the environment African elephants Animal cruelty incidents Elephant conservation Environmental disasters in Africa Environmental issues in Chad Ivory trade Nature conservation in Chad Poaching 2006 mass shootings in Africa Deaths by firearm in Chad May 2006 in Africa August 2006 in Africa May 2006 crimes in Africa August 2006 crimes in Africa