When ivory poachers target elephants, the hunters can affect more than just animal numbers. Without the stress of poaching, the elephants started breeding again, and more than 40 calves have been born. SHANE CAMPBELL-STATON: The Howard Hughes Medical Institute - they had this video that was called "The Tuskless Elephants Of Gorongosa." But Dante, who is one of the worlds most respected taxidermists, has never done what Im asking him to do. Father Sugule introduces me to three young girls, recent LRA kidnapping victims, who are sitting on a wooden bench in his church. Then they head south six miles, back into Kafia Kingi. Soldiers killed elephants for their ivory tusks, which were extremely valuable. Poachers killed at least 132 last year, and as of this June, rangers had discovered another 42 carcasses with bullet holes, more than 30 attributed to a single Sudanese poaching expeditiona combined loss amounting to more than 10 percent of the parks entire population of elephants, estimated now to be no more than about 1,500. Widows now get a sum equal to six years of a rangers salary. Here a ranger unit is permanently deployed to protect one of the parks most important assets: a radio tower that was being built. The elephants coat themselves in red clay. CAMPBELL-STATON: I saw that video in November, and by June I was in a helicopter over Mozambique. "It's another example of the imprint of [human] effect on nature," says wildlife ecologist George Wittemyer of Colorado State University, who was not involved in the research. Please make a tax-deductible gift today. Most of these children are very, very traumatized when they come back home. They have nightmares, Sugule continues. Rogue militias and army soldiers from the DRC, Sudan, and South Sudan are slaughtering elephants in the park. Boko Haram also uses the bush as a baseNigerias Sambisa Forest, a game reserve south of Lake Chad. This story was originally published in the September 2015 issue of National Geographicmagazine. After Lucienne Lanziwas husband died in an LRA attack on Garamba, she got a modest stipend. When Ele, a female elephant, died, other elephants approached one-by-one and touched their trunks to the body. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. for their meat. Theyre in a place 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the ambient temperature, so perhaps theyve been buried in the backyard. I spend a night in police custody, where Im given a desk to sleep on. 3. Ongwen said Konys plan is to obtain as much ivory as possible for his future survival should he not be able to overthrow the government of Uganda.. So why elephants? Where did the tusks end up? They included South Sudanese armed forces (SPLA) and Sudanese military, as well as defectors from those militaries and an assortment of Sudan-based rebels. "They recognize each other's voices," she told us in 2002, "just like women recognize their babies' cries. CORNISH: So he made some calls and assembled a team. The dogs are Belgian Malinois shepherds, famed for their use in military operations, especially in tough conditions like the dense central African bush. only . Three more are classified as of importance to watch: Angola, Cambodia, and Laos. This story launches the National Geographic Societys Special Investigations Unit, which will report on wildlife crimes. As long-ranging animals, they shape vast swaths of wildlands, stomping and chomping through them, sparring with trees, rearranging foliage. He asks for water for me and is led out of the building. Those looking at the tusks think Im an ivory trafficker. ". CORNISH: You see; while most African elephants have tusks, some female African elephants are born without them and never grow them. Its hissanctuary.. Among the recent casualties was a group of rare forest elephants in the Central African Republic. By Bryan ChristyPhotographs by Brent StirtonPublished August 12, 2015. To me, it seems reasonable to think that the radiomans defection might have slowed the progress of the 25 elephants tusks headed to Kony. Researchers at the bai learned to identify individual elephants by the shape and characteristics of their ears. "And there was moonlight and I could see he had a revolver and he might have been drinking. Now, researchers report this intense hunting dramatically altered a major elephant population there, favoring female elephants born without tusks. World Elephant Day: Ten reasons we love elephants, Elephants counted from space for conservation project. It's run by a band of men who, if not exactly soldiers-of-fortune, certainly are trained warriors who can deal not just with poachers, but with civil war, too. One possibility is that surges of intense hunting have occurred on and off in Gorongosa over millennia, letting the genes occasionally provide a benefit. Members of the Ugandan armys dog-tracking team lift weights at the African Union base in Obo, CAR. It was just impossible to stay. "And they were yelling at us," she says. " The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. But we also discovered field biologist Andrea Turkalo, who's now a conservation scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society. Click the arrow below to hear the amazing audio tale they brought home. The Elephant Listening Project When he shows up, he picks up a tusk and runs his finger over the butt end. Several Tanzanian officers who had presided over my arrest at the airport, including the wildlife expert, returned the next day to wish us bon voyage. FANIE PELLETIER: It's one of the most detailed example of how human activity can influence the genes of a population. This paper is going to lead to a lot of speculation and modeling.. Professor Robert Pringle of Princeton University said: "Tusklessness might be advantageous during a war, but that comes at a cost.". Theyre looting communities, enslaving people, and killing park rangers who get in their way. He went first to Sudan, initiating a pattern of border-hopping that continues to make him difficult to track. Such a biased sex ratio would be expected with a recessive gene that kills males when they inherit it. She well remembers the day when the war came to the bai. Shane Campbell-Staton, an evolutionary biologist now at Princeton University, was curious about the elephants of Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, where tuskless elephantswhich are all femaleare unusually common. Forest elephants linger on a misty morning at the Dzanga bai. But Turkalo decided not to leave the region right away. CORNISH: Consequences that are still continuing nearly 30 years after the war. At that point she'd already dedicated more than a decade of her life to studying forest elephants, which for centuries had remained hidden within the dense canopy of the rain forest. Congos own soldiers threaten the parks southern border, and villagers around the park sometimes poach elephants too. These LRA defectorsall abducted as children and pressed into servicenow fight for the Ugandan military. Park rangers are often the only forces going up against the killers. Konys response was immediate and savage. During a civil war in the country, that lasted from 1977 to 1992, up to 90% of Mozambique's elephant population was killed, mainly for their ivory tusks. We are in charge of the futures of our animals and earth and making a world for future generations to thrive in. Garamba National Park, in the northeast corner of the DRC and on the border with South Sudan, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, internationally famous for its elephants and its boundless ocean of green. They shift a few miles. Elephants without tusks were normally. "As a result there were large numbers of soldiers in the area and a lot of associated. ", But Turkalo's 22 years with those elephants came to a disastrous end last year, when civil war in the republic found its way to the Dzanga bai. 5. After six hours on the dark river, they got to safety, to a campsite in the Congo. So I said to myself, 'I better go into a very passive mode.' Mozambiques civil war from 1977 to 1992 had a grim outcome for elephants: During that time, some 90% were killed for the ivory in their tusks, which were sold to finance the war. The teams cook, also wounded, struggled 11 miles to get help. Rangers practice their riding skills at Zakouma National Park, in Chad. I just can't understand why anyone would want to take away any of the amazing qualities and features of an elephant. A forum for discussion about elephants and rhinos and a rally point for those who want to getinvolved. The Central African Republic (CAR). When theyre abducted, theyre very young, and theyre forced to do horrible things. This limited the trade of some ivory, but trade still continued across the world. At the same time, the apartheid government and the Smith regime lost Portugal as an ally and with it the tens of thousands of soldiers that had been deployed in the Portuguese colonial wars. Mostup to 3,000were poached from 2005 to 2008. Konys army had arrived in Garamba in 2006 with little ammunition left to continue its war, Onen tells me. I know which house theyre in: Using Google Earth, I see its light-blue roof on my screen. When I ask, How many of you have been kidnapped by the LRA?I understand why. Killings of civilians have likewise dropped, from 1,252 in 2009 to 13 in 2014, but abductions are rising again, and it takes the arrival of only a few of the armed militants to send fear ricocheting through communities. During the failed peace talks with Uganda, while Kony hid in Garamba from 2006 to 2008, Onen had been assigned to Konys lead peace negotiator, Vincent Otti. One moves north toward Heban, the other west toward centralChad. Why are you collecting ivory? Otti demanded of Kony. Sudanese and Chadian poachers were likewise implicated in the 2013 butchering of nearly 90 elephantsincluding 33 pregnant females as well as newborn calvesnear Tikem, Chad, not far from Bouba Ndjidah. He was 22 years old the night in 1998 that Konys soldiers raided his village in Gulu, Uganda, and pulled him from his bed. We protect the park to give the people something of value. He fights for elephants because he knows that without the animals presence, no one will support Garamba, and the parkwhich he calls Africas heartwill be lost. Your tax-deductible contribution plays a critical role in sustaining this effort. By 1913, the African elephant population had dropped to an estimated 10 million. Katy Payne/The Elephant Listening Project, Former Commando Turns Conservationist To Save Elephants Of Dzanga Bai. The rangers on Heban hill had little reason to be concerned for their safety. So did the African Union military forces, whose CAR-based men in Obo are tasked with finding Kony. 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