Source:
Associated PressLast updated June 6, 2007 12:43 p.m. PT
Elephant meat: popular, and a threatBy CHRIS TOMLINSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NAIROBI, Kenya -- The markets in the Central African Republic
offer all of the jungle's delicacies, including monkey, chimpanzee,
antelope and, if you have the cash, even elephant.
Hunters kill the elephants and cut off the ivory. Then, over grills
fueled with green tree branches, they smoke the meat for a day,
charring the outside to preserve it for the trip to town. The main
market is in Africa, where elephant meat is considered a delicacy
and where increasing populations have increased demand.
Most people believe international demand for ivory is the biggest
threat to elephants. But while wildlife experts are meeting in the
Netherlands through June 16 to discuss the ban on the ivory trade,
forest elephants - perhaps the most endangered elephant species
in the world - are being hunted to extinction not only for their
tusks, but for their meat.
"These elephants get poached a lot more than the eastern and
southern African elephants," said Karl Amman, a wildlife
photographer and investigator into the illegal trade in animals.
"I am convinced the poaching of forest elephants in the Central
African region is for the meat and ivory has become a byproduct."
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