http://allafrica.com/stories/201407120030.html


Zimbabwe: New Elephant Cyanide Poisoning Cases in Zambezi
11 JULY 2014




FOUR elephants have died from fresh cyanide poisoning at Zambezi National Park - raising fears that more wild animals could be killed by poachers using the deadly chemical.

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority rangers on patrol discovered the dead jumbos in the park just outside Victoria Falls along the Zambezi River early this week, an official confirmed.

Zimparks public relations manager Caroline Washaya-Moyo said the killing of the animals comes as a shock, a year following a similar poisoning incident left more than 100 jumbos dead at the Hwange National Park.

She said the parks authority learnt that the elephants were poisoned from a natural salt lick in the park, which had been laced with cyanide.

"Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority confirms that four elephants died from suspected cyanide poisoning in Zambezi National Park," said Washaya-Moyo.

"Samples were collected and have been sent to Environmental Management Agency (EMA) Harare office for further investigation." Zimparks, working with the police, EMA and Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust veterinary Chris Fogging have noted that preliminary results proved that the elephants died as a result of cyanide poisoning.

"Other species that died as a result include one cape turtle dove, one sand grouse and a vulture," Washaya-Moyo added.

Zimparks has since instituted ground and air patrols around the area as investigations into the poisoning continue.

Meanwhile, sources close to the investigations fingered Zambian poachers as the main culprits since a number of them have been shot dead on contact with parks rangers over the years.

"We suspect that this is the work of Zambian poachers. They are the ones who are always poaching in this park since they access it via the Zambezi River," said an official on condition of anonymity.

Last year in July- more than 100 elephants died from cyanide poisoning in Hwange, the country's largest national park resulting in the arrest of over 14 people mainly villagers from Tsholotsho who worked with poachers.

Some poachers were given sentences of up to 16 years in prison along with stiff fines.

Zimbabwe has one of Africa's biggest surviving elephant populations, since herds in neighbouring regions of Eastern and Central Africa have been severely damaged by poaching.

According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the World Wildlife Fund, the often illegal ivory trade has resulted in an increase in elephant slaughters, with 30,000 African elephants killed each year.

The surge could be blamed on the growing demand for ivory in Asia and the United States at a time when there is a moratorium on ivory trade by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:

The surge could be blamed on the growing demand for ivory in Asia and the United States...

Two words....SINCE WHEN?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but isn't cyanide a chemical used extensively in the mining industry in Zimbabwe?........and aren't almost all of the mining concessions in the area run by the Chinese?..........can anyone tie these threads together?

quote:

Originally posted by subsailor74:
Please correct me if I am wrong, but isn't cyanide a chemical used extensively in the mining industry in Zimbabwe?........and aren't almost all of the mining concessions in the area run by the Chinese?..........can anyone tie these threads together?

Cyanide is also used in metal plating as a final cleaning/etching agent prior to the plating. Very easy to come by.
Cal

quote:

Cyanide is also used in metal plating as a final cleaning/etching agent prior to the plating. Very easy to come by.

Not much metal plating happening on this side of the world, whereas there is no shortage of gold mining and yes, easy to come by considering it gets imported by the container load.

quote:

Originally posted by fujotupu:

quote:

Cyanide is also used in metal plating as a final cleaning/etching agent prior to the plating. Very easy to come by.

Not much metal plating happening on this side of the world, whereas there is no shortage of gold mining and yes, easy to come by considering it gets imported by the container load.

Exactly. And it isn't just in Zim, it is across Africa.

Cyanide is used in the Gold mining industry.

tendrams ~ The Ivory that is taken to China and other pacific rim countries is worked and then sold to USA buyers. It has been estimated that 30% to 40% of the black market ivory ends up in the United States. I knew i should have saved that article with the locations where the ivory went after being worked..

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana338:
Cyanide is used in the Gold mining industry.

tendrams ~ The Ivory that is taken to China and other pacific rim countries is worked and then sold to USA buyers. It has been estimated that 30% to 40% of the black market ivory ends up in the United States. I knew i should have saved that article with the locations where the ivory went after being worked..

I looked at some articles about this also--I don't believe that anywhere near that much illegal ivory is entering the US. The estimates that I saw looked like scare tactics by the Anti's.


http://www.fws.gov/internation...t-ivory-crush-qa.pdf
Over what time period was this ivory accumulated?
Most of this ivory was seized by Service law enforcement officers from the late-1980s to the present.


How many dead elephants does this amount of ivory represent? Conservatively, we would estimate that this ivory represents at least a couple thousand elephants.


Could it represent more elephants than that?
Yes, that’s possible. We have a large number of carvings, jewelry and other small items, which makes estimating difficult.



A COUPLE OF Thousand---since the mid 80's----


thats not even a decimal point in what has been poached--yet they are calling the US a major destination???????

quote:

Originally posted by Sean Russell:
is also--I don't believe that anywhere near that much illegal ivory is entering the US. The estimates that I saw looked like scare tactics by the Anti's.

That was my guess. What illegal ivory I see entering the US might be antique pieces bought on vacation in Asia or Africa...not new pieces...and not 30% of the global market. Not even close.

Approximately 5 years ago and within a one hour drive from my home, I was admitted to a well chained and padlocked second floor of a Chinese curio shop in the center of San Francisco's world famous "Chinatown". All I had to do was ask to see more ivory carvings. Only a few small pieces were on display in the store for the general public.

This room was approximately 2000+ square feet of floor space and was furnished with tables and shelves upon which were displayed incredible pieces of ivory of every size, shape and configuration. All was for sale. There were many varied styles of carvings. Some pieces were carved from what I estimate to have been tusks which had easily approached 50 pounds and larger. There were also unworked tusks available.

I was escorted as I walked about the room observing the thousands of pieces, but was not hindered in any way. The brief discussions I engaged in with my escort were answered in accented english and I was assured that all the ivory present was pre-ban. I have my doubts about that but it would be very difficult to prove without running evidentiary tests which would destroy small bits of ivory from each piece.

This was one store, in one city in the U.S. The Chinese have been smuggling things and people in and out of San Francisco for over 150 years. The tongs and gangs still rule with an iron fist. You figure it out.

That doesn't surprise me
Chinese behind this shit even here in States and of course to Chinese customers for US dollars
Same thing with bear gall bladders
Pox and syfilis on them all...