Elephants Everywhere

We’ve seen lots of African elephants on our trip — in South Africa, Namibia, and especially, Botswana.  Did you know that elephants can snorkel?  That sometimes they eat soil?  Here is a link to a post Lauri wrote for The Wilderness Classroom about elephants.

And after you read the post, be sure to watch the short video we put together that shows a snorkeling elephant and some elephants eating soil.

Vietnam's Emptying Forests

In Vietnam, we wanted to learn about an important issue:  why is there poaching, or illegal killing, of certain endangered animals? 

To find out, we went to ENV (Education for Nature Vietnam).  Animals are trafficked (bought and sold) illegally in Vietnam.  Many animals are also hunted in Vietnam, and sent to China because there is demand there. 

Why would people buy and sell animals illegally?  Here are some examples:

• Many animals -- such as rhinos, macaques, or tigers -- are killed and used to make traditional medicines. 
• “Wildlife restaurants” serve exotic dishes to locals and tourists – such as porcupines, mouse deer, monitor lizards, civets, snakes and even bears
• Animals are kept illegally as pets – monkeys, for example.
• Some animals are stuffed or hung on the wall as trophies, or status symbols – like shiny lacquered marine turtle shells, or stuffed tigers.
• Some animals are kept in cages as attractions to bring tourists into restaurants or hotels.

Vietnam’s Rhino:  Extinct

The impact of this illegal demand for animals and animal products is huge.  One example is the Javan rhino, which has been extinct in Vietnam since 2010 (a small population of only 50 Javan rhinos still exists, in Sumatra). 

Indian Rhino (closest known relative to Javan Rhino).
Photo from Jo Oh on Wikipedia. 

It’s bad enough to kill a rhino, but the really sad thing is that the rhino is just left there – it isn’t even eaten or used for any other purpose except its horn.