為什么大象會受到威脅

為什么大象會受到威脅

There are two main groups of elephants left on Earth: African elephants and Asian elephants. Both face serious threats to their long-term survival, although the risks vary widely from place to place. Scientists classify all Asian elephants as a single species, and while the same is often done with African elephants, genetic evidence suggests Africa really has two separate species: savanna elephants and forest elephants.

地球上的大象主要有兩種:非洲象和亞洲象。它們的長期生存都面臨嚴(yán)重威脅，盡管各地的風(fēng)險差別很大?？茖W(xué)家們把所有的亞洲象都?xì)w為一個物種，而非洲象也經(jīng)常被歸為一個物種，基因證據(jù)表明非洲確實(shí)有兩個不同的物種:草原象和森林象。

African elephants are less endangered than their counterparts in Asia, but both face serious risks.Michelle Gadd [public domain]/USFWS/Flickr

Asian elephants are endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which lists African elephants as vulnerable. Several million African elephants roamed across the continent as recently as the early 20th century, but today only about 350,000 remain. Asian elephants were less abundant to begin with, reportedly numbering about 200,000 a century ago, giving them even less of a buffer against population declines. There are now fewer than 40,000 Asian elephants left in the wild, raising the specter of extinction unless something can be done to save them.

根據(jù)國際自然保護(hù)聯(lián)盟(IUCN)的說法，亞洲象已經(jīng)瀕臨滅絕，非洲象也被列為易受攻擊的物種。就在20世紀(jì)初，數(shù)百萬頭非洲象還在非洲大陸上游蕩，但如今只剩下35萬頭。一開始亞洲象的數(shù)量就比較少，據(jù)報(bào)道，一個世紀(jì)前亞洲象的數(shù)量大約為20萬只，這使得亞洲象對其數(shù)量下降的緩沖余地更小。目前野生亞洲象不足四萬頭，如果不采取措施拯救它們，就會引發(fā)滅絕的恐慌。

Threats to Elephants

大象面臨的威脅

The main threat to both Asian and African elephants is a familiar one for wildlife around the world: loss and fragmentation of their habitat. Many elephants also face additional dangers, though, including both direct and indirect conflict with people.

亞洲和非洲象面臨的主要威脅與世界各地的野生動物一樣:棲息地的喪失和破碎。許多大象還面臨著額外的危險，包括與人類的直接和間接沖突。

Habitat Loss and Fragmentation

棲息地喪失和破碎化

Humans are encroaching on elephants in Africa as well as Asia, but the pressure is especially severe for Asian elephants. Their habitats are increasingly shrunken and fragmented by agriculture, logging, roads, and development for residential or commercial use. Elephants are migratory animals who depend on large, contiguous territories, and this trend robs them of vital resources like food and water. It can also limit genetic diversity by isolating populations from each other.

人類正在蠶食非洲和亞洲大象的棲息地，但對亞洲象來說，壓力尤其嚴(yán)重。由于農(nóng)業(yè)、伐木、道路和住宅或商業(yè)用途的開發(fā)，它們的棲息地日益縮小和破碎。大象是一種遷徙動物，它們依賴于大片的、毗鄰的領(lǐng)地，這種趨勢剝奪了它們的食物和水等重要資源。它還可以通過隔離種群來限制遺傳多樣性。

Conflict With Humans

與人類的沖突

On top of occupying and altering elephant habitats, people also commonly plant food crops there. As more farms appear in forests and savannas where elephants are accustomed to roaming, their crops often become easy targets for hungry elephants. A herd can destroy a year’s harvest in one night, leading to understandable animosity among farmers, many of whom are nutritionally vulnerable and have little income to offset the loss. This sometimes leads to retaliatory killings of elephants, interactions that are dangerous for everyone involved. These clashes lead to hundreds of deaths across Asia and Africa every year, both elephant and human.

除了占領(lǐng)和改變大象的棲息地，人們還經(jīng)常在那里種植糧食作物。隨著越來越多的農(nóng)場出現(xiàn)在大象習(xí)慣于漫游的森林和熱帶稀樹大草原上，這些農(nóng)場的莊稼往往很容易成為饑餓的大象的目標(biāo)。一群?？梢栽谝灰怪g毀掉一年的收成，這在農(nóng)民中引發(fā)了可以理解的敵意，他們中的許多人營養(yǎng)不良，又沒有多少收入來彌補(bǔ)損失。這有時會導(dǎo)致對大象的報(bào)復(fù)性殺戮，這種互動對參與其中的每個人都是危險的。這些沖突導(dǎo)致亞洲和非洲每年有數(shù)百人死亡，包括大象和人類。

Climate Crisis

氣候危機(jī)

All elephants need lots of water, a thirst that drives much of their migratory behavior and daily activities. The need for water can already be a big challenge for elephants even under normal circumstances, but as the climate crisis fuels longer, drier droughts in many places, it can become all but impossible to find enough. This threat is also compounded as their habitats shrink and splinter, since thirsty elephants now have even fewer options for undeveloped places to find water.

所有的大象都需要大量的水，這種口渴驅(qū)使著它們的大部分遷徙行為和日常活動。即使在正常情況下，對水的需求對大象來說也已經(jīng)是一個巨大的挑戰(zhàn)，但隨著氣候危機(jī)在許多地方加劇了更持久、更干燥的干旱，要找到足夠的水幾乎是不可能的。這種威脅還因?yàn)樗鼈兊臈⒌乜s小和破碎而加劇，因?yàn)榭诳实拇笙蟋F(xiàn)在在未開發(fā)的地方尋找水源的選擇更少了。

Poaching

偷獵

Many elephant populations plummeted last century due to unsustainable hunting, largely fueled by demand for their ivory tusks. And while the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) banned the international trade of ivory in 1989, legal ivory markets have remained in some countries, enabled by a resurgent black market and well-armed gangs of poachers. Poaching can threaten elephants almost anywhere, but most illegal ivory currently comes from African elephants, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), where thousands of elephants are killed by poachers every year.

上個世紀(jì)，由于對象牙的需求，不可持續(xù)的捕獵導(dǎo)致許多大象的數(shù)量急劇下降。盡管《瀕危物種國際貿(mào)易公約》在1989年禁止了國際象牙貿(mào)易，但在一些國家，由于黑市的復(fù)蘇和武裝精良的盜獵團(tuán)伙，合法的象牙市場依然存在。偷獵幾乎可以威脅到任何地方的大象，但根據(jù)世界野生動物基金會的數(shù)據(jù)，目前大多數(shù)非法象牙來自非洲大象，每年有數(shù)千頭大象被偷獵者殺死。

What Can We Do to Help?

我們能幫上什么忙?

1.Protect Their Habitat

保護(hù)它們的棲息地

2.Reduce Demand for Ivory

減少象牙需求

3.Help Humans Who Share Their Habitat

幫助分享?xiàng)⒌氐娜祟?/p>