納米比亞將拍賣170頭野生大象，盡管國際社會要求停止拍賣

納米比亞將拍賣170頭野生大象，盡管國際社會要求停止拍賣

The Namibian government is set to sell 170 wild elephants to international buyers in a controversial auction taking place today in the face of a petition of more than 100,000 signatures condemning the sale. Conservationists behind the appeal to stop the sale warn that claims of human-elephant conflict have been exaggerated by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism to paint a picture of an environment overrun with animals, despite the statistics that elephants are now extinct from 29 African countries.

納米比亞政府準備將170頭野生大象賣給國際買家，今天舉行了一場有爭議的拍賣，十萬多人簽名譴責這一交易。呼吁停止出售大象的自然資源保護人士警告稱，盡管有統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)顯示，29個非洲國家的大象已經(jīng)滅絕，但環(huán)境、林業(yè)和旅游部夸大了人象沖突的說法，把環(huán)境描繪成動物泛濫的景象。

Elephants are under increasing threat from poaching and unlawful killings. In the last 100 years, Africa has lost almost 95 percent of its resident elephants and 8-10 percent of those that have survived are killed annually.

大象受到偷獵和非法捕殺的威脅越來越大。在過去的100年里，非洲已經(jīng)失去了95%的常駐大象，每年有8%到10%的幸存大象被殺害。

Some of the elephants that were captured by the Namibian government are trans-boundary herds that make enormous migrations across the continent of Africa, as herds have done for thousands of years. Conservation workers standing to protect these animals argue that their wanderlust lifestyle means they can’t be claimed by any one country and thus be mistreated, slaughtered, or sold under local government rule.

納米比亞政府捕獲的一些大象是跨界的象群，它們在非洲大陸進行了大規(guī)模的遷徙，就像象群幾千年來一直做的那樣。保護這些動物的環(huán)保工作者認為，它們流浪的生活方式意味著它們不會被任何一個國家認領，因此不會在當?shù)卣慕y(tǒng)治下被虐待、屠殺或出售。

Rachael Funnell

According to a report provided to IFLScience by conservationist Mark Hiley, Operation Director of National Park Rescue, the Namibian Government (NGov) have claimed they have “too many” elephants, but their numbers are officially just 23,736 – far lower than their smaller neighbor, Botswana, which is home to around 130,000. Conservationists estimate that between 17,256 and 20,000 of these elephants are trans-boundary migratory elephants that move between Namibia, Angola, Zambia, and Botswana and that Namibia's resident population is more likely around 5,688.

根據(jù)國家公園救援組織的運營總監(jiān)、自然資源保護主義者馬克·希利向IFLScience提供的一份報告，納米比亞政府(NGov)聲稱他們有“太多的”大象，但官方公布的數(shù)量只有23736只，遠低于其較小的鄰國博茨瓦納，博茨瓦納的數(shù)量約有13萬。環(huán)保人士估計，其中有17,256至20,000頭大象是跨界遷徙的大象，它們在納米比亞、安哥拉、贊比亞和博茨瓦納之間遷徙，而納米比亞的常住大象數(shù)量更有可能在5688頭左右。

The populations in Botswana suffered their own tragedy last year as hundreds of elephants were lost in a mass die off event, the exact cause of which remains unclear despite claims that cyanobacteria in small pools of water was to blame.

去年，博茨瓦納的大象也遭遇了災難，數(shù)百頭大象集體死亡，確切原因尚不清楚，盡管有人聲稱小水池里的藍藻是罪魁禍首。

Even using NGovs self-reported estimates puts Namibia's population well below its smaller neighbor. Botswana's. Image credit: Jonathan Pledger/Shutterstock.com

In 2017, NGov controversially refused to take part in the first pan-African “Great Elephant Survey,” meaning it may not have followed the standardized methodology for estimating population sizes and could be exaggerating population statistics and human-wildlife conflict. It’s feared that revenue-generating initiatives could be motivating the inflation of these numbers, examples of which include demand from high hunting quotas, sales to zoos, and ivory-generating culls.

2017年，有爭議的是，NGov拒絕參加第一次泛非“大象調查”，這意味著它可能沒有遵循估計人口規(guī)模的標準化方法，可能夸大了人口統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)和人類與野生動物之間的沖突。人們擔心，創(chuàng)收的舉措可能會推動這些數(shù)字的膨脹，例如高狩獵配額的需求、對動物園的銷售，以及產(chǎn)生對象牙的貪欲。

“For thousands of years matriarch elephants have led their herds across multiple countries on huge migrations each year,” wrote Hiley in a press release emailed to IFLScience. “Although we’ve slaughtered 95 percent of all elephants in 100 years, the last of these great herds still carry out their epic journeys. These international elephants don’t ‘belong’ to anyone and Namibia’s proposal to capture and exploit them is rightly being seen as a crime against nature.”

希利在發(fā)給IFLScience的一份新聞稿中寫道:“數(shù)千年來，每年母象都會帶領它們的象群穿越多個國家進行大規(guī)模遷徙。”“盡管我們在100年里屠殺了95%的大象，但最后一批大象仍在進行它們史詩般的旅程。這些國際大象不‘屬于’任何人，納米比亞捕捉和利用它們的提議正被視為違反自然的罪行。”