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Protecting the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga
Elephant Killing
I received a very disturbing call this morning from Rodrigue, the Sector warden for the Rwindi area.  An elephant was killed during the night by poachers on the main road to Goma. He immediately went in with a section of rangers and launched an investigation. The elephant was shot eight time, and its head removed. The poachers left with the Ivory.  It’s too early to give any information on the scene of the crime but unfortunately, for various reasons, we can’t even use the hounds to pursue the poachers.  It’s deeply disturbing and very worrying for the future of our small elephant populations.  We’ve taken measures to secure the area and will be stepping up a number of measures in that area and elsewhere.
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58 Responses to “Elephant Killing”
Hi, I am very sorry for this loss. Can you please expand on why it is impossible to use the hounds to pursue the poachers?
thank you
Francisca
Que cela est triste, ces braconniers n’ont aucune pitié !!!
Et ces éléphants sont déjà si peu nombreux, et puis sacrifier la vie d’un animal juste pour ses défenses !!!!
Hi, I am very sorry for this loss. Can you please expand on why it was impossible this time to use the hounds to pursue the poachers?
thank you
Francisca
That’ is were we can see alot of african pêople did’nt grew up yet in democratie ….cause they are not concerned by the wilderness they own . you’ll all be sorry about suchs acts .
a bullet in them heads that’s all !! eliminate these guys with no fear , no respect no regrets
Oh not !!! It is very sad to see this when we are trying to stop out this kind of illegal activities. Rodrigue go on with the investigation
Willy, it is non-African countries that pay for these tusks. The supply exists because of the demand. I don’t think it has to do with whether there was/is democracy or not.
Those are probably the two saddest wildlife photos that I have ever seen. Elephants are such extremely intelligent animals and to see this happen is just horrible.
What’s wrenching, too, is that this elephant was part of a family and social network. And its genes are lost to the future.
one day mother Earth will take her revenge for this, she will make the small naked apes grovel in starvation and pain, and beg lower on their mangy knees, than this innocent giant has done.
Tears of sorrow for this beautiful elephant whose life was ended by those monsters. :((
So sorry Lu. It must be so hard to be there now.
I note the elephant’s excrement. As far as I know, this occurs when the elephant is either excited or stressed. So it certainly suffered for an appreciable time. Which compounds this tradegy even more.
Please tell us why the hounds cannot be used. Please donot tell me it inhumane and againist the law. These mounsters sertainly wouldn’t want to be sentanced by me.What is the likely hood of these people getting caught.
Leslie R. Broussard
Audubon Institute
When I see this picture I wonder one important thing…if the elephant is dead, WHY HIS HEAD ISN´T ON THE FLOOR????????????, it seems that his alive…with half head!!!!, so horrible, so sad, so inhuman!!, no jail for monsters, only one way, exterminate.
The poor creature must have been alive when they beheaded him…these monsters are beyond evil…I am speechless
This is so traumatic and disgusting. I am utterly heartbroken by this pictures. It is a horror movie. You can see the fear and horror the elephant felt. If you have the ability to empathize (unlike the people who purchase ivory), you can feel how the elephant felt too just by looking at these photos. I am crying right now in pain at the sight of this. I feel so powerless to help this animal and prevent its suffering. This is completely heartwrenching.
Heart wrenching. I can’t believe another human being could do something like this! Like Eliza, I feel powerless. If there is something I can do, I would like to know. This is the worst picture I’ve seen in a long time.
Yea I guess its truth. You fill your shorts when you die.
I wonder how much that ivory was worth? Can you use the hide and sell the meat? I’m sure there must be a market for elephant meat somewhere.
Leslie and Franci, I will let Emmanuel answer this in more detail when he gets back about the hounds. I believe the main reason is because the elephant was killed on one of the main roads (which is unusual - it’s usually deep in the bush), and it was clear that they had a car and drove away. They were probably in Uganda by the time the warden even found the elephant.
Utterly sad & devastating pictures. Humans do horrible things.. It’s so easy for the Chinese (and increasingly the Vietnamese) to get ivory, rhino horns etc, because they know that the impoverished communities in the wildlife rich African countries will kill elephants and rhinos in order to be able to support their families. To make it worse the poachers don’t even benefit that much from it,but the big money ends in the pockets of criminals who have created a network through which the end product will be sold to the increasingly wealthy people in China, Vietnam etc.
Those countries will be responsible for the extinction of numerous endangered species if something isn’t done soon. Western countries won’t put pressure on China etc, because they depend too much on trade relations with those countries.
All these horrible pictures should be spread on billboards across China, Vietnam etc and show the people over there the cost of their insatiable appetite for wildlife parts. Elephants and rhinos aren’t the only species in danger. Soon there won’t be any pangolins left in Asia and that species will be poached increasingly also in Africa if nothing is done to prevent it.
Sometimes I think that humans are born bad not good, because we do so much evil on this beautiful planet..
What country is buying Ivory? Is it China mainly? Japan?
This must be stopped and stopped right now. RIGHT NOW!!!
This is just too much of a heart breaker! One thing is obvious here, if men can do this to animals, they can do so much worse to his fellow men.
Can the governments of the world please put a stop to this once and for all?!!!
The issue is that the rewards outweigh the risks for the poachers. Make the punishment for poaching death for the poacher and their immediate family and it’ll stop.
Leslie, Francesca, unfortunately the elephant was shot by men travelling in a vehicle. The head was loaded onto the vehicle and left. For that reason, we have not been able to track them. It is, indeed, extremely frustrating, but there are still many elephants in that area and we’re taking a series of measures to keep them safe.
verbieten sie das sofort, bestrafen sie die Wilderer lebenslang
Could somebody tell me if elephant is still living on the picture!? Why is the head up!?
That is so disgusting!
My personal opinion:
Death penalty for everbody who is involved in such things!
(and I’m a hater of death penaltys!)
sorry for my bad english.
What a cruel scene. I hope we can stop the poachers.
Can we donate for ammo, too?
https://www.facebook.com/IFAWHQ?sk=app_226123194108467
Dear Emanuel, thank you for contacting me and linking this horrid event to the petition on care2. which I will submit to the UN.
Above you will also find a powerfull petition run by IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare ) against the Ivory Trade on facebook with I do recommend you share with your contacts a.s.a.p
Also, find below a link to the WWF website where, if you scroll down, you will find a CONTACT link (go to FEEDBACK)
Your voice as a wittness is important as is the support that can be raised to honor this animal and all others killed in these atrocious circumstances and all help to come closer to ending this vile trade once and for all.
http://wwf.panda.org/
Thank you for speaking out for wildlife.
Xil
ps
Be sure to link this article to the IFAW facebook wall too.
I can not believe, that the elephant on the picture is dead. Like janusch and Juan, I also think he is still alive… His head up and the excrements are signs for life…
I have posted this terrible storry with my FB-friends - but it was deleted from facebook… Now I will do it again.
… RiP all you beloved animals,who have suffered under the human hands….
I just want to enlighten you all that most of the elephant and rhino poaching is a result of asian demand for the tusk/horn. Asians believe it makes men more potent. Needless to say it is BS, but it is legal to import to asian countries and the demand is driving the paoching. Asian countries getting richer is obviously increasing the demand, since more people ahve money.
The Chinese government understands one thing and that is money. To put preasure on them please write a letter to your local chinese embassy stating that you will not buy chinese made products until the law in china is changed prohibiting the import, sale and consumption of these goods.
There are probably a billion FB users. share with friends and spread the message. If enough people write the Chinese gov, they will chnage the laws there. dont wait for someone else to write. do it yourself!!!
god bless this poor soul, and please do something! how can the world let something like this happen, i dont understand it!
I was wondering about this elephant. Can you tell us more about it. Age? Sex? Do you know if this was a solitary elephant or part of a group? How closely do you track the elephant population?
I was wondering about the area. As well. How isolated is it and how common is traffic on that road?
Was there anything to learn from the sceen at all? Like what direction the poachers came from… where they went… Has the area and possible routs of the poachers been searched for more kills?
How common is this in the park now? Do you keep statistics about poaching in the park anywhere on your web site?
my mind and emotion is screaming all emotions for this poor elephant and its family. Pity to the poachers and those who sustain this industry, ur life in the future is going to be hell. U want to hope you recive instant karmic attonment rather than putting it off.
probebly still alive when they cut its head off. SWEARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Ma grande question est de savoir si ces bandits sont contre les animaux ou contre ceux qui les protègent???
Quelle horreur! Et est moi qui ne voit pas bien mais le pauvre a l’air encore vivant sur la photo avec la tête en l’air comme cela? Si oui, ses salauds pourrait AUX MOINS le tuer et attendre qu’il soit mort avant de lui arracher ses défense !!!!!! C’est Affreux!!!!!!!!!
[...] Elephant Killing | gorilla.cd. This makes me so FXXXXXG ANGRY [...]
please tell me what i can do to stop this!!!!!!!
Je comprend votre textes en francais, les questions et motifs sont pas different de les en autres languages!
Though - both not being my mothertongue - it’s easier to me to reply in english.
I immediately understood why the hounds couldn’t find the poachers, even before Emmanuel replied, in spite of their so exorbitant noses.To me too, what a horrible story this is. And how almost impossible to combat.
Me too don’t understand, why this elephant has his half head up being dead? Or not dead but suffering still??? Perhaps the Gorilla Doctors could give some explanation?
Sure I wouldn’t buy any ivory myself! The more not at this horrible price. It looks like a relatively young male, I even don’t understand the hearthless poachers with this bit of game. Yes, really very saddening to me too!
Though I’m absolutely sure Virunga staff will do the utmost preventing such horrible events. Perhaps the most saddening: not being able to purchase more than the bit I do already.
But please, keep us informed, by warden logs, but by this horrible news too. My bit of donation will always be lots too insufficient and probably all of us have that feeling. But not knowing and thereby not participating at all, wouldn’t that even be more worse?
So sad not being able to save all! But as Emmanuel noticed, there are more families, perhaps we could save as much as possible of them? Like Senkwekwe that the price wouldn’t be paid for nothing? This one before this horrible event so promising elephant included?
This picture is FAKE - poachers only take tusks not the whole face for crying out loud - try using an actual undoctored image of an elephant with his tusks removed!
The photo is not a fake. It is an insult to the photographer and the hard work of the people trying to stop these horrific acts. The woman stating this is uninformed.
Darlene, this is not a fake photo. I have another photo I didn’t post from the front view that was too gory. These were taken by the warden of the central sector (Rodrigue Mugaruka) who arrived on the scene around 9 am. The elephant was killed in the night. I don’t know why the elephant’s head is in an upright position. People have asked if it was still alive when they cut off his head. They found 12 bullet holes in this head, all near the same area of his right ear. I don’t know if this would have been enough to kill him as it takes a lot, or a bullet in exactly the right place to kill an elephant. The whole poaching appeared very organized. We are all deeply disturbed by this, as you can imagine, and fear that more will be taking out if we don’t do something now, like place a permanent ranger section dedicated to protecting the approximately 80 elephants left in this area.
Truly horrible! Thank you for the efforts you are making for preserve, conserve and secure the area.
This is the most disturbing and horrifying pictures I have ever seen with regards to pouching. It is getting out of hand even with the Rhinos. This needs to STOP the goverment needs to do something to help these wonderful people trying their utmost to help these beautiful animals.
Hounds work on a ‘heat signature’ left my people/humans…in the bush they can often get confused. This makes if difficult to track through thick bush. This image in shocking. It is not just the rhino that has a plighted future. May justice be swift and in line with what the elephant had to endure. I’m glad I work in the bush and help to protect South Africa’s heritage. Just wish I could spend 5minutes with the poachers who did this…
this is a tragedy. those people dont deserve to live. never mess with nature. i wish i could have been there to stop this. i am heart broken and this made me tear up. ;(
In Africa in this moment exist one problem:the name is China.Rhino and elephants are killed from poachers for the horns and the ivory.
In South Africa last years was killed 448 rhinos and in the 2012 another 60 (at 16 february).In the RDC was killed about 5000 elephants
Horn and ivory go to the black market of Vietnam and China .
The Chinese people is obsessioned for the ivory and the rhino horn
The traditional medicine Chinese use the rhino horn for the cure of cancer ( i am a doctor: this is idiot!)..and the rich chinese people use the horn or ivory for status symbol.
Is necessary put pressure on China at every level.Boycott China.
For more details go to http://www.stoprhinopoaching.com
Just a guess, but the head is probably held up due to rigor mortis. If it had large tusks it may have supported the head in this position as it went into rigor since it probably would have taken awhile to get the head off. Once the head/tusks were off it would have just stayed that way. If the elephant was killed only the night before it would still be in rigor.
Emmanuel, thank you for explaining. I still have another question - I have spent a lot of time on all sides of the Virunga chain - Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, and I know that there are very few roads across the border into Uganda or Rwanda that a car can actually traverse. Are there guards posted at these crossroads? Border guards? I would assume that the car that took away the elephant’s head had to cross one of these roads - the bush would be too thick. Can I assume that there were no border guards, or shall I assume that the border guards are complicit in this trafficking of tusks? Uganda and Rwanda pride themselves in their capacity to accommodate tourists and have invested a lot in this sector. I assume it is in their interest to keep strict controls on the border guards and ensure that there is no corruption. Am I wrong? Is your organization applying political pressure to their respective Ministries of Tourism, Ministries of environment/wildlife, etc?
Hi gorilla.cd …I’m just wondering if you can send the picture with the front view of this poor elephant to me?The reason is people seem to think this picture from the side view is fake and they don’t believe me that poachers actually behead elephants just for the tusks.
Please let me know!
Thank you!
Darlene, how I wished this was a fake photo, unfortunately I am convinced it is not. These cruel acts just happen ! And there is NO excuse to it!
Is a pair of ivory can fucking raise their goddamn humanity?! And now im going to remember the damn photos for the rest of my life… -_-
Francisca raised a good question. The killing happened on the major road through the park. How did poachers get in or out of the park? By vehicle and passing guard posts? Or did they drive through the bush?
They had an elephant’s head in their car. Are vehicles searched? After all the gunshots, perhaps it would have been good to shut all barriers. How many guards are currently in Mabenga?
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