Elephant conservation news 14 - 20 August
Government wildlife vets in Sri Lanka have gone on strike due to perceived mishandling of the continuing conflict between elephants and humans.
Vijitha Perera, secretary of the 11-strong vet's union, told the Associated Free Press that the country's government had not properly managed wild elephants, allowing humans to encroach upon the animals' natural habitats.
The news comes as reports have emerged in the past week of a 75-year-old man who was fatally attacked by an elephant, while another 67-year-old man was crushed to death at his home.
Set to finish today, the strike is intended to highlight this continuing clash of interests, which accounted for the deaths of 50 humans and 228 elephants last year. It is also hoped that vacancies for a further eight vets will be filled and a career-advancing structure will be formalised.
"There is no proper management of wild elephants who are being pushed into narrow habitats as the government allows people to encroach into traditional elephant homelands," Perera said.
"At least four elephants die each week due to this conflict."
Meanwhile, elephants' food sources are either being destroyed by villagers or eaten by cattle, forcing the animals to travel greater distances to gather water and food, and inevitably bringing them into further conflict with humans.
Wildlife department director Ananda Wijesooriya said: "We are working on a cabinet-approved plan to resettle elephants in nature reserves, but there is still not enough land and there is nothing I can do."
Last month there were hopes of a move towards a resolution of the problem of human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka, following a workshop which brought together government representatives, academics and other interested organisations.
While elephant numbers in the country have been falling for centuries, the current figure of 6,000 animals is believed by the government to be above the 4-5,000 carrying capacity.
Woolly mammoth extinct 'due to climate change'
Research has suggested that woolly mammoths were killed off by climate shifts 20,000 years ago - and not by humans or an impacting comet, as previously thought.
The most comprehensive study to date comes from the University of Durham, which has claimed that the hairy species was forced from their grassland and relocated to northern Siberia after an increase in forested areas due to the warmer, post-ice age climate.
Professor Brian Huntley told The Telegraph that it was a loss of food supplies from grassland areas which was the "major contributing factor" to the extinction of the mammoths.
He also warned that - if global warming is not controlled - there "may well be a lesson to learn".
