“Man is the most dangerous, destructive, selfish and unethical animal on earth.”
This beautiful Earth is the homeland for millions of breeds of precious animals. To millions of these species present on Earth today, they know well that the scariest and most dominating species are Homo Sapiens. Yes, we, human beings.
We have revolutionized almost every chunk of this world with our competency, creativeness, and intelligence. Yet, all these same qualities have become the reason for all the global problems we are facing today. Geologically, compared to the animal kingdom we are the newest life forms to appear on the planet with carbon dating human skeletal remains dating back to only 200,000 years. We emerged as a species and against all odds have survived and have gone through various civilizations and evolutional changes to reach where we are today. But the whole of our journey of modernizing has taken the sacrifice of every single species of this planet including our own.
Homo sapiens are the supreme ecological strength of this world. We are at the top of the food change and one of the biggest killers known to the planet. We have won competition of every food resource and governed animal habitat and emerged out as “super predator”. This distinction has given us the terrible bounty of depletion of species and the extinction of numerous animals. Sadly, too many species and animals to count. Now the whole ecosystem of this planet is at risk. Man has smeared the natural balance and we are just a few steps away from a major ecological disaster. The ever-increasing expansion of the human population and their rising call of food, land, and water, aggravated by poaching, many animal species are going to be endangered.
Poaching (by definition) is illegal but continues to be a real threat to the wildlife. Poachers take and/or kill animals due to enrichment or for insane and illogical reasons such as:
- Asia is a major consumer of wildlife due to the rise in wealth. It has become the biggest black market in wildlife trading.
- Birds, anthropoids, and reptiles are captured alive to sell as tropical pets.
- Animal slaughtering, for commercial value as décor, food, traditional medicine and jewelry is another reason for their extinction.
- Tusks of African elephants, scales of pangolins, the meat of snakes and apes are the main reasons for their slaughtering, poaching, and extinction.
- WWF reported that earth has lost half of its wildlife in the last 40 years and many species are at risk to extinct.
ELEPHANTS
Historically, human beings have relied on the bounty of nature and on animal hunting for food, but elephants are the most miserable because these beautiful creatures are the most killed but not for their meat. There is a couple of reasons for which this astonishing species of animals is alarmingly endangered.
- Most of the elephants are brutally killed only to get their tusks. After removing tusks their bodies left to rot. These tusks are sold for an incredible price and are used in the manufacturing of billiard balls, piano keys, and decorative objects and for the manufacturing of special electrical apparatus for radars and airplanes.
- For poachers killing of the elephant is the most thrilling experience. They pay a big amount for hunting safaris.
- Another reason for the elephant’s extinction is their slow breeding process which takes 22 months for a female to have a single calf.
- Loss of habitat, less volume of food are also the reasons for their death, many of the elephants die due to starvation.
- Asian elephants are not killed for their tusks but for their skin. Their skin is used as medicine for the treatment of various ailments.
- In tribal areas of Myanmar, elephant skin is dried, finely grounded and then mix with oil to treat skin problems like eczema.
RHINOCEROS
Rhino is considered as the second large land mammal. It is subcategorized in five types.
- Black Rhino is smaller than white rhino with pointed mouth to eat twigs and leaves. Mostly it has two horns.
- White Rhino is originally grey in color, having two horns and a muscular hump. Its broad and flat mouth helps it to graze.
- Sumatran Rhino is the most endangered species. Its body is short and reddish-brown in color. It also has two horns.
- Indian Rhino is one-horned rhino with silver-brown skin (forms a shoulder, back, and rump).
- Javan Rhino is almost extinct from the world. They also have one horn and they are smaller than Indian rhinos.
Nature blessed rhinos with horns for their protection, but we have made their horn their biggest curse. Poachers are killing and sadly the hunting of these animals’ reason, is just for their horns:
- Rhinoceros horns was anciently used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of liver issues and fever. Now they are used as an impotency treatment and as an aphrodisiac.
- In the year 2000 to provoke the rejuvenation of rhino hunting a rumor was spread that its horn had the ability to zap cancer. Just that one false rumor took the lives of hundreds of rhinos due to savage poaching.
- Rhino horns are a symbol of honor and manhood in Yemen. It is used in the handles of “Jambia” and presented to the young Yemeni boys to show the devotion for Muslim religion and personal defense.
- Rhino horns was used in China for making ornamental objects, buttons, hairpins, paperweights, buckles, and ceremonial cups for over at 7 centuries.
- Another biggest misconception was the use of rhino horns for impotency treatment which increased rhino poaching to a dangerous level. It was also believed in Asian countries (China, Malaysia, India, and South Korea) that rhino horn powder would cure rheumatism, gout, typhoid, snakebites, hallucination, headaches, food poisoning and devil possession. All proven to be false.
Just these idiotic rumors alone related to rhino horns medicinal value has made this animal vanish from most of its habitat. Recently the International Union of Conservation of Nature have released the statistic about rhino poaching. And, sadly 1,300 rhinos have been illegally hunted last year in Africa.
GORILLAS
Gorillas are the largest living primates. They share 98.8% of DNA with the human but it also produces no mercy for them. They are brutally killed and poached for many reasons:
- Poachers kill gorillas to fill or feed the needs of their families and many militant groups of Dr. Congo side use gorilla meat for their appetite.
- There is a high demand for gorilla meat in China and other Asian countries. Poachers kill these innocent animals for the bush meat trade.
- The biggest reason for gorilla hunting is the use of their heads, hands and leg bones for magic and allure. Traditionally it is believed that these body parts of gorilla give power to witchdoctors. This is a lesser-known fact but is one of the biggest reasons of gorilla poaching.
- Ego satisfaction of the cruelty of mankind is another reason for gorilla killing. Hunters sold gorillas for trophies and re People, show-off stuffed gorillas in their homes or offices as a symbol of their strength and bravery.
- In villages of Lebialem body parts of gorillas are used for traditional medicine. Villagers use gorilla’s heart, bones, hairs, skulls and dung for idiotic belief of their medicinal properties.
Perhaps by creating awareness of the illogical reasons we are destroying these beautiful creatures unnecessarily we can get people to stop this insanity and think before you shoot. I don’t know if there could ever be an end to poaching but the systematic, killing, and extinction of wildlife is a direct threat to our very own survival. We are transforming this planet into a very real hell for our own self-destruction. This wonderful ecosystem is presently in peril and hanging by a threat. These are just a few examples of our brutality but nearly one million species of plants and animals are at risk of vanishing. We in some way are all directly or indirectly responsible of the threatened ecosystem. If you read this, I implore you to look around your home and please tell me if that decorative ivory piece or that animal fur was worth a life? Please explain why you think their life savagely taken was worth it to you to display these animals either on your person or in your home. Is the trophy of their carcass some type of caveman necessity for you? Is it truly worth it to unbalance nature, the planets ecosystem, and biodiversity? People cannot survive on this planet without this delicate balance because surely soon after our own extinction is assured.
