from today's paper

Poaching of African elephants for ivory leaves young to run wild
Apr 07, 2008 04:30 AM Craig Kielburger Marc Kielburger

For a farmer in the heartland of Africa, the scene is devastating: trampled crops, uprooted trees and demolished huts. All are telltale signs of a rampaging elephant, an increasing danger for those living in rural areas.
Few understand why more and more elephants are seemingly out of control. Experts are at a loss to explain this behaviour, but some are beginning to suspect a cause that, at its core, is very human.
"With older elephants being shot, either by professional hunters or by poachers, there isn't a sense of wisdom being passed down through generations," says Don Young, a veteran naturalist and safari guide in East Africa. "We think we see the impact of this in the delinquency of young elephants becoming more and more destructive."
Young explains that elephants live in close-knit communities which, like humans, require regular parental guidance and strong role models. These positive influences socialize the younger elephants, teaching them to stick with their herds instead of wandering for food into nearby communities.
Like humans, without these influences, the younger elephants are more likely to go out on their own and even become aggressive, Young says.
This may explain what's happening, especially considering the re-emergence of ivory poaching, which has found its way back onto the black market despite a 20-year ban. A report published last year and funded partly by the U.S. government found that, in 2006 alone, as many as 23,000 African elephants were killed for their ivory – a number not seen since the 1989 international poaching ban. The poaching is fuelled by an insatiable desire for luxury ivory goods in countries such as Japan, China and the United States.
This is wreaking havoc on elephant communities, as increasing numbers of young elephants are fending for themselves, without the guidance of elders.
"What an infant elephant learns at his mother's side is critical to its survival and success," Young says.
"The increased killing of large bull elephants has taken away an older generation that, we believe, gave a role model structure (to younger elephants)."
The consequence is more frequent, violent clashes between young elephants and human communities near grazing lands that made international headlines. In worst-case scenarios, they have led to villagers attacking elephants out of frustration, anger and revenge.
"This is a magnificent, dignified, emotionally alive animal that we have slaughtered for no other reason than ivory," Young laments. "It shames me as a human what we have done to them."
Elephants were once among our most protected species. After excess poaching cut the population by roughly a million in the 1970s and 1980s, the United Nations spearheaded a strict international ban on ivory sales. Rich countries poured funds into conservation parks and anti-poaching programs, essentially saving the species.
With that funding largely dried up, and the world's attention elsewhere, elephants are in danger once more, not only from poachers but from a breakdown of their species' once-complex hierarchy.
For Young, how the world protects these remaining elephants is a reflection of how well it can protect itself. After all, the African bulls are the planet's largest land mammals, living within social structures remarkably like ours.
"If we can keep a planet that can sustain wild elephants, it'll be a mark of our ability to learn from our mistakes and grow up as a species," he says. "We have to balance the rights of humans with the rights of our fellow mammals."