3 ms·
He explained it - it gives an incentive for marking more elephants as "problem elephants" than needed. I wonder if a couple of fence (electric) might be a bett
by Tichy 16y ago
He explained it - it gives an incentive for marking more elephants as "problem elephants" than needed.
I wonder if a couple of fence (electric) might be a better solution than shooting the elephant. And all I saw in the video was a couple of square meters of trampled grass. I wonder what animal court in the world would give the death sentence for that.
- bpodgursky 16y agoIt might look just like trampled grass, to you, but it's Sorghum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum) which a subsistence farmer was growing so he could feed himself, and to him it was the difference between eating and starving. It's ridiculous to glibly dismiss the farmer's worries about STARVING because you didn't see much damage in the video. And do you really think a poor village in remote Zimbabwe is going to have the electricity (and money) to put up an electric fence around all their fields?
- Tichy 16y agoWould I be very far off if I would guess that a single photo safari for taking pictures of living elephants would earn more money than the whole village makes in farming the whole year? Maybe they can't afford electric fences, but the GoDaddy guy surely could. Also now I remember in the Zoo they also don't have electric fences. It sounds doable to me - certainly not more effort than for example building those rice terraces other countries seem to manage. Maybe these farmers really have no choice, which would be a purely political problem. They are definitely picking the wrong solution, though.
- ars 16y agoDo they even have electrical service in that village - and more specifically in some distant field?
- Tichy 16y agoI don't think electricity is needed, just some wall or burrow. Or even just some trees?
- ars 16y agoWood is in very short supply in that part of the world. And building a wall strong enough to stop an elephant, and big (long) enough to cover a farm is really really hard without power tools.
- Tichy 16y agoKilling an elephant without power tools is really hard, too, yet they managed it easily. Even if your arguments are correct that the villagers are so poor that they have no choice (which I doubt), it all crumbles down when the rich hunters come into play. Surely they have enough money and tools to erect a wall.
- Tichy 16y agoIn other countries farmers built this: http://www.destination360.com/asia/philippines/images/s/banaue-rice-terraces.jpg http://www.destination360.com/asia/philippines/images/s/bana... I am pretty sure they did it without power tools, too, back in the day.
- ajays 16y agoDid you notice that the herd of villagers did more damage to the crops than the elephant?
- jonhendry 16y agoZimbabwe used to be a freakin' breadbasket before Mugabe wrecked it.