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Some of the large, endangered mammals live (survive) on Sumatra. It is the case of Sumatran elephant. Why precisely there? Sumatra is an island in Southeast Asia that belongs to Indonesia and suffers from a high level of deforestation. Therefore, the animals are running out of place to live. They are literally running out of space because they are surrounded by the sea and the jungle disappears. In this Green Ecologist article, we explain why the Sumatran elephant is in danger of extinction.
The Sumatran elephant one step away from total extinction
Therefore, the conflict between humans and Sumatran elephants (as well as other species at risk of extinction) is territorial: there is no room for everyone. Not, at least, if man keeps expanding and cutting down trees. Little by little, the elephants are losing the battle and are getting closer and closer to total extinction.
It is a very different case from that of Africa. Indonesians, in general, do not kill elephants for their ivory or meat, but attack them to protect their crops or leave them without a place to live because they deforest large areas of land. The result is disappointing: the reduction of elephant habitat has meant that the Sumatran elephant population It has been reduced by 80% since 1930, according to data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
In Riau province, for example, where elephants were abundant in the 1980s, the population dropped from 1,342 in 1984 to 201 in 2007.
Crops for palm oil and paper
The Sumatran elephant lives in the lowlands, not in the mountains, and it is precisely in the lowlands that humans prefer to grow their food. The jungle disappears, agriculture expands, and the Sumatran elephant has nowhere to go.
But what is really harmful are not the small crops of the natives to subsist, but the large logging companies who cut down hundreds of hectares of forest to produce palm oil and cellulose.
If you want to read more articles similar to The Sumatran elephant is in danger of extinctionWe recommend that you enter our category of Endangered Animals.
