Elephant Poaching Theory

There has not been much research published on this theory as a majority of conservation biologists do not believe that it has any merit as a solution to the poaching epidemic, which poses an immediate scientific roadblock to any researcher who would see any potential in the theory. Although their opinions should be considered because this is what they study, there has been a surprisingly stringent closed-mindedness when it comes to even considering the theory. If innovative ideas are not encouraged, then the elephants are doomed to suffer as ineffective and half-hearted solutions are implemented. Even journalists seem tinted by these intolerant scientists who condemn the theory without actually looking into the multiple lenses through which this complex issue must be observed. Jared Goyette (2015), one of journalists to look into the potential of ectoparasiticides in …show more content…
Dr. Kathleen Gobush of the Center for Conservation at the University of Washington (2009) published an article that analyzed the effects of surviving elephant populations who have been subjected to poaching pressures. She analyzed the social, reproductive, and psychological effects poaching had on the elephants and concluded that the remaining elephants are extremely stressed and paranoid, causing them to react violently towards any human presence and reducing their ability to reproduce. Researcher Natasha Strydhorst (2013), on the other hand, examined the effects of the poaching before the 1989 ban on the elephant populations even generations later. She concludes that wild populations have yet to recover from even the pre-1989 poaching and will only suffer more from continued poaching as their healing family units are again torn apart and thrown back together into dysfunctional groups of stressed