Kenya’s Big Five threatened
Some of the big five, elephant, lion, buffalo, rhino and leopard, the symbols of the country’s wildlife diversity, could soon be gone. Data from Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) shows the population of four of the big five has reduced to a trifle, down from hundreds of thousands back in the 1960s.
According to KWS Kenya had more than 20,000 African lions in 1963. It dropped to 2,749 in 2002 and stood at 1,970 last year, showing the danger facing the proverbial king of the jungle.
The African elephant is also not safe. Their number stood at 167,000 in 1963 before dropping to an all-time low of 16,000 in 1989. It now stands at 32,000.
Black rhinos too have declined drastically. Their population stood at about 20,000 in 1970 but had reduced to 391 in 1997. Today the number stands at 603. Leopards have not been spared either and are today reeling from the devastation of the 1980s and 1990s, when they were widely poached for their valuable skin and body parts.
Kenya has also been famed as a haven for cheetahs and wild dogs, which roamed the bushland in tens of thousands in the 1980s. But today, according to KWS, there are only 1,160 cheetahs and 800 wild dogs.
And that is not all. Various antelopes are also walking the extinction line. The KWS data shows the country has only 100 roan antelopes, which are confined at Ruma National Park in Nyanza Province. The number has dropped from more than 20,000 in the 1980s. Sable antelopes have also been reduced from 10,000 in the same period to less than 200 today, while the population of the Hirola antelope has fallen from 14,000 in 1970 to 600 today. Sable antelopes are now only found at Shimba Hills while the Hirola are almost exclusively found in Ijara District. The Grevy’s Zebra, only found in Kenya and Ethiopia, could soon be rendered extinct.
Human encroachment in wildlife areas and poaching are to blame for this development. KWS blames the upsurge in poaching on the recent partial lifting of ivory trade that allowed South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to sell their ivory to Japan and China in 2007.
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