Saturday, Aug. 12, is World Elephant Day 2017, the sixth such global observance to spread awareness of the soul-crushing plight of elephants in the wild. These sentient gentle giants lead rich emotional lives with values similar to humans but have been driven to the brink of extinction by habitat destruction for cash crops and, more jarring, hunters who mercilessly rip out their ivory tusks while theyre still alive then leave them to die excruciating, slow deaths from hemorrhage.

Ivory hunting is a brutal illustration of increasing violence toward elephants that conservationists warn could wipe out the species in both Asia and Africa within 12 years. Asian elephants number only about 40,000 and are classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. There are about 400,000 remaining in Africa, and IUCN classifies them as vulnerable.

Here are five things you can do right now to affect elephant survival rates:

1. Dont buy ivory, and if you have ivory heirlooms sitting around the house, crush them and have a burial ceremony with your kids in the backyard. Crushing events take place on massive scales just last week, state and federal environmental and conservation officials in Albany, New York, crushed a ton of illegal ivory trinkets worth a staggering $6 million. Family-centered ivory disposals can help kids connect with a species that Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter said demonstrate what we consider the finest human traits: empathy, self-awareness and social intelligence.

But the way we treat them puts on display the very worst of human behavior, Carter said, according to the post on the World Elephant Day website.

2. Get involved in campaigns for more restrictions on ivory bans. Last year, new rules announced by the Obama administration were a near-complete ban on the multi-billion-dollar ivory trade. The rules outlawed ivory imports but had some exceptions for example, ivory legally imported before 1990, heirloom ivory that is more than 100 years old and ivory used in gun handles and musical instruments. Those rules prevent the trade of ivory between states but dont regulate the ivory trade in individual states. Seven states have now added an extra layer of protection, and elephant advocates in a handful of others are asking for similar statewide ivory bans.

3. Support one of 10 elephant conservation projects in critical landscapes through The Bodhi Tree Foundations "Power of 10" initiative. Each of the projects focuses on countering the forces that threaten elephants poaching, habitat loss, human-elephant conflict and a lack of vital rehabilitation and veterinary care. Some of the projects are funded, but others are in dire need of support. The Bodhi Tree Foundation says 100 percent of donations go directly to the project of the donors choosing.

4. Be an informed consumer. Coffee and palm oil plantations have decimated elephant habitat, so dont buy coffee that isnt fair-trade or shade-grown, and avoid products containing palm oil. (Warning, thats going to be tough because its the most widely used vegetable oil in the world, but possible.) Also, make sure wood products are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

5. If you want to experience elephants, be aware that many used for entertainment purposes are mistreated, sometime terribly so. The decision by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to retire its last working elephants reflected the publics growing understanding of elephant intelligence and distaste for activities that exploit them, and the travel website Trip Advisor is no longer booking excursions to attractions with captive animals, including elephant rides. But exploitation still happens. If youre planning on experiencing elephants in the wild, make sure you choose eco-friendly tourism options.

If you want to know more about how human behavior is altering elephant behavior, check out the fascinating read published in 2006 by The New York Times titled An Elephant Crackup?

Among the conclusions: Young male elephants are running amok across Africa, India and Asia, goring children in villages where they once peacefully co-existed with humans, because decades of ivory poaching, habitat loss and other threats have disrupted the fabric of elephant life and the societal and familial structures under which young elephants are raised and, essentially, kept in line.

The slaughter is traumatic for young elephants and profoundly changes them, psychologist Gay Bradshaw told The Times.

The loss of elephant elders and the traumatic experience of witnessing the massacres of their family, impairs normal brain and behavior development in young elephants, said Bradshaw, who at the time was doing research for what became the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity."

Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images News/Getty Images

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Originally published August 10, 2017.

Original post:
World Elephant Day 2017: 5 Ways To Stem Their Extinction - Patch.com