Elephants in Sumatra, Near Extinction

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today announced this serious and sad "news", something that isn't really anything new, but an unfortunate and expected outcome for these giants of Sumatra. The decrease is mainly due to the Habitat of elephants are being logged, or become agricultural plantations.

 The International Union for the conservation of nature (IUCN) has classified elephant from Sumatra as critically endangered subspecies in the Red list of threatened species, the most complete inventory of the world of the State of conservation of the biological species.

There are only about 2,400 to 2,800 of these animals in the wild, a reduction of around 50 per cent compared with the estimate of population in 1985. Scientists say that if current trends continue, the Sumatra elephants could become extinct in the wild in less than 30 years.

According the the IUCN Red List although Sumatra elephants as species are protected by law Indonesia, 85 per cent of its habitats outside protected areas, and can therefore be converted into land devoted to agriculture or other purposes.

Sumatra has some of the most important populations of Asian elephants outside India and Sri Lanka. However, in other natural areas where is found the Asian, elephant Sumatra has experienced perhaps the more rapid deforestation rate.

Sumatra has lost more than two thirds of its forests natural in the lowlands of the past 25 years - the most suitable Habitat for elephants - resulting in the local extinction of elephants in many areas.

The number of elephants have been reduced in more than 80 per cent in less than 25 years in the province of Sumatra, where pulp and paper companies and palm oil plantations are causing some of the rhythms of deforestation further accelerated worldwide. Habitat fragmentation has been limited to some small herds forest patches, and these populations do not have likely to survive in the long term.

Elephant from Sumatra Sumatran orangutan, Sumatran Rhinoceros and Java, and join the umatra Tiger in one growing list of species found in Indonesi to and are critically endangered. Without urgent and effective to save them action, we could lose some of these animals in the wild forever.

It is very important that the Government of Indonesia, conservation organizations and agro forest companies recognize the critical situation of the elephants and other wild animals in Sumatra, and take effective measures for its conservation.