Wildlife and War
The Silent sufferers
“Loss of life was an accepted gamble that men took when they went to war. But no animal went to war: caught up in man’s lethal affairs, they were an irreconcilable aberration.” Sheila Burnford
There is no victor in war. How humanity has not come to this most obvious realization from all we have seen over the millennia is astounding to me. Or perhaps I should say that those calling themselves leaders had not come to this same conclusion. The financial cost of war is astronomical. The human cost? irredeemable, irreplaceable. Throughout history, every time man has declared war on his brothers and sisters, he has also declared war on the natural world. With recent events across the continents, we have once again seen the worst, but also the best in man. The incredible capability of humankind to reach out to one another in times of turmoil is what makes us unique. But what of our wildlife? The natural world offers us so much. It offers us food, shelter, and an infinite amount of resources if managed correctly. It offers us life. War simply takes and offers nothing in return. In every war, we have the aggressor, the defender and then, we have the defenseless. We drop bombs like we are screaming at the top of our lungs, but there are those who are without a voice. Those that need us to speak for them. I call them the Silent Sufferers. They are our precious wildlife, and these are their war stories.
“The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will.” Theodore Roosevelt. 26th president of the United States
Gorillas on the edge
The African continent has seen decades of war, and it has affected the wildlife which calls it home indefinitely. In the heart of the Albertine Rift valley, in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, lies the oldest National park in Africa. Virunga National Park is home to the endangered Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei). Decades of civil conflict have threatened this proud species to the point where rangers risk their lives daily to keep these beautiful animals safe. Beginning in the early 1990s, the Rwandan genocide and the First and Second Congo wars had destabilized the entire region to such an extent that roughly a million people were displaced. This led to large-scale deforestation and habitat destruction as an estimated 40 000 people cleared trees and resources from the forest daily. Making matters worse, in 2012, a rebel group known as the March 23 movement or M23 rebels, launched an attack on the City of Goma, roughly an hour’s drive from the park, and the Mountain Gorilla sanctuary located within. This conflict is well documented in the Academy award-nominated 2015 documentary film “Virunga”. In subsequent years, rebel groups, at odds with the Congolese government have killed numerous Gorillas and the Rangers sworn to protect them. More than 200 rangers have reportedly been killed in the conflict.
Back from the brink
It is not all doom and gloom, however. According to the WWF, there were only 480 individual Mountain gorillas alive in the park in 2010, which has since grown to 604 individuals. The species is no longer listed as critically endangered and is considered the only species of gorilla which has an actively growing population. The reason for this success is without a doubt the work of righteous men and women who have taken up the responsibility of protecting these precious animals. It is almost as if they were listening when one of the greatest people the world had ever known, Nelson Mandela had said, “I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses. We must never forget that it is our duty to protect this environment”. I admire their dedication and commitment to their duty, especially since it is claimed that Rangers on foot, patrol the distance, of the circumference of Planet Earth, every year. These brave men and women have proven that love and courage trumps fear.
The ivory war
The African elephant is the largest and strongest extant mammal walking the earth (settle down Blue whale, I did say walking), yet it is incredibly vulnerable. Indiscriminately slaughtered for their ivory tusks, they face a challenge few other animals are threatened with. Perhaps only the African Rhino and Pangolin are targeted in higher numbers. In 1977 war broke out in Mozambique. A war that would last 15 long years. Not only had the Mozambique civil war resulted in the death of more than 1 million people, but the conflict had also decimated the elephant population of Gorongosa National park. Elephants had been indiscriminately killed by most parties involved in the conflict to the extent that numbers plummeted from 2500 down to less than 250.
Ivory is an absurdly expensive commodity in certain circles due to the belief that it carries medicinal value (this is false) and is prized for its ability to be crafted into desirable status objects. Thousands of tons of raw elephant tusks were sold to the Eastern black market which helped fuel the war effort for both sides. When you are at war, you need guns, bombs, and ammunition. The easiest way to buy more was to sell an object with immense value. A breathing elephant held no value to the war effort, but its tusks did, and still do up to this day.
Today, almost half of elephants being born in the Gorongosa national park never even grow tusks. Scientists believe this to be a form of adaptive evolution. It is believed that all the genetically superior males had been slaughtered or migrated away thus resulting in the tuskless elephants we find today. Elephants are highly intelligent and emotional beings. They are known to mourn their dead and have ways of communicating with each other for up to 10km away by way of infrasounds. Elephants do not easily abandon each other, even when tragedy strikes. Mothers have been seen with dead calves, days after the calves had succumbed, refusing to leave the remains to the cackling hyenas and incessant vultures. This often makes them easy pickings for poachers as the elephants run around in place, confused, once one gets gunned down. Elephants take up a lot of space, as they should. They are incredible beasts. Unfortunately, that is also a major reason why they are some of the first animals targeted when war comes to their world.
Planes, tanks, and bombs, no animal can outrun the dogs of war
No animal on earth can outrun the death and destruction that war brings, not even the fastest land mammal on earth. Three decades of civil war in the Southern African country, Angola had ravaged the wildlife in the region, most notably the Southern African Cheetah. Known for clocking speeds of over 100km/h, this animal is an evolutionary marvel. It is truly one of a kind and is so specialized that even the tiniest disturbance to its habitat can have devastating consequences. Between 1975 and 2002 the Angolan savanna was a battlefield. Naturally, animals suffered the consequences. Cheetahs and other wildlife were either poached, killed for bushmeat, or fled. Even if cheetahs and other large cats were not killed directly, the animals they rely on for sustenance were, and thus they had no reason to stick around. Only years later, in 2010, 2 males were spotted in Iona National Park, after it had been believed that the species was locally extinct. Cheetahs are timid and nervous by nature. Had they not been as resilient, the effects of war on them could have been so much worse.
Is Humanity really as smart as it thinks?
Homo sapiens translates to Wise man. Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, ought to be rolling in his grave. Humanity has done nothing to earn that moniker as we have proven time and time again our arrogance, our disdain, and our total disregard for our blue planet and its original inhabitants. War kills not only animals but it destroys habitats. Every life form in an ecosystem plays a crucial role in its continued existence. Remove one link in that chain and the entire ecosystem could crumble. Our natural world is already dealing with our obsession with fossil fuels and our unsustainable population growth. War takes control of these processes and puts them into overdrive. War destroys our vibrant cultures and our beautiful natural spaces along with the wildlife which inhabits them. If we do not find a way to stop this seemingly endless cycle of hatred, war will take our very existence.
Animals never chose this world. They didn’t choose us, yet they are burdened with our insatiable obsession for war and nuclear power. Mozambique, Mali, DRC, Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine and Ukraine. So many places have seen war. There is nowhere that wildlife can go where they can escape from man’s relentless onslaught. Whether through collateral damage or direct exploitation, when humanity wages war, wildlife suffers. Consider to yourself the inescapable fact that no animal has ever declared war on another yet they have been around for hundreds of millions of years. As for humanity, in our infancy? We will be lucky if we reach the next century.
“Animals are the real victims on this earth. They didn’t declare war, they don’t have weapons, and they don’t want to destroy humans, or impose religion. Their only “crime” is that they exist.” Amina Tharwat Abaza
You can check out my Instagram for more photos of amazing wildlife https://www.instagram.com/petrusvaneck7/
You can find more info on Virunga and its amazing mountain gorilla inhabitants at the links below. The documentary is currently streaming on Netflix.
