In the book Running Wild written by Michael Morpurgo the main character Will experiences poaching. Will and his elephant Oona ran away from a tsunami and got lost in the jungle. Will got kidnapped by poachers and put into a cage where he then escaped.
Poaching is where someone kills an animal for the expensive parts to sell illegally. Elephants are poached for the ivory in their tusks because it can be worth a substantial amount of money. A single pound of ivory can be worth around $1,500 and tusks can weigh around 250 pounds which would cost about $375,000.
In the book Running Wild they are poaching for orangutans and tigers.
Orangutans are worth about $217.60 And tiger skins are worth $124,000 and a stuffed tiger is worth $700,000. Those prices are phenomenal for an animal.
For example the elephant tusks are worth about 375,00 dollars and a mini yacht goes from $300,000 to $5,000,000. You could buy 9 Teslas from two elephant tusks.
Poaching is a serious problem because lots of animal species are going extinct. The governments are trying to stop poaching but there are so many places to poach it’s really hard.
There are 30,000 species of animals that have gone extinct due to poaching. There are around 300 species that go extinct every year around the world.
In New Zealand there are animals that are getting poached such as geckos, exotic parrots, tuatara and native species. If you are caught poaching in New Zealand you can go to jail for two years or pay a $100,000 fine.
There are people who are paid to stop poaching. In some countries there are rangers and in New Zealand DOC would report you to the police.
Poachers in New Zealand have to battle through wet weather, raging rivers and lack of food being up in the bush for long periods of time.
In nearly every country you go to there would be poachers poaching animals that are valuable.
Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals. The term poaching has also been used to refer to the harvesting of wild plant species.
There are problems that poachers have to face like rangers. Poachers have to deal with harsh conditions, not much money and the animals don't just stand there asking to be captured. If you shoot an elephant there is a chance that it could crage at you, killing you. If you were hunting tigers there could be other tigers that could attack you. If you were hunting crocodiles there could be other crocodiles that could attack you.
One of the animals that is extinct mostly due to poaching is the Tasmanian tiger. The Tasmanian tiger was last sighted in 1930. There have been people who say they saw a Tasmanian tiger but the doubt’s on that they didn’t.
If the human race keeps on killing all the animals there won't be many animals left and the ecosystem could be destroyed. When their habitats are destroyed poachers could try and catch them.
