Rare Addis Wolf At Risk
July 8, 2002
Posted to the web July 8, 2002
The Ethiopian wolf – one of the rarest animals in the world – is being
threatened by farmers using poisons to protect their livestock,
campaigners told IRIN on Monday.
It is the first time that the wolves, listed by the World Conservation
Union as “critically endangered”, have been killed as a result of
poisoning. Conservationists blame poison for wiping out most other
wildlife in the country, such as lions.
“If the poisoning of wild predators continues in the Bale Mountains, the
threat to the Ethiopian wolf would be devastating,” said Stuart Williams,
who heads the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme (EWCP).
“It is not only the fact that people are killing wildlife that is serious
in this case,” he told IRIN. “It is the indiscriminate nature of poison.”
Only 500 Ethiopian wolves remain in the country. Most of these are in the
Bale Mountains region in southern Ethiopia.
Williams said farmers were using poison to reduce the chances of their
domestic livestock being killed and eaten by wild predators. In
particular, they are targeting spotted hyenas which they blame for killing
much of the livestock.
His team is currently devising a strategy to resolve the conflict between
people and wildlife. They teach local farmers effective livestock
husbandry, including the construction of enclosures for livestock to keep
out hyenas. They also include the local communities in the management of
the wildlife to ensure its protection.
The local authorities in Bale are now reported to be investigating the
poisoning to ensure it does not continue.