Conservation experts have raised the alarm that poachers and elephant traffickers are seriously threatening the population of elephants in the Cross River forests.
The country director of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Mr. Andrews Dunn said there are over 100 elephants in the Cross River forests some of which saunter into Cameroon and back.
A few days ago, a spectacle of a large herd of Forest Elephants was discovered by the Cross River National Park around the salt lick in Bashu community axis of the Park- Okwangwo Division.
Dunn said that poachers usually go after the elephant tusks which they now export.
He expressed dismay that specialist hunters kill the elephants for their lucrative ivory tusks, adding that domestic trade in ivory in Nigeria is flourishing.
“The domestic trade in ivory in Nigeria is flourishing, and the Lagos ivory market is reputed to be the largest in Africa.
“The continued presence of such markets in the country means that Nigeria’s elephants can never be safe, the best way to protect elephants from ivory hunters is to organise regular patrols of the national park by rangers.”
The conservationist called on the federal government to enforce the ban on all ivory trade in Nigeria.
He also posited that there is an increasing need to regularly monitor the trends in large vertebrate populations.
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