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INSIDE AFRICA

Africa's Endangered Species

Aired June 9, 2007 - 12:30:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FEMI OKE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Femi Oke, and this is INSIDE AFRICA, your weekly look at life and issues on the continent.
This week, we're going to turn the spotlight on some of the Africa's endangered and vulnerable species, from giraffes, elephants, antelopes, zebras and leopards, many of the world's extraordinary species are risk of extinction. Unfortunately, much of the problem is manmade.

Today, the primary cause of the endangerment of Africa's wildlife is habitat loss, which continues at an unprecedented rate.

Another is over-exploitation. As populations and poverty rise, so does the demand and hunt for wild meat.

The final major threat is poaching, often conducted by organized gangs that kill the animals for their ivory, hives or meat.

Among animals at risk are wild lions, whose numbers have also been declining. But lion hunting is such a lucrative industry in South Africa that a whole business has developed around breeding lions specifically to be hunted. It's a practice that has now been challenged by the government.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OKE: A lion is shot against a fence. Another (inaudible) into some bait while hunters wait to finish it off. Chris Mercer uses video like this, shot by fellow anti-hunt campaigners, to make his case for a hunting ban in South Africa.

CHRIS MERCER, ANTI-HUNT CAMPAIGNER: I personally think that it's unethical and immoral to inflict suffering on unoffending animals for pleasure or for a sense of fulfillment, or for accomplishment, or for collection of body parts that people call trophies.

OKE: But Mercer lives in a hunting culture, and South Africa has built a reputation for being a hunter's paradise. Part of the attraction is due to a practice known as "canned hunting." So these animals look like they're running in the wild, but actually they're within the grounds of Sandhurst safaris.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can join? It's definitely a lion there, but I think it's a very big one.

OKE: John Foster from Boise, Idaho, is spending his vacation hunting lions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we bump into it, it's going to be a close range, and if it does charge, you've got to shoot it. Now, I don't want you to shoot something that's not going to be good enough. I would like to know what it looks like first.

OKE: John didn't shoot a lion that afternoon. Later in the evening, we talked about canned hunting.

JOHN FOSTER, HUNTER: Whenever you're canned hunting on 20, or 30, or 40,000 acres, it's pretty much, you know, you feel like it's free range. Occasionally, you do go through a fence that borders the property. But other than that, while you're inside the area, you know, the animals have plenty of freedom and plenty of range of movement and places to hide.

MERCER: You must realize that the whole attraction of canned hunting is that the animals don't have a chance.

OKE: Lion breeder Clayton Fletcher is co-owner of Sandhurst Safaris and manages 250 farmed lions.

CLAYTON FLETCHER, LION BREEDER: We've been hunting lions now for since I was a little boy, and I've never actually - I've never actually gone and - I've never actually shot my own lion. And a lot of people ...

OKE: You never shot a lion in your whole life?

FLETCHER: No, no, I never shot a lion before my whole life. And a lot of people - a lot of people look at me funny, the way you did now.

OKE: Yes.

FLETCHER: But, you know, we really love these animals, and this is the only way that we're going to protect their numbers, and keep people coming back to hunt them.

MERCER: Hunters wish to preserve some species so that they can be hunted. Therefore, hunters are conservationists.

Now, when I put the argument that way, you can see that it is the same as arguing all cats have four legs. My dog has four legs, therefore, my dog is a cat.

OKE: Fresh horse meat is on the menu for the Sandhurst lions today, but raising lions like this is about to die out. The South African government is introducing new regulations in February, which require lions to have 10 years of freedom before being hunted.

MARTHINUS VAN SCHALKWYK, MIN., ENVIRONMENT AND TOURISM: People pay tens of thousands of dollars or euros or whatever the case maybe, even hundreds of thousands, to hunt animals that are basically tame animals, bred in captivity, put out in the felt (ph), in a small enclosed area, and animals that really cannot fend for themselves. So it is not putting the wits of the hunter against that of the animal. It's basically slaughtering, and that would be outlawed now.

OKE: What is going to happen - what's going to happen to your 250 lions?

FLETCHER: Well, I think I (inaudible) minister of environmental affairs, Mr. Van Schalkwyk, to come and answer that question. Because I think this is all on him now. The decision that is made is going to cause a lot of lions to die. And I think it's - I think it's very, very sad. And I think he has to come and explain to us what to do with all these lions. I don't think I'll be able to shoot them.

OKE: John Foster shot two lions a day after we finished filming. Within a year, this kind of hunting will be banned.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OKE: When we come back, the battle to save the cheetah from extinction, and a visit to some of the world's last few mountain gorillas. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.N. and other conservation groups say a rise in rhino horns trade is threatening the already endangered animal. The increased demand in countries such as China and Yemen, where the horns are considered powerful medicine or status symbols, is driving the illegal trade.

And a report by the group Care for the Wild International says global demand for ivory is prompting an alarming increase in elephant poaching. The group made the announcement at the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species, taking place at The Hague this week.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OKE: Hello, it's good to see you again. You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. Now, the most famous of Africa's endangered species are perhaps the great apes, the gorilla, the sexy bonobo -- it's a long story we'll tell you another week -- and its sibling, the chimpanzee, with whom, by the way, we share 98 percent of our genes.

Once again, we, humans are at the root of their troubles, threatening them with destruction of their habitat, commercial hunting, live animal trade and disease. Scientists warn that unless things change, less than 10 percent of their habitat could be left by 2030. And they say the great apes could become extinct in less than 50 years.

Late last year, Anderson Cooper made a special trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to meet some of the world's few remaining mountain gorillas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To find the last remaining mountain gorillas, you have to drive for hours along bumpy dirt roads. Then, guarded by park rangers, hack you way through thick forests.

There is only about 700 mountain gorillas left in the entire world, and all of them live in Central Africa. They live in two distinct groups. One group of about 320 live in the mountains of Uganda; the others, about 380 of them, live here in the Virungas, a densely forested series of mountains that straddles Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In Rwanda, the mountain gorillas are the country's biggest tourist attraction, bringing in about $2 million a year. But here in the Congo, years of fighting have driven away the tourists. The gorillas here in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are under threat from all sides. Farmers, desperate for land, are encroaching on their habitat. So are miners, who are exploiting the natural resources of the country. Miners also need food to eat, and so they hunt gorillas. They also set traps, snares for other animals that the gorillas get caught in.

Many gorillas have lost hands to snares. Others have dies from subsequent infections, or been killed by poachers looking to steal baby gorillas and sell them on the black market.

After hiking for more than an hour, the park rangers find a nest where a family of gorillas spent the night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are the bamboo shoots...

COOPER: Recently eaten by the gorillas.

A few feet away, in a small clearing, we get our first sight of the mountain gorillas. They're playing together.

There is nine gorillas in this group, and every gorilla group is headed by an adult male called the silverback. That's the silverback right over there, because of the distinctive coloring on his back. A fully grown silverback can weigh about 500 pounds.

PATRICK MEHLMAN. DIAN FOSSEY GORILLA FUND: His name is Umma (ph), and we think is about 22, 24 years of age.

COOPER: Patrick Mehlman is a gorilla expert with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and Conservation International.

MEHLMAN: He's just testing us. He's just testing us. It's OK. He's just trying to pass now, just let him pass. As long as he doesn't feel like we're doing anything threatening, he'll just walk right by us, as he did.

COOPER: Gorillas are highly susceptible to human diseases, so visitors are only allowed one hour with the mountain gorillas. But it's more than worth the trip.

Visiting the mountain gorillas is probably one of the most incredible and intimate experiences you can have with an animal in the wild. When you are this close to the gorillas and when you see their eyes, you see how intelligent they are and how really similar they are to human beings. Each one really has a unique personality. Each one is an individual.

Despite the obstacles mountain gorillas still face, they are in some ways a success story. In recent years, their numbers have been slowly climbing. For other gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, however, so- called lowland gorillas, the picture is much bleaker.

MEHLMAN: The lowland gorillas have indeed suffered from the effects of civil war, because you've had several armies and all of these armed rebel groups moving through their habitat. And there are occasions when they'll just take out their AK-47s and have target practice. That happens.

COOPER: That happens, and likely will continue to happen until the government takes hold in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that makes protecting gorillas a priority. If not on principle, then simply as a way to bring in some desperately needed tourists dollars.

Anderson Cooper, CNN, Goma.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OKE: From great apes to wild cats - the cheetah has been endangered since the 1960s, primarily due to the loss of habitat and clashes with farmers. Robyn Curnow caught up with one conservationist in Namibia who's dedicated her life to saving the animal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the world's fastest land animal, this exercise routine is like a gentle stroll. These captive cheetahs are built to reach speed up to 215 kilometers per hour.

LAURIE MARKER: Come on! Let's go!

CURNOW: Laurie Marker is a cat lover. She's hand-rearing this cheetah cub, just one of the many she's nurtured to adulthood.

MARKER: I'm mom, and so I'm teaching her all kinds of things.

CURNOW: An American biologist, Marker has made the Namibian bush her home, and the survival of the wild cheetah her life mission.

LAURIE MARKER, CHEETAH CONSERVATION FUND: Push came to shove. I kept saying, somebody needs to go save the wild cheetahs, and when nobody did, basically, I just said, well, I'll show you, world.

CURNOW: And they need her help. The cheetah is one of the most endangered of the wild cats. It used to range across Asia and Africa, but now there are less than 15,000 left; 3,000 of them are in Namibia.

Marker says her cheetah conservation fund is making a difference. She says there's been an increase in Namibia's cheetah population, and that's largely because of the work she's doing with farmers, who blame the cheetah for killing their livestock.

MARKER: So, here in Namibia, 95 percent of our cheetahs are found on the livestock farmland. With that, the conflict has been great. In the 1980s, when farmers didn't know what they were doing, they were killing 800, 900 cheetahs a year.

So, when I set up Cheetah Conservation Fund in 1990, we came to actually work with the farming community to find out why they were - what were their problems.

JACQUE SCHWARTZ, FARMER: They were catching my sheep and goats.

CURNOW: Many local farmers like Jacque Schwartz see the cheetah as a pest.

SCHWARTZ: Yeah, yeah, I've shot some of them in the past. But it's not nice. It's not - I don't like it. So I'd rather to have another option.

CURNOW: This is the other option for farmers: Capturing cheetahs and handing them over to Laurie Marker. This anesthetized (ph) young male is one of three cheetahs brought in by Jacque Schwartz. Marker thinks the mother might have been shot; these farmers say not by them. But whoever is to blame, this incident is another reminder of just how complex her work is.

It's not just about saving the cheetah. It's more than that. It's about all of this, says the Cheetah Conservation Fund. It's about land and animals and people all co-existing peacefully, and profitably.

The Cheetah Conservation Fund plans to help market Namibian beef to European consumers, charging a premium for cows reared on land where cheetah are tolerated.

And then there is the guard dog (inaudible), which donates specially trained Anatolian sheepdogs to farmers. Laurie Marker's tenacity is rewarded on days like this. A female cheetah she's reintroduced to the wild does what nature intended -- feed herself and her cubs.

Robyn Curnow, CNN, Ochiwarango (ph), Namibia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OKE: There's more to come on INSIDE AFRICA. Just ahead: A look at how foreign visitors can help save Kenya's wild treasures. And "The Lion King" finds its way home. Hakuna matata! We're at opening night in Johannesburg. See you soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OKE: Hello again. You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. While our need for space is costing Africa's wildlife dearly, some new initiatives are trying to help man and animal co-exist. Christian Purefoy reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Strolling through Kenya's Nairobi National Park - as Kenya human population increases, so the wildlife population decreases. Conservationists say since 1970, the wildlife population has decrease by half, while the human population has tripled.

GODFREY NTAPAYIA, KAJIADO HUMAN WILDLIFE CONTROL MANAGEMENT: A big problem that conservation of the park is facing now is land speculation. I mean, urbanization is encroaching into conservation areas.

PUREFOY: It is also increasing human wildlife conflict. If a lion kills a villager's livestock, it will be hunted and often killed. But now conservationists are pushing a new idea to help villagers protect wildlife. Eco-tourism businesses pay native groups like the Masai for use of their land, employ them as staff, and compensate villagers for every head of livestock they lose. So far, the response from the Masai has been good.

MZEE KIPOKET, MASAI VILLAGE CHIEF (through translator): So when we saw a cow attacked by a lion, we didn't mind, because we knew the lion would give us a lot of money.

PUREFOY: Eco-tourism, which is set up to offer human visitors eco-friendly exclusivity, has other obvious advantages.

PETER MBOGAINE, MANAGER, MARA PORINI CAMP: It's a -- I mean, one of the conditions that we've been given is that we should try and leave the land as natural as possible, so we don't interfere so much with the vegetation, with the ecosystem.

PUREFOY: But not everyone approves. Some argue that wildlife is already at dangerously low levels, and that conservation should focus on enclosing parks like Nairobi National Park. Others disagree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I think wildlife need stress (ph). And I think it is very criminal to stick (ph) wildlife into zoos or into closed areas. Let them roam freely.

NTAPAYIA: Christian Purefoy, CNN, Kenya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OKE: From real wild animals, we're going to check out a far tamer crew of animals, the stars of Disney's "The Lion King". The musical opened in Africa this week for the first time since debuting on Broadway nearly a decade ago. Paul Tilsley has the story from Johannesburg.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL TILSLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "The Lion King" - he now lives in South Africa. But to hear the roar of this pride of Disney took 10 years of planning, millions of dollars in production costs, and the special construction of Africa's largest theater.

Last August, we joined Labo M, co-composer of "The Lion King" score and Johannesburg producer on his first tour of the then shell of the theater.

LABO M, PRODUCER "THE LION KING", SOUTH AFRICA: Nothing is as strong and significant as standing here at this very moment, knowing that I'm part of this.

TILSLEY: This past week, we took that same walk again, in the now complete stalls.

LABO M: I now have to live with this reality every day, that "The Lion King" is not coming home; "The Lion King" is here.

TILSLEY: Backstage, Buyisile Zama starts the two-hour process of transforming into Rafiki.

TILSLEY: This is the first production with an all South African cast, on the continent that inspired the show.

It's also the first time onstage for Soweto school boy Linda Dlamini, who plays Simba. But not so the show's Mufasa, who also took the role in London.

SELLO MAAKE-KANCUBE, "MUFASA": It's for me, the circle of life. The thing that got me out of the country gets me back.

TILSLEY: The role of Nala weighs heavily on Tsholofeio Monedi's shoulders.

TSHOLOFEIO MONEDI, "NALA" The whole world is looking at me, and I'm also representing the pride of my country, so there is a lot of responsibility at that.

TILSLEY: Especially this week on opening night.

This is perhaps Africa's biggest premier all year. The African A-list, even the African-American A-list is here, including Oprah Winfrey.

OPRAH WINFREY, U.S. TALK SHOW HOST: You know what? I wanted to be here -- flew all night to get here, just showered -- because I don't think there's going to be anything like it. I think, you know, you can see it in L.A., you can see it New York. There's nothing like coming home.

TILSLEY: "The Lion King" was welcomed home with a standing ovation, a roar that metaphorically could be heard as far away as Broadway.

Paul Tilsley, CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OKE: I love "The Lion King". I do my housework to "The Lion King" every Saturday after INSIDE AFRICA. And did you know that over the last 10 years, "The Lion King" has been seen by over 40 million people in nine countries?

That's our show for this week. Thanks for watching. But there's more to come next week, so please let INSIDE AFRICA be your window to the continent.

I'm Femi Oke. Until the next time, take care.

END

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