by Camilla Hajallie
Grade 5 - A.C.E. Academy for Scholars PS290Q (Ridgewood, NY, United States)
Third Place
January 28, 2017.
Dear leader of WWF,
The lives of humans and other living things are intertwined, so what we do affects everything else. As a result we have endangered many other living things, like the Asian elephant. But we need to help these species, and I have an idea of how we can do it.
Asian elephants have a key part in the ecosystem, they disperse seeds, helping forests and plants grow. Their dung is also important to the ecosystem, many animals use elephant dung as a source of food and nutrients, it even is a home for many invertebrates. Without this, the ecosystem would collapse, affecting everyone. Sadly, elephants are endangered, and their population is decreasing, as listed in the IUCN Red list . It means everything in the ecosystem is in danger.
I learned that the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is helping to conserve the remaining elephant population and their habitats. Experts believe that confrontation between elephants and humans are now the leading cause of elephant deaths in Asia. Many elephants share a habitat with humans, so elephants sometimes come to look for food in a village, accidentally destroying the fields and crops. The farmers would come out and start hurting the elephant to save their belongs. Sometimes the elephant or the human would get killed, and that is bad for everyone. Even though there are policies set up to help with the conflict , it’s hard for people to comply because they need to fight for their lives and livelihood. However, I have a solution for this problem.
In nature, animals use calls to warn each other of predators and tell each other different things. We have always had sensors and speakers. So why not combine these two to help animals. My idea is to give out warning calls to warn elephants and people. Solar powered vibration sensors will be put around the villages. The sensor will sense if any elephants are around by sensing vibrations caused by the elephant’s foot steps. (Elephants have unique walking patterns because their body shape, weight and walking speed, so the sensor can tell.) Then I thought, I need a way to warn people that the elephants are here and also warn the elephants not to get in the villages. so I would put a speaker in this invention. When elephants would get detected in the sensor, it would trigger the speakers to play the recording of the elephant’s warning call. The elephant’s response to this , is supposedly to run away. The activation of the speaker will also alert the people that there is an elephant around. This makes less human elephant confrontation, and that means less people and elephants killed,also less crops destroyed.
However, I am not so sure if that is the response the elephants will make, so I want to test out this idea in a small village first, and see how the elephants behave. Hopefully, this will not only trigger the elephant to run away, but also other animals that are affected by humans will also get the warning from the elephant’s running away.
When humans and animals share a habitat without confrontation, there will be less conflict between animals and humans and every one will be safe . Most importantly, the ecosystem will not be disrupted. I think my idea will help establish harmony between humans and animals.
Sincerely,
Camilla Hajallie
References
- IUCN website: www.iucn.org
- World Wide Fund for Nature website: wwf.panda.org