• Question: why do people poach endagered animals?

    Asked by conchod123 to Antonia, Douglas, Hugh, Matt, Tom on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Antonia Hamilton

      Antonia Hamilton answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I think it is a question of economics. if you were poor and didn’t know that something was endangered but someone said – I’ll pay you lots of money for an elephant, you might be tempted.

    • Photo: Tom Hardy

      Tom Hardy answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Because the more endangered something is the more valuable it is. Lots of animals are hunted for their skins, fur, teeth or other body parts to make fashion items or home furnishings, some are even used in medical products and cosmetics. The rarer an animal product is the more desirable it is.

      Unfortunately some people do not care about the animal and just want to make money or just want to hunt an animal for fun.

    • Photo: Hugh Roderick

      Hugh Roderick answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Because despite it being illegal some people still want to buy elephant ivory or shark fins or parts of tigers and will pay a lot of money to get hold of them so poachers can make a lot of money by poaching endangered animals

    • Photo: Matthew Hurley

      Matthew Hurley answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Presumably because they want the money more than they dislike putting a whole species at risk of becoming (more) endangered.

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