How Pesticide Misuse Is Killing Africa's Wildlife | National Geographic

Throughout Africa, people are using poisons as weapons to kill wildlife, and pesticides are the most common ones. As human populations across the continent continue to grow, farmers and herders compete with animals for shrinking land and resources. Farmers must safeguard their crops and chimps and elephants. Herders kill lions and leopards in retaliation for eating their cattle.

People have small animals like doves and ducks for meat, but instead of killing them with guns or traps, some have resorted to using inexpensive and deadly insecticides and herbicides. What they may not know is that this causes a disastrous trickle-down effect into the rest of the ecosystem. When herders add poison to carcasses used to bait lions, the same carcasses may be eaten by vultures and eagles, which themselves are then poisoned.

When villagers drop poison in a pond to kill fish and ducks for food, other animals like otters and hippos drink that water and die. When farmers sprinkle pesticides on seeds and fruits used to bait elephants, other animals like storks and insects also eat the poisoned food. People who consume poisoned meat and water without knowing it can get sick as a result.

As you can see, all of these situations do not only affect the targeted animals but end up harming so many others as collateral damage. But where do the pesticides come from? Some are manufactured in the United States, and others come from India and China. These lethal synthetic formulas made with carbofuran and carbosulfan are banned in many parts of the world, but they're sold legally for agricultural purposes in Africa, where they're widely available as over-the-counter products in kiosks and stores.

Human demands are always increasing, so poisonings are likely to increase too. [Music]