Africa: Elephants Threatened to Extinction by Guerrilla Poachers

By Larry Habegger and Laurie Weed | Permalink | No Comments | September 4th, 2012 | Trackback

Those who dream of taking a safari might be wise to book it sooner rather than later. The skyrocketing price of ivory, now worth as much as $1,000 per pound on the black market, has turned guerrilla armies into ruthless poachers, placing Africa’s remaining elephants in peril. The militants’ sophisticated weaponry, along with continued high demand for illegal ivory in China, are the main forces behind what conservationists are calling the greatest percentage loss of African elephants in history. Game park wardens and wildlife rangers can do little against mercenaries with helicopters and automatic weapons that decimate an entire herd within minutes. If the current rate of slaughter continues, the continent’s entire elephant population could be gone in 20 years or less.

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