Elephant on the Run

Elephant Poaching

Illegal elephant killings in Central Africa have been occurring at unsustainable levels relative to natural population growth.

This means that elephants in this region are dying faster than they are able to reproduce.

African elephants are split into two distinct species: the Arican buch Elephant the most prevalent species,
and the smaller African Forest Elephant.

The bush elephant is the world’s largest living species of land animal.

In both African elephant species the males and females have tusks;
these are modified incisors that can grow to weigh dozens of kilograms and are used for a variety of essential purposes
in an elephant’s daily life.

These tusks are a significant source of ivory which is used in ivory ornaments and jewelry,
however mammoth tusks are also being excavated and their ivory traded legally.

In 1989 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Citis) listed African Elephants under Appendix I,
which restricts international trade of their parts.

However demand for ivory has continued to stimulate illegal trafficking and poaching of elephants.

In 1997 and 2008 there were CITES-approved, one-off sales of government-held ivory stockpiles held by southern African governments.

Read more about the one-off ivory sales in Buyers of Elephant Ivory From 2003-2014, with the exception of 2005,
Cites reports have shown that estimated levels of illegal elephant killings in

Central Africa have been occurring at unsustainable levels relative to natural population growth.

African elephants