#Forest Elephant Numbers Decline More than 60 Percent in Decade About 65 percent of forest elephants were killed mostly for their ivory across Central africa in the last decade new research finds.
which described the catastrophic 62 percent decline of the region's forest elephants from 2002 to 2011.
Now field data from 2012 and 2013 show that the plight of elephants has gotten slightly worse.
At least a couple of hundred thousand forest elephants were lost between 2002-2013 to the tune of at least 60 a day
By the time you eat breakfast another elephant has been slaughtered to produce trinkets for the ivory market.##Elephant Images:
The Biggest Beasts On land Maisels and colleagues surveyed elephants at 80 sites throughout Cameroon the Central african republic the Republic of congo the Democratic Republic of congo and Gabon.
In their original study the researchers estimated that the population of African forest elephants was less than 10 percent of its potential size only about 100000 individuals were living in an area that historically could have harbored more 1 million.
What's more the elephants were spread across only a quarter of their potential range.
Nearly 60 percent of the remaining forest elephants can be found in the relatively small West african nation of Gabon according to WCS officials.
Meanwhile the Democratic Republic of congo a country nearly nine times larger than Gabon in area has a far smaller population of elephants.
The current number and distribution of elephants is compared mind-boggling when to what it should be study author Samantha Strindberg said in a statement.
About 95 percent of the forests of DRC are almost empty of elephants. Even in protected forest habitats these elephants are threatened seriously by poaching.
In their 2013 paper the scientists said illegal poaching must be stopped and the high demand for ivory must be stemmed
in order to save the forest elephants. Other elephant subspecies are threatened also by poaching for the ivory trade.
Several governments have been responding to conservationists'calls for action. The United states China Hong kong the Philippines and Gabon for example have destroyed
either or pledged to destroy their ivory stockpiles in largely symbolic moves to delegitimize ivory as a commercial product.
On Wednesday (Feb 12) the Obama administration announced that the United states will ban the domestic commercial trade of elephant ivory.
#New york's Power to Fight Illegal Ivory (Op-Ed) John Calvelli is executive vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and director of the society's 96 Elephants campaign.
As we celebrate World Elephant Day (Aug 12) the Empire state is poised to help shape the future of one of Earth's most magnificent but endangered species:
African elephants. As Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the new law today New york currently the largest ivory market in the United states banned commercial sales and purchases of ivory and rhino horn.
The United states is the world's second-largest market for ivory behind China and much of it flows through New york. The new laws will assist federal efforts to shut down the ivory
and rhino-horn trades and with recently passed legislation in New jersey help close one of the nation's largest ports to this illegal wildlife trade.
The situation surrounding the illegal killing of elephants and ivory trafficking is dire. An estimated 35000 elephants were poached in Africa in 2012
and probably more last year that's 96 elephants killed every day for their ivory tusks
which are in high demand in Asia and beyond. Research by WCS and multiple partners found a staggering 65-percent decline in the population of African forest elephants between 2002 and 2013.
In a bipartisan acknowledgement of the urgent need to stop this decline state leaders from both sides of the political aisle including New york state Sens.
The momentum is clearly building for this commonsense strategy in the fight against illegal trafficking and elephant poaching.
Members of 96 Elephants a coalition of 160 groups committed to saving elephants are now working on similar efforts in California Illinois Vermont Florida and Hawaii.
Today on World Elephant Day 96 Elephants members delivered more than 96000 letters to their governors asking them to support an ivory ban in their state.
By banning ivory sales and purchases New york sent a message that the long-term survival of elephants is more important than ivory statues
ranges of animals such as the tiger elephant rhino and orangutan; and floral diversity according to a statement from Eyes on the Forest.
Although the long time between satellite images makes it difficult to actively search for threats to tigers he said Google technology has been helpful in illustrating the pace of deforestation in the region and its effects on tiger and elephant habitat.
Elephant tracks Despite many efforts to curb elephant poaching including a 1989 agreement among CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
since the 1980s when an estimated 100000 African elephants were killed each year by poachers these massive mammals face additional threats posed by human activities such as commercial logging
Save the Elephants a Kenya-based organization dedicated to elephant protection and research is using Google technologies to help protect elephants from some of these dangers.
The group uses GPS collars to track elephants in Africa providing the organization with live detailed information about the animals'location and movements.
Save the Elephants then uses Google earth to visualize all of the data: By leveraging the application's satellite imagery researchers can zoom in on certain regions to follow the elephants in real time.
We've been using Google earth as a very easy way to find out what our elephants are up to
and where they are going Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton said in a video hosted on Google's Outreach page.
It links in perfectly to our remote tracking system so the information is a continuous stream of the elephants'whereabouts.
The real-time updates and alerts are delivered via Save the Elephants'ios and Android apps to researchers in the field or via Google earth to be viewed in more detail on a computer.
With knowledge of the elephants'routes the organization can better protect the animals from poachers
and other dangers and help take action if a threat is detected Douglas-Hamilton said. 12 Strangest Sights on Google earth
When an elephant stops moving we can then send a Google earth file indicating the place where the elephant is stopped he said.
Then the Kenyan Wildlife Service can send out a patrol to go out and investigate. We're at a crucial stage now where we can act
#Last Terrifying Moments of Baby Mammoths Revealed The frightening last moments of two baby mammoths that died thousands of years ago are now being revealed thanks to CT scanning.
The 1-and 2-month-old woolly mammoth calves which were discovered in different portions of Siberia choked on mud after falling into water more than 40000 years ago new research suggests.
See Images of the Baby Woolly mammoths Frozen beasts Woolly mammoths close relatives of modern-day elephants arose about 5. 1 million years ago in Africa
Stunning Mammoths Unearthed Lyuba (which means love in Russian) was plump and healthy at death.
The baby mammoth was likely crossing a frozen lake with her mother when she crashed through the ice
For instance Khroma's brain was smaller than a newborn elephant's brain suggesting mammoths may have had a shorter gestational period than modern elephants Fisher said.
100 Most Threatened Species Poachers have been illegally killing African elephants for years bringing them to the brink of extinction Assemblyman Robert K. Sweeney chair of the committee said in a statement.
but elephant populations are still at risk as poachers continue to strip them of their ivory tusks to sell in domestic and lucrative black markets.
WCS estimates that 96 elephants are killed each day by poachers in Africa which is roughly one elephant death every 15 minutes.
These illicit killings have contributed to a 76 percent decline in elephant populations since 2002 according to WCS officials.
The New york seizure is evidence of a disturbing fact: There is a direct link between the illegal ivory trade in New york state
and the slaughter of elephants in Africa John Calvelli executive vice president for public affairs at the WCS said in a statement.
#EU States Urged to Destroy Their Illegal Ivory To help combat elephant poaching the United states crushed its stockpile of illegal ivory for the first time last year.
and domestic sales of ivory to help fight the killing of rhinos elephants and other animals for profit.
which estimates that 35000 elephants were killed by poachers in Africa last year a rate equivalent to 96 elephants killed each day.
In order to protect elephants on the ground we must take steps to cut off the market for these products.
Protecting endangered elephants Rampant ivory poaching is placing elephant populations at risk and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) estimates that 96 elephants are killed each day by poachers in Africa.
These killings have contributed to a precipitous 76 percent decline in elephant populations since 2002 said Elizabeth Bennett vice president of species conservation at the WCS.
Furthermore funds from the sale of illegal ivory an estimated $10 billion industry have been used to fuel a range of other illicit activities including organized crime
In African nations where elephants are slaughtered for their ivory tusks the illegal ivory trade is exacerbated by a potent cocktail of poverty poor governance
Manongi said elephants which are being driven to the brink of extinction have become the latest conflict resource
#Poachers Killed More than 100,000 Elephants in 3 Years This story was updated at 10:32 am ET on Aug 19.
The insatiable demand for ivory is causing a dramatic decline in the number of African elephants.
Poachers are hunting the animal faster than it can reproduce with deaths affecting more than half of elephant families in the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya a new study finds.
In 2011 the worst African elephant poaching year on record since 1998 poachers killed an estimated 40000 elephants or about 8 percent of the elephant population in Africa.
In the absence of poaching African elephant populations grow about 4. 2 percent each year the researchers found based on detailed records from Samburu.
African elephants are an intelligent species; individuals cooperate with one another and console one another in times of distress
but people unfortunately like their ivory tusks said the study's lead researcher George Wittemyer an assistant professor of fish wildlife and conservation biology at Colorado State university.
Wittemyer has studied African elephants in Kenya for the past 17 years monitoring their complex social lives.
In 2009 a drought led to the deaths of about 12 percent of elephants in Kenya.
Elephant Images: The Biggest Beasts On land Sadly in 2009 we had a terrible drought and we started seeing a lot of illegal killing of elephants as well as natural deaths Wittemyer told Live Science.
We've been struggling to respond. We've been trying to find solutions to dampen the illegal killing.
His team used data on natural deaths versus poaching deaths in the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya and then applied these numbers to a continent-wide database called MIKE or Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants.
Started in 2002 MIKE is maintained by communities across Africa that report when where and how elephants die.
and a second that examined all 306 sites even those with less information about elephant deaths.
which is home to about 2 percent of the African elephant population because data there are sparse Wittemyer said.
In the past 10 years elephant numbers at the 12 sites have decreased by 7 percent which takes into account that elephant numbers were mostly increasing until 2009.
Elephants in Central africa decreased by more than 60 percent in the past 10 years according to an analysis of three locations in the 12-site model.
Poaching is so widespread that 75 percent of elephant populations across the continent have been declining
since 2009 with only 25 percent showing stable or increasing numbers Wittemyer said. Alarming increases in illegal killing for ivory are driving African elephants rapidly into extinction said Peter Leimgruber a conservation biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute who was involved not in the study.
Poaching rates for ivory are exceed unsustainable and the natural growth rate of wild elephants Leimgruber said.
This means that elephant populations currently decline by nearly 60 to 70 percent every 10 years making it likely for the species to go extinct in the near future
if poaching and the illegal ivory trade are stopped not he said. Much of the ivory demand comes from China and Southeast asia.
Poachers killed an average of 33630 elephants every year from 2010 to 2012 resulting in more than 100000 deaths across the continent the study found.
As more elephants are poached the number of governmental seizures of illegal ivory increase and the black market price of ivory goes up.
This article has been updated to correct the number of elephants that have decreased. Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter@Laurageggel and Google+.
Though there are other snakes with more potent venom the amount of neurotoxin that a king cobra can emit in one bite is enough to kill 20 people or one elephant.
#Elephant Mystery at Ancient Syrian Battle Solved Editor's Note: This story was updated at 11:40 a m. E t. on Jan 24.
The mystery of an ancient battle between two warring troops of elephants has been solved thanks to a modern genetic analysis of the lumbering beasts.
Researchers have now found that Eritrean elephants which live in the northeastern portion of Africa are savanna elephants
and are not related to the more diminutive forest elephants that live in the jungles of Central africa.
That in turn discounts an Ancient greek account of how a battle between two warring empires played out with one side's elephants refusing to fight
The matchup included tens of thousands of troops thousands of cavalry and dozens of war elephants on each side.
The elephants were the ace in the hole able to trample the enemy and sow terror with their massive size.
Elephants were considered the tanks of the time until eventually the Romans figured out how to defeat war elephants in later times said study co-author Alfred Roca an animal scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Antiochus had easy access to Asian elephants from India but Ptolemy didn't. Instead he set up outposts in
what is now modern-day Eritrea to get African elephants. Unfortunately that strategy didn't work out so well:
According to Polybius'account the African elephants turned tail and ran when they saw how gigantic the Asian elephants were.
Ptolemy however was able to recover due to missteps by Antiochus and eventually won the battle.
African elephants In reality Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants so some historians speculated that perhaps the Ptolemies were using African forest elephants
So Roca and his colleagues conducted a thorough genetic analysis of the elephants found in Eritrea the descendants of the losers in the ancient battle.
We showed using pretty much every genetic marker that they were savanna elephants Roca told Livescience.
This was contrary to some speculation that there may be forest elephants present in that part of the world.
The team also found that there were just 100 to 200 African elephants left in isolated pockets in Eritrea
and the African elephants got spooked for some other reason than the overpowering size of the Asian elephants.
and they claimed that India had the biggest elephants in the world Roca said. Polybius who wasn't actually at the battle likely read those accounts
and surmised the Asian elephants'bigger size caused their opponents to panic. In fact until about the 1700s when scientists actually measured the two most people still thought Asian elephants were the larger species Roca said.
And even now games such as Age of empires that recreate the Battle of Raphia depict the Ptolemaic elephants as smaller.
Editor's Note: This article was corrected to note that there are 100 to 200 African not Asian elephants in Eritrea.
Follow Tia Ghose on Twitterand Google+.+Follow Livescience@livescience Facebook & Google+.+Original article on Livescience S
Last year an average of 96 elephants were killed for their tusks every day to feed an ever-growing demand for ivory trinkets the new bling in Asia.
If just 10 percent of Chinese families making more than $16000 per year buy one two-ounce ivory carving about the size of a piece of hotel soap 32600 elephants must die.
and are now even hacking off elephants'toenails for new traditional medicine cures. Raising awareness about the plight of elephants is without doubt necessary.
It has galvanized Former Secretary of state Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea the Vice-Chair of the Clinton Foundation to mobilize support from presidents of elephant-range states to take concrete action to halt the slaughter of elephants for their ivory.
It convinced U s. President Barack Obama to issue an Executive Order on Combating Wildlife Trafficking
and risking their lives doing so elephants have a much greater chance of escaping the poacher's bullet axe and chainsaw.
and consumer demand elephants will never be safe from the slaughter driven by a desire to own ivory
because catching poachers with ivory does not help the elephants who died. So what disincentives can conservationists muster to curb the trade
and prevent the death of the next elephant? Great work by the conservation community is confirming our suspicion that the trade in ivory is driven no longer by poor hunters who see poaching as a quick albeit risky way out of poverty.
and their allies can ensure that elephant poachers and the thousands of other participants in the illegal wildlife trade might become just a little less untouchable.
Ancient sloths could grow to be as large as an elephant. They roamed North america and became extinct around 10000 years ago.
#Plan to Build'CSI Elephant'Uses DNA Forensics to Track Poachers (Op-Ed) This article was published originally at The Conversation.
The shocking news that Satao the much-loved African elephant who lvied in Kenya s Tsavo East National park has been killed
and butchered for his tusks highlights once again the terrible and unsustainable toll of poaching elephants for their ivory.
Satao s death is just one among the many thousands of elephants killed each year. The Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants programme part of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora
and Fauna (CITES) set up as part of the worldwide ban in 1989 reported that 22000 African elephants were killed illegally by poachers in 2012 based on data from 27 countries across Africa.
The figures for 2013 reported this month show a toll of over 20000 African elephants the vast majority of seizures by customs
or border officials being made in Tanzania Kenya and Uganda. The CITES report reveals that while the numbers of elephants poached appears to have stabilised among large seizures of more than 500kg the number of tusks found in each seizure is rising.
This suggests two things: that there are fewer elephants to poach and that the trade is organised well and not the work of individual poachers or small groups.
This level of slaughter far exceeds the reproductive potential of the remaining elephants and will by any account lead to the extinction of the African elephant in many parts of the continent.
The international community is only now responding to this crisis for the African elephant with action.
Knowing which populations the poachers are targeting can play an important part. Work pioneered by Professor Sam Wasser at the University of Washington uses DNA profiling from seized ivory to trace it back to the geographical location within Africa from which the ivory was taken once roamed.
There are two species of elephant in Africa the savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis.
Within these two species are many subpopulations such as extended family groups where there is a greater sharing of DNA types due to inheritance from common ancestors.
Under CITES there is a total ban on the trade in elephant ivory although not from all other species that have ivory nor from tusks removed from mammoths being extinct they cannot be provided any legal protection.
The cost of mammoth ivory is approximately US$350 per kilogramme significantly cheaper than elephant ivory but often looks very similar.
Again DNA typing can distinguish between African and Asian elephants and mammoths. This aspect of wildlife forensic science is supported by the United nations Office for Drugs
and Crime and has already proved highly successful in tracking seizures and locating their source.
For example when a 6. 5 tonne shipment was seized in Singapore DNA testing revealed it had come from elephant populations in Zambia.
If nations wish to save the African elephant then action to provide and fund the tools necessary is required.
And as ivory becomes rare due to the alarming decrease in elephant numbers the concurrent increase in value will put ever more pressure on the dwindling elephant populations.
#Zoos, Aquariums and Their Visitors Are Critical Advocates for Conservation (Op-Ed) John Calvelli is executive vice president for public affairs at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and director of the 96 Elephants campaign.
We attended to provide senior zoo representatives from across the nation with an update on the forest-elephant poaching
We also led a discussion of our 96 Elephants public campaign. That effort launched by WCS in 2013 and named for the number African elephants killed on average each day of 2012 seeks to bring attention
and consensus to a poaching crisis that has eliminated a stunning 65 percent of the entire African elephant population since 2002.
The campaign rests on three pillars we have identified to end the crisis: Stop the killing stop the trafficking
So far 115 different zoos and aquariums have signed on as 96 Elephants partners. All have the ability to spread the message of elephant conservation to their park-going audiences
and zoos and aquariums are making a difference. Each in their own way is helping to focus attention educate their visitors
For example last fall the Indianapolis Zoo gathered 96 school children for a group picture to promote greater awareness of the elephant-poaching crisis. The Houston Zoo is incorporating campaign messaging into its promotion of the birth
of a new elephant calf and is currently working to collect 5000 signatures to hand over to local elected leaders asking them to push for a total ban on the sale of ivory and ivory products in the United States.
Clearly a movement is growing to protect elephants and other iconic species from devastating losses.
The 96 Elephants campaign underscores both the power of conservation to move people to take action
To help elephants survive and thrive we must now work state by state to ensure there are adequate laws on the books to stop the sale of ivory.
Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone Vietnam could be the latest country to destroy its stockpiles of illegal wildlife products.
Officials with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development of Vietnam say they are considering crushing rhino horn elephant ivory
Despite international bans wildlife products like ivory and rhino horn remain in high demand fueling poaching
WCS estimates that 96 elephants are killed each day for their ivory in Africa contributing to a 76 percent decline in elephant populations since 2002.
Last year a record 1004 rhinos were killed in South africa for their horns. Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+.
#Facts About Elephants African elephants & Asian Elephants Elephants are the largest land animals On earth. They have characteristic long noses or trunks;
There are two species of elephant. The Asian elephant and the African elephant live on separate continents and have many unique features.
There are several subspecies that belong to one or the other of these two main species though there is disagreement over just how many subspecies there are.
African elephants are the larger of the two species. They grow 8. 2 to 13 feet (2. 5 to 4 meters) from shoulder to toe
2268 to 6350 kilograms) according to the National geographic. Asian elephants can grow up to 6. 6 to 9. 8 feet (2 to 3 m) from shoulder to toe
African elephants live in Sub-saharan africa the rain forests of Central and West Africa and the Sahel desert in Mali.
Asian elephants live in Nepal India and Southeast asia in scrub forests and rain forests. Elephants eat grasses roots fruit and bark.
They use their tusks to pull the bark from trees and dig roots out of the ground.
An elephant has an appetite that matches its size. An adult can eat 300 lbs.
136 kg) of food in a day according to the National geographic. A group of elephants is called a herd.
Females as well as young and old elephants stick together in a herd. Adult males tend to wander on their own.
Elephants also have certain rules. For example when they are meeting each other they expect the other elephant to extend its trunk in greeting.
The matriarch will often teach young elephants in her herd how to act properly. Male elephants are called bulls
and females are called cows. After mating the cow will be pregnant for around 22 months. When the baby elephant is born finally it can weigh around 200 lbs 91 kg) and stand about 3 feet (1 m) tall.
A baby elephant is called a calf. As the calf grows it will gain 2 to 3 lbs. every day until its first birthday.
By the time they are 2 or 3 years old calves are ready to be weaned. Male calves will wander off on their own
while females will stay with their mothers. When they are 13 to 20 years old they will be mature enough to have their own young.
Elephants live 30 to 50 years in the wild. The taxonomy of elephants according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS) is:
Kingdom: Animaliasubkingdom: Bilateria Infrakingdom: Deuterostomia Phylum: Chordatasubphylum: Vertebratainfraphylum: Gnathostomata Superclass: Tetrapoda Class: Mammalia Subclass: Theriainfraclass:
Proboscidea Family: Elephantidae Genera & species: Loxodonta africana (African savannah elephant) Loxodonta cyclotis (African forest elephant) Elephas maximus (Asian elephant) Subspecies:
ITIS recognizes: Another possible subspecies is Elephas maximus borneensis (Borneo pygmy elephant. The World Wildlife Fund has determined that DNA evidence proves that the Borneo pygmy elephantis genetically different from other Asian elephants.
According to the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) the Asian elephant is endangered.
Though it is known not exactly how many Asian elephants remain it is believed that the population is decreasing.
The African elephant is considered vulnerable. Overall its populations are increasing. According to the African Wildlife Foundation there are around 470000 African elephants roaming the globe.
The African elephant can be identified by its ears. Stretched out its ears are shaped like the African continent.
Asian elephants have smaller ears which are rounded more on top and flat along the bottom.
Heat radiates out of the elephant's massive ears acting as a cooling mechanism. The largest elephant ever recorded was an African elephant according to the San diego Zoo.
It was 24000 lbs. 10886 kg) and 13 feet (3. 96 m) tall from its feet to its shoulders.
When it gets too hot African elephants will suck water into their trunks and then blow it back out to shower themselves with a cool mist.
An elephant's trunk has more than 100000 muscles according to National geographic. They use it to breathe pick things up make noises drink and smell.
In the same way that humans tend to be right-handed or left-handed elephants can be tusked right
or left-tusked. Their dominant tusk is easy to identify because it will be worn more down than the less dominant tusk according to the World Wildlife Fund.
An elephant's skin can be as thick as 1 inch but it is sensitive to the sun. To protect it elephants will cover themselves in mud
or dust a
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