Surge In Ivory Poaching Poses Renewed Threat To Elephants

African elephants are being slaughtered for their ivory at a rate not seen in 20 years, and if the killing continues, most remaining large herds outside of national parks could be extinct by 2020, according to a new study. The study, published in the August issue of Conservation Biology, said that poaching for the illegal international ivory trade is leading to an annual death rate among African elephants of 8 percent. That exceeds the death rate of 7.4 percent that existed 20 years ago when an international ban on the ivory trade was adopted by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Since that ban was enacted, the population of African elephants has declined from 1 million to less than 470,000. The study’s authors said that the public still seems largely unaware of the elephants’ plight.