African elephants

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Hot Topic | African elephants, poaching

  African Elephant conservation African Elephants are one of the most heavily poached mammals in the world. Historic and ongoing demand for ivory is the leading reason behind their slaughter, with habitat destruction, fragmentation and rapid human development posing significant threats also. The African Elephant Loxodonta africana occurs in 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, numbering an estimated 350,000 individuals across the continent. Although certain populations in Central Africa are deemed relatively secure, poaching between 2009–2016 saw a 30% reduction in...

African Elephants without tusks. Why?

picture : Nat Geo   Poachers have murdered elephants for decades for their valuable ivory tusks. Now evolution has taken hold. In Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, scientists are increasingly observing elephants without tusks. While there have always been a few tuskless elephants, a recent study showed that there was so much poaching during the 16-year Mozambique civil war that half the modern female elephants in the Gorongosa National Park have no tusks. Poaching and wildlife trafficking have had such a...

World albatross day

The albatross is a truly awesome sight to be behold… but its also a creature in trouble ! Albatrosses are large seabirds in the family Diomedeidae. They are related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific. They are absent from the North Atlantic, although fossil remains show they once occurred there and occasional vagrants are found. Albatrosses are among the largest of flying birds, and species of the genus Diomedea (great albatrosses) have the longest wingspans of any extant birds, reaching up to 3.7 m (12 ft). The albatrosses are usually...

Elephant charities

Following the tragic death of the Asian elephant in India – see my post here – its only fitting that a post be on elephant charities … Save the Elephants (STE) is a UK registered charity based in Kenya founded in September 1993 by Iain Douglas-Hamilton. It works to sustain elephant populations and preserve the habitats in which elephants are found, while at the same time fostering a heightened appreciation and visibility for elephants and their often fragile existence. Save the Elephants...