African elephants 'killed faster than they are being born'

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

African elephants 'killed faster than they are being born'

Data released on UN world wildlife day shows overall population is still
falling despite a recent reduction in levels of poaching for ivory

Damian Carrington
Thursday 3 March 2016 08.00 GMT

More African elephants are being killed for ivory than are being born, despite poaching levels falling for the fourth year in a row in 2015.

The new data, released on UN world wildlife day on Thursday, shows about 60% of elephant deaths are at the hands of poachers, meaning the overall population is most likely to be falling.

“African elephant populations continue to face an immediate threat to their survival, especially in central and west Africa where high levels of poaching are still evident,” said John Scanlon, secretary-general of the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), which collects the data. At least 20,000 elephants were killed for ivory in 2015.

But Scanlon said there were some encouraging signs, including in parts of eastern Africa, such as in Kenya, where the poaching trend has declined.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/03/african-elephants-killed-faster-than-they-are-being-born

[JimDandy]

1. 20,000 african elephants killed in 2015. 100,000 elephants killed world-wide last year

according to NPR, most for their ivory tusks.