Massive Elephant Decline Seen in Africa

A massive elephant decline across Africa is worrying ecologists, according to a CNN report. In Botswana’s Linyanti swamp alone, elephants’s faces are hacked solely for their ivory tusks. The Great Elephant Census estimates that Africa’s elephant population stands at around 350,000—down significantly from 1.3 million in 1979—but three countries’ elephant populations were not included due to armed conflict and refusal to comply with the study. “I don’t think anybody in the world has seen the number of dead elephants that I’ve seen over the last two years,” said Mike Chase, an elephant ecologist and co-founder of Elephants Without Borders. Localized extinction is a possibility, and the number will continue to decline at a rate of around 8 percent. There was a 30 percent drop between 2007 and 2014 alone.