New, secretly obtained photos show that elephants snatched from the wild in Zimbabwe months ago and airlifted recently to China are malnourished, sunken-looking, and scarred by wounds. “These calves look really horrible,” says Joyce Poole, co-founder of ElephantVoices, a Kenya-based research and advocacy organization. Poole reviewed the photos, which were sent exclusively to National Geographic. […]
Tag: Elephant
POLL: Can killing more elephants actually help to save them?
Is killing an endangered animal for sport the best way to save the species from extinction? The World Bank—one of the largest sources of financing for biodiversity conservation projects in developing countries—thinks it is. The World Bank approved a U.S. $46 million grant to Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, late last year to […]
POLL: Should the export of baby elephants to China be stopped?
Zimbabwe has shipped 24 elephant calves to China, in a move that has angered animal rights groups who described the export as “extremely cruel”. “Some 24 elephants are en route to China as we speak after they were taken from their families in Hwange national park,” Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the animal rights group Conservation […]
Controversial Export of Elephants to China Appears Under Way
Chinese crews in a Zimbabwe park are reportedly preparing young elephants and lions captured there for transport to China, triggering alarm among activists who fear that the animals are doomed to a life of suffering. Sources close to the scene have claimed that the facility in Hwange National Park, where elephants have been confined since […]
Why Are Most of Tanzania’s Elephants Disappearing?
Tanzania’s elephant population has plummeted by more than 60 percent during the past five years, the country’s government announced this month. Elephants in this East African country—a major, if not the world’s biggest source of illegal ivory—were estimated to number only 43,330 at the end of 2014, down from 109,051 in 2009. Tanzania’s Minister of […]
Video: Racing baby elephants understimate the muddiness of mud
Apparently “slow and steady wins the race” isn’t part of the baby elephant curriculum. This playful trio was far too busy racing to a watering hole in South Africa’s Madikwe Game Reserve to remember that mud is … well, muddy. While their mothers had no trouble traversing the sticky pit, the little ellies got a […]
As poaching heats up, conservationists advocate sending South Africa rhinos to Texas
Flying a thousand white rhinos from South Africa to south Texas sounds like something out of a bad Disney movie. But the proposal to transport 6% of the country’s white rhinos to the Lone Star State, announced last week by Group Elephant and the Exotic Wildlife Alliance, underlines just how serious the illegal wildlife trade […]