Microsoft founder funds Africa-wide elephant survey to measure ivory poachers’ toll

Microsoft founder funds Africa-wide elephant survey to measure ivory poachers’ toll

Beginning next year, light planes and helicopters will undertake the first ever continent-wide aerial survey of Africa’s vanishing elephant populations. The hugely ambitious initiative, which will count elephant herds in 13 countries, is being funded by Microsoft founder, Paul Allen, through his Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. The new survey, which is estimated to cost […]

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Lord’s Resistance Army funded by elephant poaching, report finds

Lord’s Resistance Army funded by elephant poaching, report finds

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is using lucrative elephant poaching for ivory to fund its activities, according to a report published on Tuesday. Eyewitness accounts from park rangers, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) escapees and recent senior defectors report that the fugitive warlord Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes […]

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Emergency: large number of elephants being poached in the Central African Republic (warning: graphic image)

Emergency: large number of elephants being poached in the Central African Republic (warning: graphic image)

WWF and the Wildlife Conversation Society (WCS) are issuing an immediate call for action as they report that poachers are killing sizable numbers of forest elephants near the Dzanga-Sangha protected areas in the Central African Republic (CAR). The two large conservation groups have evacuated their staff from the area after a government coup, but local […]

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62% of all Africa’s forest elephants killed in 10 years (warning: graphic images)

62% of all Africa’s forest elephants killed in 10 years (warning: graphic images)

More than 60 percent of Africa’s forest elephants have been killed in the past decade due to the ivory trade, reports a new study published in the online journal PLOS ONE. The study warns that the diminutive elephant species — genetically distinct from the better-known savanna elephant — is rapidly heading toward extinction. “Saving the […]

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