The African Elephant once ranged across most of the African continent from the Mediterranean coast to the southern tip. There may have been as many as ten million African Elephants in the 1930s and 1940s. However, with European colonialism and exploration came intensive trophy hunting and demand for ivory causing elephant numbers to plummet dramatically throughout the continent in the 1950s. Scientists and conservationists estimate that from the 1970's to the late 1980's as many as 70,000 to 100,000 elephants were killed annually and up to 80% of African Elephants were lost in many regions. In Kenya, the population plummeted by 85% between 1973 and 1989 due to ivory poaching. This time period is often referred to as the "Elephant Holocaust" as juvenile and mature elephants were slaughtered at alarming rates for their tusks and orphaned elephant calves were exported to zoos, circuses and game farms around the world.

The elephant is the heart beat of Africa. For many African tribes and communities the elephant is a totem for their lineage and essential to their identity. This mystical, powerful, but fragile herbivore has roamed the African Savannah for thousands of years and is considered sacred to Africa. Today, the African Elephant is an ancient icon to be protected and preserved for a multitude of reasons including, preservation of African Culture, ecological biodiversity and evolutionary history. Elephants are considered a Keystone species in the African landscape, without them numerous other species in the food chain would perish and the African Savannah would disappear.

In 1989, the African Elephant was added to the international list of Endangered Species. At this time there were about 600,000 remaining, less than one percent of their original number. Today there are only about 300,000 African Elephants remaining and this is a hopeful estimation. Sadly, significant elephant populations are now confined to parks and reserves. However, less than 20% of elephant range is under formal protection leaving the African Elephant and its habitat vulnerable to extinction.

It seems the more man learns about his interdependence with all living beings and the Earth's natural resources the more frantically he consumes them. 2011 was hailed as the worst year for the African Elephant in decades due to China's demand for Ivory. Repeating the "Elephant Holocaust" of the 1970's and 1980's, human greed and rising values of ivory are again responsible for the appalling slaughter of African Elephants, proving once again the African Elephant is threatened by only one predator.........man and his undying need to profit and consume more. It is this and only this predator that is driving the African Elephant towards extinction.

Please go to Agony and Ivory for more information on the current ivory crisis.

"Every piece of ivory is a haunting memory of a once proud and majestic animal that should have lived three score years and ten; who has loved and been loved, and was once a member of a close knit and loving family akin to our own, but who has suffered and died to yield a tusk for a trinket."

~Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick~