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Elephants are big creatures, a single baby can weigh 200 pounds. An adult can weigh from 12,000 to 14,000 pounds. Coming from a matriarchal-type background, elephants are also empathetic creatures. They throw funerals for the dead elephants who were once in their groups. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAs-5D6OdGk) Beyond the personality of these elephants, they're also worth a lot. Not just in how beautiful they are, but in monetary worth. Their tusks are made of ivory, a material that can be used in beautiful artwork and carvings, and is also used for medical purposes. Now, an elephant's tusks can be removed while they're living, but since it's dangerous, most resort to shooting the animal. Due to the shooting of many elephants, ivory trade was banned in 1990. Yet, people still poach elephants in Africa, decreasing their population.

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To add some value. A single pound of ivory is worth $1,500.

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Young elephants are vulnerable to lion and crocodile attacks, for food

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"An elephant is being slaughtered every 15 minutes in Africa to supply an unsustainable demand for ivory." As you can see here, the elephants usually get their trunks cut off and their tusks removed when hunted. There are several more graphic pictures I could add, but decided not to. Picture: an elephant without a trunk, the trunk had been hacked away, so now the elephant has a red face.

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Elephant poaching occurs in Africa...

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The human activity that most influences the decline of elephants is the poaching. The demand of ivory in china for artwork and medicine really influences the amount of poaching involved. People do pay a fee for killing "legally," and it goes to organizations helping the elephants. Yet, just with a donation of a sum of money, you can't birth more elephants.

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As you can see, the process of taking apart the elephant is gruesome....

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In general, poaching is dangerous to the environment. Due to poaching, species become less. In a balance of a food web, this could be detrimental because the species they eat or they are eaten by are also affected. The killings create an unbalance in the community, decreasing its biodiversity as well.

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In the chart below, you see numbers. Around 100 years ago, we used to have almost 5 million elephants in Africa. Today we only have around 470,000 or 690,000 elephants. We have also had 60,000 killed in just the last year. Each year, we also increase our elephant death rate by 10%. In the end, someday, we can end up surpassing the elephant population. Leaving the elephants extinct.

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Even though there are people still poaching elephants, there are also those doing good. Such places such as Elephant Sanctuary and Elephant Jungle Sanctuary exist, providing a safe haven for elephants. Several organizations also donate to the cause. Yet, a more efficient way of stopping this problem would be to make the consequences harsher. We could also try to demolish the black markets that continue to shoot elephants in order to gain ivory. Also, change people's minds. In China, it is seen as having power, to own ivory. If we could change the beliefs of people, we could change the world. We could also minimize the value of ivory. In Kenya they burned many pieces of ivory to make their value smaller. This made a statement in the news.

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Instead of focusing on the bad parts, now let's watch something a little happier...

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Elephant saved from ivory poachers in Kenya

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http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/the-devastating-effects-of-wildlife-poaching/
https://www.elephantvoices.org/elephant-sense-a-sociality-4/elephants-are-socially-complex.html
https://assets-auto.rbl.ms/3df854e750e350dbbd63d1a3406c25ff3197562bbaea3f4a01ccbd79205c5732
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/10/ivory/img/08-illegal-kenyan-ivory-poaching-670.jpg
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/elephants/african_elephants/afelephants_threats/
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/the-devastating-effects-of-wildlife-poaching/
http://www.dw.com/en/poaching-puts-biodiversity-at-risk/g-17443953
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/30/africa/kenya-ivory-burn/index.html