Tip of the tusks
The worldwide demand for ivory caused elephant population to decline to dangerously low levels. In 1977, 1.3 million elephants lived in Africa; by 1997, only 600,000 remained.
Recently, that number has stabilised, due mainly to the 1990 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ban on international ivory sales.
Even though it is illegal to kill an elephant in Africa, people continue to slaughter them for ivory. Every year thousands of elephants are brutally killed. The slaughter is horrifying; poachers shoot elephants with automatic weapons and hack off their tusks with axes and even chainsaws. Tragically the ivory trade has a long and bloody history.
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