Ivory Hunters

Ah, elephants, the beautiful creatures that roam the plains of the northeast. There are many types of species. The African elephant, the African forest elephant, the Asian elephant, and many more. Many people go across the world, to zoos, and animal preserves just to see elephants. African plain tours take place so tourist can see elephants with their long trunks and giant ears elephants are truly a sight to see. But elephants are becoming harder and harder to find over the years. This main cause is ivory poaching. About 25,000 elephants are killed each year. This is because elephants have something that is in high demand: Ivory. (http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/06/battle-for-the-elephants/) Elephants are very social animals that are also very smart. They can use their trunks for a variety of things, like a hand, an emergency warning, a hose for water, and many more. Elephants can be left or right tusked. Meaning that they usually use their left or right tusk. You can tell which one they use because they are usually worn down. Elephants can weigh up to eight tons! They eat about 300 kilograms a day. Elephants need a wide range of land to live in because they always travel for food and breeding. Elephants can live around 50 to 70 years. http://worldwildlife.org/species/elephant Ivory is an organic material that grows on elephants and some other animals like walruses, and rhinos. Many poachers sell souvenirs made of ivory. It is worth a lot of money. Ivory can be carved into walking sticks, necklaces, and even statues of elephants. Tons of ivory was found in 2012. It was worth millions of dollars.

If we keep killing elephants at the rate we are right now then pretty soon we wont have elephants anymore. It is our responsibility to save these gentle giants that may not be on this Earth any more. Together we can protect elephants. So now that you get the idea about elephants and ivory you can understand that elephants are starting to becoming more scarce every single day and that it is our responsibility to stop killing elephants just for their useless ivory. Sure, its just as beautiful as them but you dont know what happens to the ivory when the smugglers are caught transporting it. That will let you know that the ivory has no meaning except being on elephants. Ivory smugglers are almost always caught and when this happens either one out of two things occur. The most common one is an ivory crushing. Many people show up to watch and see that ivory has no reason not being on elephants. Usually these crushings happen when large amounts of ivory are found. How do they crush the ivory? Well people shovel the big piles of it into a giant machine that crushes all of the ivory and then just releases the powder into the air. It is then swept away by the wind never to be seen again. There is also another way that people show that ivory is useless. These usually take place when not as much ivory is found but it is still bad. They are called ivory burnings. You can probably tell what they are from the name. But they are burnings that take place and instead of wood they burn ivory. They create a totem entirely made out of the elephants tusk. After the totem is finished the people burn it. Like the ivory crushings many people come to watch these sad events. It may make people cry but it shows that there is no point in ivory.

Everywhere that elephants are, they are becoming harder and harder to find. Like I said before about 25,000 elephants are killed a year for ivory. But I bet you didnt know that that is an estimated 12% of the worlds population. There are about 20 African forest elephants left in the world! Okay that might be a little exaggeration okay, a big one but thats my point, not that many elephants are left on this earth and if these poachers keep doing what they are doing then the future generations of humans wont get to see the amazing animal called the elephant. These innocent elephants are being killed for something that is theirs. Poachers are stupid because as they kill them ivory levels are going down along with the elephants. Also, they sell the ivory after carving it to make it look pretty but it looks way better on elephants. Not just sitting beside a mantle or laying down on a desktop. Elephants are almost gone it we need them to stay! Well so now that you know what happens to the ivory when poachers are caught you are probably wondering what happens to the poachers when they are caught. Well, here it goes. Elephant poaching is an international offense. That means that all around the world, in every country it is illegal to kill elephants, to transport ivory, and even to buy ivory from poachers. Whenever the murderers or the transporters are caught they go to prison for very large amounts of time. It usually counts on how much ivory is found or how many elephants are found dead. So when these killers are caught they usually spend around 25 years to life in prison. I dont think that that is long enough. In 25 years elephants might not be here anymore. But it is very difficult to transport

ivory. It is very heavy and when people try to pass borders in a big truck the police search through it. But that still isnt stopping people from transporting ivory. Okay, so the criminals/ murderers of elephants spend a long time in prison. But not long enough, because these elegant animals are disappearing. So, if you havent heard yet, elephants are disappearing, and fast. As many as 20 percent of Africa's elephants could be killed in the next 10 years if illegal poaching continues at the current rate. An estimated 22,000 elephants were illegally killed across Africa in 2012, slightly lower than the 25,000 elephants poached in 2011. Current elephant poaching in Africa remains far too high, and could soon lead to local extinctions if the present killing rates continue. Many elephants are getting killed for something that belongs to them. What if someone killed you just because they liked the look of your watch. Yeah, it is not fair for elephants to get killed just because they own something that would make a great souvenir. Have you ever seen a picture of an elephant after its tusk have been cut off. It is just sad that us, humans, one of the most intelligent beings in the universe are being so stupid by killing poor elephants that dont have a choice to be killed just for the so called jewel of Africa called ivory. The real jewel of Africa and Asia combined are elephants. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/02/africas-elephants-threat_n_4371108.html So now we only have a really small amount of elephants left in the world. It is really depressing since humans who care have done so much for it to stop. You would probably think that the message has been sent to elephant poachers that they are going to jail and that they are making the greatest animal of all-extinct. Well, this is where their dumbness comes in.

You now know some of the ways we have tried to get elephant poaching to stop. But there are many more ways that the government has tried to stop these killers. But as usual they are still not listening to all of these warnings. The government securities all over the world have been getting more and more protective over the elephants that roam around cautioning for poachers that also roam Africa and Asia, with giant trucks carrying pounds and pounds of ivory. The thing that protects elephants helps them in situations, and mate calling symbols. Why do these murderers kill these poor elephants for something that us as humans dont even need. But to them it is very important to have something in your home that reminds them of an elephant that they slaughtered. So you probably now know that killing elephants just for their ivory is a very terrible thing. Killing a living thing, just living its life peacefully without a care in the world just for a little house decoration that you probably won t even notice in your home is just sick. The beautiful creatures that wont be on this planet any more are dying out because of humans. It is our responsibility to keep these amazing animals on this Earth. We have the power to keep them here but sadly we also have the power to get rid of the greatest creatures of all time. Elephants are second place in the smartest beings on this planet. They are extremely intelligent. Right now they are probably smarter than most people. They can use their trunks for many things. They only use them for violence when they are provoked. Elephants are very sweet caring animals. They might look dangerous with their giant tusk but elephants are the most loyal animals ever.

If we keep killing elephants at the rate we are right now then pretty soon we wont have elephants anymore. It is our responsibility to save these gentle giants that may not be on this Earth any more. Together we can protect elephants!!!