This makes me question our existence and why we can't stand up and stop this crap. BTW Selling horns and Tusk to make aphrodisiacs for China Men who can't get it up is freaking disgusting! Buy some damn Viagra and stop killing everything.

I don't know how to partition all the species of the world, animal & plant etc., into those whose extinction we wouldn't mourn -and- those whose extinction we would mourn. One might suggest as worth saving most mammals, someone else might suggest most animals with a brain. But the majestic California redwoods also deserve respect -- a person or group of people who would deliberately cause the extinction of the redwood species would be IMO guilty of a terribly immoral act, and be subject to a death penalty. Unless genetic engineering makes huge leaps forward, once a species is extinct it would be gone forever. It's not just creature size that makes it deserving of respect & species preservation; e.g., if all hummingbirds around the globe were exterminated, that would again be morally repugnant. On the other hand if the HIV virus were to go extinct, that would be a day to celebrate.

If one trusts free-market principles, one could argue that poachers will realize in advance the lost $$$ income to themselves, and then the poachers would take active efforts to keep the threatened species (their income source!!), and the problem would take care of itself.

The problem is the Chinese don't give a f*ck what so ever when it comes to any rare or endangered animal - just check out the Russia-China border... Russians are trying to save whatever is left of the tiger and bear population, but little do the animals know that once that border is crossed they'll end up in a soup or caged for their bile. Chinese are by far and away the worst offenders in the world, someone should actually do a study on their lack of crap given when it comes to endangered animals and/or consuming pets that were bread specifically for the purpose of being mens best friend.

I agree. These poachers have gotten out of control and are destroying entire populations of Elephants, Rhinos and Great Apes. Laws don't cut it. Getting tough and fighting back will knock these poachers back into at least stopping. Now, they know there is no deterrent to them going out and unscrupulously slaughtering as many animals as they can take. Human kind needs to fight back, or the alternative is extinction of these animals, it is coming if it is not stopped and soon.

I agree with you. I HATE the Chinese for this reason.

And at the top of the heap is Donald Trumps Sons out there slaughtering big game for money. Just lovely, a wanna-be-Presidents children out their slaughtering wildlife. Here is a picture of them after they killed a leopard FOR FUN. This is what America is all about. Wealth and Greed.......

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4191953/Donald-Trumps-sons-spark-fury-over-pictures-of-them-hunting-big-game-in-Africa.html

You have to stop and think about this one. Pure ivory in your hand and under your feet is a very good feeling. To have this feeling, elephants will need to die.

What's sick about the whole thing is that the higher the demand, the higher the poachers make the supply by slaughtering all the more elephants each year. What a shame!

Also, elephants are one of the smartest animals in the world.

That is EXCELLENT...The Animals ARE God's Innocent Children. And when Each and Everyone of those poachers goes before THE MAN on Judgement Day, They're Gonna' WISH they didn't kill those beautiful and innocent Animals Standing there with THE MAN as the poacher's punishment is meted out. NO Amount Of Money could save them..................

shoot the poachers on sight, poison the horn, hang all corrupt trafficking people.

sorry: half-asleep when making the last post (#1.2, 9:25 p.m.), the last paragraph above was missing some more descriptive phrases...

If one trusts free-market principles, one could argue that poachers will realize in advance of total extinction, the impending loss of $$$ income to themselves, and then the poachers would take active efforts to keep the threatened species (their income source!!) thriving, and the problem would take care of itself.

Absolutely. Shoot not only the poachers, but the shippers, the buyers, and the end users. They're all equally guilty.

We are to blame for this!!, BECAUSE we buy all the cheap stuff they happily sell us, I say boycott Thailand, Vietnam, China and Japan for this!!! Call your representative and demand actions! Get Facebok to put pressure on Asian companies to protect these species. Chose those that export retail stuff.

Asians ONLY care about money, HEARD they are smuggling pills with human remains to Korea to boost stamina?

Asians are predators at unheard scale, wait till they finish owning America thanks to our managers/shareholders endless greed.

China just bought AMC and will push their culture down our throats.

LOL. yes we asians are to blame for the collapse of the universe. Nevermind the near extinction the "Americans" caused for almost every native animal of this continent. We can forget all the europeans who travelled the world in the 1800's to kill animals to put on their walls.
Why should we remember how the europeans colonized any country they could, to exploit all the country had to offer, including animals.
The whites do this for centuries. and now, when it's not convenient for them, it is an atrocity. They have decided that it is no longer politically correct to mindlessly kill animals to put on walls, so the world should not do it anymore. Kind of like how America can burn as much gasoline as they want, but the rest of the world is burning too much.
Americans are so funny. They love to do the right thing when its convenient for them, but as soon as sh*t its the fan, the gloves come off.

Look in the mirror

Kun886,

While you are right to point out the West's past indiscriminate and inexcusable slaughter of animals, to the point that several species went extinct, does that really excuse present day China's and Southeast Asia's slaughter of elephants and rhinos to make aphrodisiacs and "cancer cures"? The claim that "it's our turn to kill all the animals we want now, just like you did back in the 19th century" sounds like an argument that one would expect out of a 10 year old. This is the 21st century, not the 1800s. With all the effective drugs and advanced materials we have now, there is no legitimate need for elephant tusks or rhino horns. The Chinese can take Viagra; they have enough national wealth that the Chinese government could give it away for free. China and Southeast Asia like to paint themselves as the next economic and scientific centers of the world; why don't they live up to that image and give up their silly folk-medicine cures that are needlessly pushing many animal species towards extinction?

Consumers in the rest of the world can save these animals: stop, or at least reduce as much as possible, buying goods made in China or Southeast Asia.

Somebody or some people should resort to self help, and go out in those nature preserves/ parks and poach the poachers.

Finally a place for Zimmerman to do some good!

Math+Sci+Justice, the problem with this though is that people that see large profits in the short run don't normally think of the long term. This is seen in the business world as well. People usually think of a 5 year return and short sighted individuals often think in even shorter terms. The free market principle of self correction won't apply because various poachers only consider the current profit which rises as the species moves towards extinction.

Also, in order for poachers to think as a group and preserve their income source, they would probably have to be more organized as a group. Right now, if there was any agreement to not poach a particular species, that agreement wouldn't last due to the prisoners dilemma that they're currently in. One poacher sees they can make a profit no matter what the other poachers do by hunting elephants so they will hunt elephants to the brink of extinction even if it hurts them in the long run.

China needs aphrodisiacs like a drowning man needs water. How long before they hit 2 Billion?

@Math+Sci+JusticeFuelProsperity

If one trusts free-market principles, one could argue that poachers will realize in advance the lost $$$ income to themselves, and then the poachers would take active efforts to keep the threatened species (their income source!!), and the problem would take care of itself.

Poachers exist outside of free market principles. Too many people mistakenly equate free-market with free-for-all. Free market principles have unequivocally proven the elephant can be removed from the endangered species list as they have been in several countries; Botswana is the perfect example. Since allowing the legal and regulated hunting of elephants their population there has exploded.

Also, anytime you make something illegal you artificially inflate the value of that product thereby increasing the likelihood that people will break the rules. Intuition tells us that if we want elephant poaching to stop we should outlaw the trading of ivory. Reality tells us that in so doing we increase the value of ivory making poaching much more lucrative. By outlawing the trade of ivory you eliminate the free market and relegate it's trade to the black market.

mmmmmmm yummy elephant burgers !!!

Kun886, this isn't something Asians have just started doing recently. As a self-professed Asian, you should know that. They've been using elephant tusk and rhino horn for thousands of years. The point is that most of us learn about age two that just because Timmy broke the Lego car yesterday it's not ok for me or anyone else to do it today. Some don't learn it until about age four, but you're probably still older than that.

There is no reason to continue using old folk remedies that don't work when there are millions of people who use other, less expensive, remedies daily. It would be one thing if the elephants or rhinos were being hunted in order to consume every part of the animal. They aren't. A poacher kills a several ton animal and then cuts off what he wants and leaves the rest. There is no rational explanation for that.

I don't know what you're looking for... and I don't know how people today are to atone for what our ancestors did. But you're obviously looking for that. So I'll do what I can: I'm sorry. Are you happy now? Maybe now you can stop acting so childish. Thanks.

Ah yes, the level of ignorance on this thread is truly up there. First off, most African nations DO shoot poachers on sight. While this article makes it sound like the African elephant herd is on the absolute verge of extinction, that's not true. Yes there are some areas of Africa where the elephants are endangered, but in others, namely South Africa, the population exceeds the resources needed to feed it and the herds have to be culled in order to prevent starvation and disease from killing them all.

Elephants are like any other animal population, controlled hunting can bring in significant money to the areas in which they live. It can also INCREASE the numbers. Look at the way that the Whitetail Deer population has exploded in the last 100 years. Permits to hunt most African big game are quite expensive and that money is funneled into the budgets of the local government, and the other expenses that are incurred are funneled into the local economy. The Trumps probably paid enough in permit fees to hunt that one leopard to feed the entire local village for a year. Then there's all of the other money that they spent on their trip. Permit fees PAY for animal conservation efforts and the salaries of the game wardens who protect the animals. Controlled hunting actually helps protect animal populations by providing a means for the local population to feed their families other than poaching.

If they REALLY want to cut down on the illegal trade in ivory, they should develop a LEGAL trade in ivory. At one point in time, South Africa had warehouses full of the stuff and weren't able to sell it because of international sanctions. If there was a means for South Africa to dump the ivory that they hold on the market legally, it would drive down the price AND provide the money needed to provide for more [ark rangers to hunt the poachers who kill the animals illegally. Use the US model. Almost 90% of the funds for animal conservation in this country comes from permit fees and taxes on guns, ammo, archery and fishing gear and has for over 70 years.

Asian prosperity has lead to many of these killings, now with the Asian economic meltdown looming and the subsequent reduction in purchasing power, there is the chance that the numbers can be replenished. The time will be right to push for some sort of substitution for horn and tusk or improved protection.

And at the top of the heap is Donald Trumps Sons out there slaughtering big game for money. Just lovely, a wanna-be-Presidents children out their slaughtering wildlife. Here is a picture of them after they killed a leopard FOR FUN. This is what America is all about. Wealth and Greed

Your being jealous of their money is irrelevent. They, the hunters, are part of a wildlife management program and the animals in these areas are THRIVING! Animals across Africa are not suffering the same fates. Preserves where animals are hunted are carfully guarded, limited permits are given according to existing populations and what would be best for the whole, you know, science. Your "Wealth and Greed" comment just make you look pathetic.

Human beings are little more than viruses on this planet.

this planet is @!$%#ed as long as humans are around!

Maybe you should consider starting the action of all morons "leaving" this planet - then the rest of us will be safe and have room to breathe.

The ideas of managed hunting with license fees mentioned by BackCountry & Lt Scrounge sound reasonable; in the U.S.A. a fair portion of deer hunters do so for food rather; I don't know what percentage of hunters do so just for the adrenalin rush or character-building of facing a dangerous adversary (though with a lot of modern technologies there's effectively no danger) or for feeding their egos or their drive to exert power against some victim. So I'd be more satisfied with the managed hunting proposal if the entire animal were used for some purpose. Still, as we learn more & more about different species, we've seen that for elephants they have a significant social structure, they mourn their dead, and revisit the skeletal deathbed of their group member.

Human medical research is starting to implant electrodes into the brain of a handicapped person to help her/him express (in whatever way) her/his desires; gorillas have learned sign language to some extent; orangutans are learning to use iPads; dogs are known to sacrifice their lives for their human mates -- perhaps the century will come when we can communicate (at least to some significant extent) with animals, elephants included, and perhaps we'd then feel different about killing them for what in ages past seemed to be reasonable causes. Perhaps we will come to respect some animals more than we respect poachers or other criminals. Of course, life is challenging for many humans, and I'm not walking in their shoes/footprints if I fail to note that some poachers are probably just striving to feed & care for a family.

Several posts have complained against Kun for his/her posting about Americans using a double standard on issues such as this, pollution & the environment, global warming... But Kun's post never attempted to justify Asian complicity in the elephant or other situations -- s/he was just pointing out a double standard and criticizing some of America's past (& present?) when Americans have been greedy or stupid or unethical.

@ Kunn886

Kunn makes some good points about the generalized statements sounding hypocritical. I'll give you that, Kunn, but getting defensive and making more generalizing remarks only puts you on the same level of those who let their emotions rule their intellect.

But kunn, realize we're not discussing how naive and bloodthirsty our ancestors were, we are trying to develop an intelligent dialogue about what our generation can do about the wholesale destruction of the planet. It's obvious that most greedy people don't get it, they are primarily concerned with making money. It's important to relay how critical this time is for us and the planet we have named earth.

The oceans of the world are a mess, because of our species. Most scientist can't even agree on how we came to be. Where is the "missing link" ? Bull****, when are you idiots going to start getting over yourselves ?

Your mission isn't to get rich and f*** everything up !!

Elephant poachers need to dealt with by military action, period. Any country buying ivory legally need to be sanctioned and boycotted, period.

Whaling needs to be dealt by military action, period. Any country buying whale/whale products needs to be sanctioned and boycotted, period.

Kunn- When I wrote "when are you idiots going to start getting over yourselves" and "your mission isn't to get rich and f**k everything up", I wasn't referring to the Chinese or Asians, I was referring to entire human species, sorry if it sounded like an attack on your particular culture. Yes I know there are many cultural beliefs, but we are not living in the 17th century any longer, and these issues are at a critical juncture.

Question: Do you know what the strongest emotion is ?

Answer: Regret

And I hate friggin morons that call for shooting or hunting other human beings, fomenting hatred of Asian ethnic groups, and eqate sensationalized crap articles with political parties. "Tens of Thousands" - give me a break. According to non-biased statistics provided by wildlife organizations IN Africa and not in California, about 8,000 elephants and Rhinos were killed in 2011, INCLUDING those legally culled by sportsman under tightly controlled permits. You friggin idiots are worse than the poachers.

Kenya-- where have I heard this name before

SkyLoon405174: Take a ChillPill, stop the hate crap and get enough sleep; Oh, AND eat a chocolate Eclair good for your tummy.

And some of the poached body parts are being bought by rich Americans, too...so let's hate them. Skylark that is not an intelligent reaction to this story. JP, with your rhetoric you'd be the first one I'd shoot. And 8000 endangered animals is 8000 too many. As opposed to if 8000 like you were lost....so what? you breed like lice. And look, big people can use adjectives other than FRIGGIN. What do you know?

But the Chinese government does care about money

america hates money

I can see the elephants in Africa from home.

Actually the only places that the Elephants are thriving is in countries where it is legal to Hunt them. They therefore have a larger economic value to the country and are protected from Poachers. The Hunting is controlled and the harvest is controlled keeping the population intact for future generations.

So your statement is based on feelings rather than facts..............

If I had an elephant, it would look like that elephant.

san anton, we're talking to a group that can't understand how hunting improves the health and well being of the population. Science education is very lacking in the US these days.

Don't know about stupid people however defenseless people can be aborted anywhere between conception and 5 months of age anytime, any day. I'm not saying abortion is a sport however fetuses seem to be fair game.

trisomy1229---you're on the wrong vine. Nobody is talking about humans breeding here. Although it is a good topic at another time and a lot less of them should be allowed to do so.

Adela-poetic license in what I considered to be a teachable moment.

Adela-

"people" are connected directly to this entire problem. Too many people, and no place for animals, get it yet ? Yeah I know it sounds mean, it's not always fun hearing the real truth, in fact I suspect most folks either live in a state of self-satisfaction for doing something "politically correct" like buying "organic" or like falconer33, feel it's their right to control and manipulate animals for their own gain ?

Yes what a mess we are, struggling with our conscience and still wanting that tasty burger/steak on those summer holidays. We all know the type, "it's evil to kill a beautiful deer" and then goes to the supermarket to buy a steak or hamburger, right ?

Adela- your posts are delightful, I hope you don't think I was too harsh on you.

moongoddess-706635, There is a "civilian police review board", maybe there should be a "civilian news review board" ? But I suppose the half a dozen big corporations that own almost all of the network news outlets might not approve ?

Wow, and I just finished reading Aleksandr l. Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago who by the way was convicted of "correspondence" of a Ukrainian and thrown into the "Russian Communist Gulag system" even though he had not committed a crime, and he was a decorated Russian Officer to boot !

Does anyone see the parallel here ?

That's why I carry a club and pull my women around by their hair, I'm trying to capture the 'good ole days' of mass epidemic, human sacrifice and hegomony. Unless you can find an andrewsarchus or baluchitherium marshal, my guess is that the once dominant large mammal species was marching toward extinction long before the first tocsin sounded in the inexorable march of homo sapien, sapien. Please don't misunderstand that I am under the impression that our proclivity for glyptodon burgers didn't accelerate the process however it is clear that the vast majority of these fine creatures came and went nearly 40 million years before we posed any threat to their existence. Too bad for them but it's either time to adapt to life in a 400 square foot condo or invent Facebook and make enough wampum to buy their own jungle!

trisomy, humans are, unfortunately, nowhere near becoming extinct. The humans ARE causing the extinction of most other life forms on this planet. And they cause this extinction and pain knowingly, and happily, judging by the posts here.

Skylark, I apologize. You have just redeemed yourself in my eyes. I apologize for the previous cranky post.

Skylark you missed my point entirely. Unless you are of the mindset that stromatolites caused the extinction of prokaryocytes by their alteration of the composition of earths atmosphere it is highly unlikely that homo sapiens have the ability to cause the extinction of large mammals. It is far more likely that large mammal biological clocks caused large mammal extinction long before homo sapien was any more than an artifact on the timeline of evolution. As an example, we have focused our collective energy, initiative and invention on the elimination of arthropods with chitinous exoskeletons (bugs) since time immemorial and have not even registered as a credible threat to their species. Coincidence and causation are not the same.

trisomy1229 for someone who uses the English language so lavishly, I'm surprised you don't see the truth of it.

Yes, it's very likely that you are correct, however nomads have been accelerating the Sahara's growth by burning the available wood and moving along the water routes, and then burning what wood is left, and on and on. We as a species are single handedly destroying (or by not taking extreme measures to stop, allowing the destruction) of the largest source of oxygen, plant and animals species on the planet, the South American Rain Forest.

It's the duality that has most confused. There's something noble(I'm sure you have a more suitable word) in at least trying to save a creature so majestic, even if these large creatures were predestined to extinction before we muddled everything up.

we are supposed to be stewards of the earth

More like DESTROYERS of the Earth.

Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money~Cree Indian Proverb

best comment I've heard so far!!!!!

@slinger

Mary ANN ...you need to hang around the professor a little more and a little less with Gilligan....

Mary Ann-

tricky, but the US Government is being manipulated by big greedy corrupt to the core corporations.

I was in a Target and asked a clerk why the Smucker's peanut butter(contains only peanuts and "1% or less of salt" and separation is natural)is tucked on the bottom row, but it is almost always sold out or nearly so ? The clerk just responded "Oh corporate controls how the products are placed, we have nothing to do with it"

Did you know there very few brands of peanut butter that use only peanuts ? Smucker's also has an "Organic" version that is more expensive. Also they have changed they're brand(or at least enlarged the word NATURAL) name peanut butter to "Natural" and up went the price along with the new packaging. It's interesting because now JIF has a "Natural" peanut butter (which contains "2% or less of salt", peanuts, sugar, palm oil, and molasses). Target still has the best price on Smucker's but for some reason they put it on the bottom shelf, I guess they need to "brown nose" up to their corporate buddies more than to Smucker's ?

If you want to read up on some shocking proven facts, begin researching how few (about 6) corporations own and/or influence the majority of news/media outlets in the US now. Even more shocking is in how few years these big corporations have lobbied and changed existing laws concerning monopoly power in media.

A client(name withheld) of mine works for HOME DEPOT and said the climate control system for all the stores is controlled in Atlanta, Georgia where the corporate headquarters is at. In the summer if hte AC is too cold, they open the doors, and in the winter if the heat is too high they open the doors ! Now you know why the doors are sometimes/and often wide open at these and other certain "big-box" chain franchise stores.

I already knew that.!!!!

@Otto

judging by the length of gestation for an elephant, and the amount of infants who don't survive until they are weaned, I'm thinking those numbers have not increased a whole hell of a lot since the 90's. I bet it's REAL gradual.

Yeah, but that doesn't really justify the wholesale slaughter of these animals just to satisfy a black-market trade, Scrooge.

Try again.

Here, the facts straight from Africa:

http://www.elephantassessment.co.za/

It shows almost 300,000 elephants in southern Africa. This study also outlines requirments for hunting an animal as well as other details. Read and learn before you talk.

It seems to me that sources in Africa might well be lying in order to cover up the results of their own lack of responsibility. They may be trying to make the situation appear less dire than it actually is.

Jamie, this is a vine about poaching. Not politics, not abortion, and a lot of animals eat the eggs of their own species, or kill their young. Crocodiles, cuckoos, even a bull buffalo will kill its own offspring to get next to the cow. So will some stallions to get next to their mare. So guess again.

@ Jamie Alvarez-

Sorry to rain on your (New Republican Travesty) parade, but abortion is not kin to a single political party. The Republicans are just effective at brainwashing a large portion of working class folks by emphasizing certain key "hot-bed" issues, like abortion, gun control, "christianity", etc. (by the way abortion is another word for murder)

The topic is elephants, but you are trying to turn it into a political discussion about "inhuman" behavior relating to your own political agenda (making abortion illegal, which doesn't really solve the issues).

I recall someone once saying "humans are the only primates who eat meat", I also watched a film where chimpanzee's killed and quite savagely ate a monkey that was near their territory. Your statement about abortion being "rare in nature" is complete nonsense. Eagles and other birds will often kill one offspring so that the stronger offspring will have enough food and a better chance of survival. Bears are widely known to kill cub bears for food, and there are many other examples, so do some research before putting your foot in your mouth.

Elephants are being poached for money, period. If the money wasn't paid by smugglers and buyers, there wouldn't be much of a market, get it ? India has shown it is willing to take drastic measures to try and resolve the serious tiger poaching problem, by enacting a "shoot on sight" rule for tiger poachers. This alone isn't enough, but solves part of the problem, and it shows a true willingness, something we see little of.

Now lets get busy and make the Rain Forest of South America a big big priority, we'll most likely have to pay off Brazil, and others......I don't see any other way around that one, any suggestions ??

Richard, it is not just Asia. My brother in law (whom I have absolutely nothing to do with) has a set of tusks that are huge, and NOT old either. They were not from a culled elephant (although he got one of those too). And he just couldn't go home without shooting a zebra mare with a foal by her side. oops. It's like getting mad at Thailand because they have the ladyboy trade but who's patronizing them? Rich Westerners, Europeans and Americans.

@ Paul from NM- Wow, it's your Republican buddies that doing the antiquated "trophy hunting" of exotic species like zebras, etc..."the corruption in Africa" ? What about your corrupt buddies that ruined our economy because of their short term greed ?

Now I suppose you're going to blame president Obama for banking schemes in the 1980's, going broke and wasting so many young lives chasing a dream in Iraq, Iran-Contra affair, trying to save Rockefeller's oil fields off Vietnam, raising house prices to ridiculous prices until the balloon burst, anything else you want to blame president Obama for ? Oh wait, now I suppose you will blame president Obama for directly ruining the housing market and economy too ?

Now we have a Republican front runner who is known to install "vulture capitalism" to earn profits. He is reported to have 3 million dollars in a Swiss bank account, and is in the process or has already torn down a California mansion to build another one, with a "car elevator"(what ever the f**k that is ?). He follows a religion started by a polygamist (that's a man who has more than wife) named Joseph Smith who claims an angel gave him golden tablets but only he could read them (unknown ancient Egyptian apparently) with his special "seer stone", ah...but he had some witnesses...so there.

Yes, "Paul from New Mexico" you go ahead and vote for Willard Romney the Mormon front runner, and remember to make threatening statements about our president, as it's your right, but don't be surprised when "Big Brother" begins snooping on even good ole honest "Paul from NM".

Hey Paul, maybe you should have been more "conservative" in your choice of words ?

they think the powder from these crushed tusks will heal stuff and do stuff for sexual performance. that is so stupid. doesn't work anyway. it's an old myth. such a waste of an animal. rhino and elephant.

@Otto372694

@jaxnmarko

You know what I'd like to see? Some of the one-percenters doing something good with their money. The CEO of Apple made over 300 million last year.

Hate to burst your hate bubble but rich people donate billions to charity every year. In fact 5 seconds worth of research finds that apples CEO donated 100 mil to charity last year.- http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57370922-37/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-$100-million-to-charity/

Maybe if you put down the Kool-Aid you be able to get a clue.

They do, they go on elephant hunts. They buy expensive permits to hunt, the number and types of elephants are decided according to the management plan. Locals are paid, locals keep the meat and the local elephant population thrives.

I am against just feeding Africa. Overpopulation and an inability to support the population is whats destroying Africa. People talk about the world being overpopulated, lets be real about that statement. The overpopulation is regional and we really shouldn't allow it to continue.