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The Environment - What Is The Status Of The African Elephant?
What is the status of the African elephant?
From 1979 to 1989, Africa lost half of its elephant population due to poaching (illegal hunting) and illegal ivory trade. Elephants are often killed for their tusks, which are made of ivory. The elephant population decreased from an estimated 1.3 million to 600,000. This led, in October 1989, to a change in the African elephant's status of "threatened" to "endangered," according to the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Threatened means "likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range [the geographic area in which a kind of animal or plant normally lives or grows]." Endangered means "in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range."
An ivory ban took effect on January 18, 1990. However, six African countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe,...
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