Elephants

As my favorite animals are elephants, I decided to write this blog about them.
Even if they are not one of the official "endangered species", they are still hunted for their ivory in some regions of the world.
Elephants had been hunted for their ivory for decades, and as the shrinking number of elephants shows, they were pretty successful:
In 1976 the elephant population in South Africa still counted 1 300 000 animals, in 1989 there were only 620 000 left - today, South Africa has 8 840 elephants, of which 7 470 are found in the Kruger National Park.
Ivory has been valued by men since the Stone Age, where it has been used for jewelry and tools - in our days now it's still used to produce jewelry (even if people already disapprove of your wearing it in most parts of Europe), but there have also been articles like pianos keys or billiard balls made of it. Currently Japan is the biggest user of worked ivory.
With a rapid rise in demand for ivory, the price and especially the amount of illegal traded ivory increased drastically: From $60/kg in 1979 it has risen to $300/kg within 10 years - and this development is still ongoing as hunting elephants has gotten forbidden in more and more countries over the years. But still there are not many controlling institutions and so especially elephants outside of National Parks can be hunted without punishment.

One organization that specialized on saving elephants is "Save the Elephants: A non-profit organization with its head quarter in London, England, that operates in five regions in Africa: South Africa, Mali, Kenya, Gabon and Congo. To protect and help the elephants they stated the "four pillars of endeavor":
1. Research and Conservation: They try to find out as much as possible about the life and behavior of elephants through observation and GPS-tracking. Like this they can look on problems through a "elephants perspective", and find better and more effective solutions.
2. Protection: They assist wildlife departments in their fight against ivory traders and poachers. They also developed an early warning system for poaching which is working through monitoring and GPS-tracking.
3. Grassroot Education: They also try to involve local people to get into conversation with them. On the one hand because these people know the best about the elephants habits as they share their land with them - and on the other hand to make them aware of the bad situation of the elephants.
4. Global Communitcation: They try to give people world wide an understanding of what fascinating creatures elephants are, and that they have a high level of consciousness and intelligence. They try to reach this through films publications, a computerized elephant library, a news service and their website.