African Elephant Population Declines By 30 Percent
Source: NPR
African Elephant Population Declines By 30 Percent
August 31, 20166:28 PM ET
REBECCA HERSHER
A $7 million, comprehensive census of African elephants has found that the population decreased by nearly a third between 2007 and 2014.
The Great Elephant Census was conducted over three years, and set out to effectively count every savanna elephant in 18 countries in Africa, accounting for 93 percent of the savanna elephants in those countries. The conclusion — that the population declined by 144,000 animals in just seven years — is sobering.
The results were published in the journal PeerJ.
"If we can't protect the world's largest land mammal, the prognosis for wildlife conservation is bleak," says Mike Chase, the lead scientist on the project and the founder of an elephant conservation group based in Botswana called Elephants Without Borders.
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Read more: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/31/492124724/african-elephant-population-declines-by-30-percent
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Related: Continent-wide survey reveals massive decline in African savannah elephants (PeerJ)
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