elephants

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Nation Might Lift Ban on Elephant Hunting

Review ordered by Botswana leader suggests using meat for pet food

(Newser) - A third of Africa's elephants—an estimated 130,000—are found in Botswana. That's one reason animal activists are alarmed to learn the country is considering lifting its four-year ban on hunting the giant animal, 87 of which were found slaughtered and stripped of their tusks in a... More »

Elephants Join Search for Missing 2-Year-Old

He vanished in Thailand a week ago

(Newser) - Four elephants mounted by their mahouts have joined the search for a 2-year-old boy from Myanmar who has been missing in Thailand for a week, as hundreds of rescuers comb through a sugarcane field for traces of the missing child. Sului Piew, a son of migrant workers from Myanmar, went... More »

Elephants Have Bad News for Poachers: We Evolved

More African elephants aren't growing tusks

(Newser) - How can elephants fend off ivory poachers? By never growing tusks at all. Some 32% of female elephants in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park are now born tuskless—a far cry from the 2% to 4% naturally occurring in Africa's wild, per research published in National Geographic . Thousands of... More »

Elephants Massacred After Anti-Poaching Unit Disarmed

Evidence of 'poaching frenzy' uncovered

(Newser) - A conservation group has made a horrifying find in Botswana, a country once thought to have been a bright spot amid the relentless slaughter of Africa's elephants. While conducting an aerial census of the country's elephants, they discovered the carcasses of 87 of the animals near a wildlife... More »

They Tracked 19 Elephants, Found Something Macabre

Poaching for elephant skin raises fears populations could get decimated in Myanmar

(Newser) - Poaching elephants for their ivory has already devastated populations, but poaching the animals for their skin could be disastrous, according to a new study detailing the "heartbreaking" practice in Myanmar. Poaching wasn't thought to be a major issue in the country at the outset of the three-year study... More »

Ivory Sleuth Who Traveled Underworlds Killed at Home

Top ivory investigator Esmond Bradley Martin, 75, found stabbed in neck in Nairobi

(Newser) - "Pachyderms have lost a great champion." That's the tribute of one elephant expert for Esmond Bradley Martin, one of the world's most well-known ivory investigators, who was found killed in his home in Nairobi, Kenya, per the Telegraph and BBC . The 75-year-old had a stab wound... More »

Elephants' Fear of Bees May Help Save Them

New study adds credence to innovative strategy being used to protect wild elephants

(Newser) - Researchers tramped into a national park in Sri Lanka, played a recording of agitated honey bees within earshot of elephants, and got the reaction they hoped for: The elephants developed a serious case of the heebie jeebies. The study in Current Biology suggests that Asian elephants react in much the... More »

'Unpreventable Tragedy': Elephant Attacks, Kills Handler

Others say performing elephants' plight makes Thailand incident unsurprising

(Newser) - In July, World Animal Protection issued a report on the "thousands of elephants exploited for tourism" in Asia, with Thailand listed as a "main concern." One of those elephants, a well-known performer in films and ads, may have rebelled against his own conditions Monday, crushing to death... More »

Surprise: Lion Trophy Limits Were Loosened a Month Ago

One month before controversial decision on elephant trophies

(Newser) - One month before the Trump administration sparked outrage by reversing a ban on trophies from threatened African elephants, federal officials quietly loosened restrictions on the importation of heads and hides of lions shot for sport, the AP reports. The US Fish and Wildlife Service began issuing permits Oct. 20 for... More »

Escaped Elephant Strolls Through Neighborhood

Kelly escaped from the Circus World Museum in Wisconsin

(Newser) - The pachyderm was a startling sight for residents of one small Wisconsin neighborhood. The AP reports a full-grown elephant sauntered through Baraboo early Friday morning on a brief walk of freedom. The mammoth creature more suited for the "big top" clashed with the quiet residential neighborhood. Law enforcement officers... More »

LA Zoo Elephants Lose a Battle in Court

Court overturns order aimed at protecting them

(Newser) - For years, the Los Angeles Zoo has been under a court order requiring it to exercise its three elephants on soft ground and not use electric shocks or barbed sticks on them. On Thursday, that court order was overturned in a unanimous decision by the California Supreme Court that animal... More »

Elephants Kill Employee in South African National Park

The deadly attack happened Thursday in Kruger National Park

(Newser) - A herd of elephants has attacked a group of wildlife park employees in South Africa, trampling one to death and seriously injuring another, the AP reports. South Africa's national parks service said Friday that the incident occurred Thursday afternoon near a camp in the flagship Kruger National Park. The... More »

Dramatic Rescue, With Surprise Help From Muddy Elephants

Asian elephants in Cambodia were mired in bomb crater—then assistance arrived

(Newser) - Teamwork both human and animal is what saved the lives of nearly a dozen Asian elephants in a Cambodian wildlife preserve after local farmers there stumbled upon a distressing sight: 11 of the endangered animals stuck in a mud-filled crater formed nearly a half-century ago by a Vietnam War bomb,... More »

There Are Just 25 'Big Tuskers' Left in the World. One Was Just Killed

Poachers suspected to have poisoned Satao II

(Newser) - One of the last "big tusker" elephants in Africa has been killed by poachers. Satao II, one of the oldest and biggest elephants on the continent, is believed to have been struck by a poisoned arrow; he was found dead Monday, before poachers could take his ivory. The elephant,... More »

Elephants Increasingly Born Tuskless Due to Poaching

In one area, 98% of female elephants are born without tusks

(Newser) - By 1931, all but 11 elephants living in what is now South Africa's Addo Elephant National Park had been killed, mostly for their ivory. Of the eight female elephants left, half had no tusks. Now 98% of female elephants in Addo are tuskless, the Independent reports. The normal rate... More »

The Great Elephant Census Returns Jarring News

Census finds numbers fell by a third in just 7 years

(Newser) - A century ago, there were more elephants in Africa than there were people in New York City. Now there are probably more people in Anchorage than elephants in Africa, with the pachyderm population down by a third just between 2007 and 2014, according to the biggest-ever study of elephant populations.... More »

Rock-Throwing Elephant Kills Young Zoogoer

She was hit in the head while posing for a photo

(Newser) - A 7-year-old girl is dead after an elephant threw a rock at her Tuesday at a Moroccan zoo, the Telegraph reports. The unnamed girl was posing for a photo when she was struck in the head with a large rock. She suffered severe injuries and died at the hospital. According... More »

500 Elephants Are Getting Loaded Onto Trucks Via Cranes

The goal: to get them somewhere safer

(Newser) - Half a dozen African elephants lay strewn on a riverside plain in Malawi, immobilized by darts fired from a helicopter in a massive project to move 500 elephants, by truck and crane, to a sanctuary for the threatened species. As development squeezes Africa's wildlife areas, this kind of man-made... More »

Elephant Chases Schwarzenegger's Car

And he has a typical Arnold reaction

(Newser) - What happens in Johannesburg stays in Johannesburg—unless you're Arnold Schwarzenegger and your safari vehicle gets chased by an elephant, in which case, yeah, the entire world is going to see that video. The clip, which Schwarzenegger uploaded himself to YouTube , shows exactly what transpired when the Terminator visited... More »

Poachers Use Cyanide to Kill 5 Elephants

Officials suspect team of about 5 poachers

(Newser) - Zimbabwean officials say poachers killed five elephants by poisoning them with cyanide, the AP reports. Violet Makoto, spokeswoman for Zimbabwe's forestry commission, said Monday that rangers discovered the carcasses of the elephants with their tusks removed in a western forest last week. Makoto says the poison was laced on... More »

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