Elephants under siege

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The results of a two-year air and land survey of Africa’s savannah elephants released recently reveal that the population has dropped by 30 percent in seven years.

Measured in the 18 countries that contain most of the population, the study counted 352,271 elephants remaining, an astonishing drop of 144,000 from 2007 to 2014. Called the Great Elephant Census, it was underwritten by the family foundation of Paul G. Allen, Microsoft co-founder.

It is obvious that the total extermination of the African elephant, achieved mostly through poaching for ivory but also through habitat loss, is approaching real possibility.

SAFE HAVENS

Some African countries are relatively safe havens for elephants. These include Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Namibia, South Africa and Uganda.

There are others that either because of corruption, lack of attention to protection of the animals or out-of-control warfare are seeing their elephant stocks drop sharply.

Tanzania, a country where tourism is an important component in its economy, has lost two-thirds of its elephants.

It will be to the great dishonor of humankind if the eventual disappearance of the African elephant occurs. Humans can obviously survive without elephants on this earth.