Killing of Elephants in Africa

Poachers killing Africa’s elephants for ivory have brought them to the brink of extinction, with the continent’s two species today officially classified as endangered for the first time.

“It’s an important moment, it’s a serious moment,” says Kathleen Gobush, who is a member of the African Elephant Specialist Group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN now lists African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) as critically endangered – the final step before being extinct in the wild – and the African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana) as endangered. Both were previously considered vulnerable, one level down from endangered.