Not surprisingly, it is men’s behaviour that brings pain, extinction or danger to other species.
Still, we are once more protagonists or spectators of this harsh reality: the life of elephants is fragile due in most part to poaching, which is, as reported by the WWF, “one of the main causes of death among elephants: every year around 20 000 African elephants are massacred.”
Since we are continuously flooded with numbers and data, this particular number might mean nothing, but let’s take another one: in 2016 the most reliable esteem on the number of elephants living in Africa was 415 000 and, if things don’t change, on the basis of the WWF’s data mentioned above, in a few decades no elephant will be spared from the sickle we are handling.
Men are killing elephants to obtain ivory, a material that is considered to be very precious.
In ancient times, men sought ivory to make statues, tribal or religious objects and symbols, whereas nowadays they seek it because of its unchanged market value.
An example to understand the value of this material – obtained from the elephants’ fangs – and the reason why poachers crave it, can be the following: on the black market 1 kilo of ivory can cost up to 3000 euros.
