{"id":44401,"date":"2015-08-13T23:19:37","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T03:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=44401"},"modified":"2015-08-13T23:19:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T03:19:37","slug":"tanzania-has-lost-two-thirds-of-its-elephants-in-just-the-last-4-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/tanzania-has-lost-two-thirds-of-its-elephants-in-just-the-last-4-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Tanzania Has Lost Two-Thirds Of Its Elephants In Just The Last 4 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tanzania has lost two-thirds of its elephant population in just the last 4 years, as a result of growing demand for ivory and the increasing professionalism of poachers, according to recent reports.<\/p>\n

Elephant numbers in the African country stood at around 316,000 individuals in 1976 (based on aerial surveys); 13,084 in 2013; and 8200 in 2014; and continues to fall rapidly — making for a pretty clear message. The Tanzanian government is apparently refusing to publish the 2014 numbers though.<\/p>\n

\"Dead<\/a><\/p>\n

Commenting on a recent aerial census over the Selous game reserve, Howard Frederick stated: \u201cI had never seen anything like that — there were carcasses everywhere, whole family groups on their sides, between three and seven animals, wiped out. Flying over these huge areas and even driving through, you used to see dozens of huge bull elephants. There was this incredible sense of life missing from that landscape that\u2019s so defined by these creatures. It\u2019s just hollow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local tour guide David Guthrie reiterated that perspective, by from the ground: \u201cIn 17 years of working in the Selous I had seen two elephant carcasses but in 2010 they started appearing in numbers and by 2012 it was just awful. We were hearing shots regularly from the camps. We would have injured bull elephants walking in to try to find safety and dying under trees? The rangers were having to block access to areas — it was just carnage.\u201d<\/p>\n