Tens of thousands of African elephants die each year from poaching. While astounding, researchers now estimate that number has plummeted since illegal hunting was at its peak in 2011. Just eight years ago, hunters took out more than 10 percent of the African elephant population — some 40,000. Now poaching kills less than four percent of the pachyderms, according to a new report out Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. Despite the good news, it’s not cause for celebration just yet, researchers say.
“We are seeing a downturn in poaching, which is obviously positive news, but it is still above what we think is sustainable, so the elephant populations are declining,” Colin Beale, a biologist at the University of York in England, who led the new research, said in a statement.
Beale and colleagues wanted to find out what’s been driving the downturn in poaching. They knew poachers are after ...
