Mammoths went extinct tens of thousands of years ago, but trade in their ivory is threatening their living elephant cousins.
EPA/FREDERICK VON ERICHSEN
A new study shows these elephants boost the carbon stored in their forests by 7%.
Artistic view of the evolution of elephants. From left to right, Moeritherium (30 million years old), Deinotherium (5 million years old) and a modern African elephant.
Alex Bernardini (Simplex Paléo) and Sophie Vrard (Creaphi).
A shift in climate, along with other environmental disruptions and the invasion of competitors and new predators all likely played an important role in reshaping ancient elephants’ brains.
Poaching of African elephants has fallen, but the species is still at risk. Law enforcement and ivory bans help, but tackling poverty is key to stopping poaching at the source.
Amid a growing human population, African elephants are confined to an increasingly managed existence. Do we want more for one of the world’s most loved species?
Polar bears ‘invading’ a Russian village have renewed concern over climate change in the Arctic, but human-wildlife conflicts are flaring up everywhere.
Botswana’s elephants are officially an economic asset.
Ian Sewell/Wikimedia Commons
At an international summit in Egypt this month, nations will hopefully make progress towards recognising the economic value of wildlife and other environmental assets.
Understanding stories – those of the murderous as well as of the compassionate – is vital to generating the critical mass necessary to save natural environments and their multiple denizens.
As the Maasai people of Kenya seek to expand their agricultural developments, the lives of one of Africa’s greatest creatures are being severely disrupted.
A young bull sees off a cow at a watering hole.
Flickr/Vernon Swanepoel
Cells that transmit nerve impulses in the part of elephants’ brains responsible for functions such as learning and memory are structured differently from those of any other mammal.
Elephants at the Okavango Delta, Botswana.
Shutterstock
Improving livelihoods by exploring alternatives to wildlife trade would help to curb the poaching of threatened species like elephants.
The male cardinal tenderly feeding his mate is just one example of the hard work wild animals undertake in springtime. That work often benefits humans.
(Shutterstock)