Extinction: Elephants driven to the brink by poaching
Frank AF PetersensThe ivory trade, loss of vital habitat and a deeper understanding of elephant biology have all combined to reveal a previously underestimated threat to Africa's elephants. African forest elephants are now critically endangered, an update from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reveals. Savanna elephants are also endangered. And "declines over decades" have driven the species into the two highest categories of extinction threat. African elephants were previously assessed as one species on the IUCN's Red List.Genetic evidence showed them to be two distinct species more than a decade ago.But accurate assessments - of populations, trends in their numbers and the threats they face - take many years. Elephants counted from space for conservation Ivory...
