A new study discovers a disappointing trail African forest elephants. These are the roads that now penetrate into the heart of Africa’s jungles. They make it easier for the ivory poachers to kill large numbers of forest elephants without much effort.
And the elephants still surviving are because they could manage to turn tail, retreating to protected parks and spots that the humans have not yet encroached upon. Lead author Stephen Blake, a biologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York said,
Unmanaged roads are highways of death for forest elephants.
According to the study, elephant numbers along roadways are plummeting, which, according to the author is largely due to heavy ivory poaching in these areas. These brutal massacres feed a large, international black-market, trading in the ivory from elephants’ tusks.
The study has been detailed in the current issue of the journal PLoS Biology.