Opinion Editorials, April 8, 2009

	Two African elephants standing face to face in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve (Getty Images, Earth Link, April 8, 2009).

Illegal hunting (primarily to obtain ivory) and habitat loss have combined to cause dramatic declines in the numbers of both African and Asian elephants. In 1930, there were between five and 10 million wild African elephants, plying the entire African continent in large bands. Today that number is likely less than 500,000.

Doug Moss
Editor of EarthTalk