Out of Africa
“The elephant helped us walk out of Africa perhaps 60,000 years ago. We learned from tribal elders in east Africa that elephants, because they knew where to find water, helped humanity survive.”
Filmmaker photographer Cyril Christo travels to Africa and writes about what’s happening to the elephants. Over the last 20 years their numbers there have dropped from more than a million to less than 400,000. [readon]
Growth in human population is a major concern. Millennial old elephant migration paths have been disrupted. Climate change is a menace to the elephant and all life.
But the wanton shooting of the innocents to satisfy vanity has reached a level of madness no-one can ignore, perhaps made most clearly in the recent destruction of 400 elephants in the Central African Republic by armed militia from Sudan.
In China, ivory sells for $1,500 a kilo. In 10 year’s time, if the slaughter of elephants continues, there will simply be no elephants in Africa.