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In January 2014, the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China and the Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province destroyed more than 6 tons of illegally smuggled ivory products and unprocessed ivory in Dongguan.
The move is to send a clear signal to the domestic and international community that China does not allow the trade in ivory, let alone the killing of elephants, and that anyone who dares to violate laws and regulations should wait for trial.
In addition to the mainland, other countries have made similar statements and actions, such as in 2016, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also publicly concentrated on destroying up to 105 tons of seized ivory.
This move is not only to fight crime and warn the world, but also to call on people to work together to protect elephants, refuse to trade ivory, and do not use ivory products, so as to truly prevent hunters from killing elephants.
You must know that at the beginning of this century, the number of African elephants killed was about 5 million, but by the 80s of the last century, it had dropped sharply to about 1.3 million, and by 06 there were only more than 500,000 left.
It can be seen how elephants have been hunted, and they have gradually evolved into endangered species in just a hundred years, and what is even more hateful is that these hunters will do it when the elephant is alive when they take ivory, and even more cruel is to dig up the skull.
So why do the hunters take the ivory in such a cruel way, and why can't they look for the tusks of the old dead elephants instead?
Let's first talk about why these illegal trappers take ivory while the elephant is alive, in fact, to get better quality ivory, so that it can be sold for a high price.
In the eyes of others, ivory is two front teeth that are exposed, but as everyone knows, the best part of the ivory is the part of the ivory that connects the skull and grows under the skin, which is like the root part of the human tooth.
This piece of ivory is called "blood tusk" because it is not exposed to the outside and is nourished by blood, and it is better than the exposed part of the ivory in terms of thickness and color, and it is also important to choose this part when carving or processing.
In addition, the part that connects the skull is more tenacious because it is nourished by qi and blood, and it is not easy to break when carved, so its value is higher.
And when an elephant is knocked down by an illegal hunter, they don't die right away, after all, elephants are large and tenacious, and even if they are shot several times, they will last for a while.
On the other hand, the hunters are very anxious to take the ivory, fearing that it will be discovered, so they will not wait for the elephant to die completely before taking the ivory, and directly split the elephant's skull, and then cruelly peel the skin and bones, and violently extract the ivory in the fastest way.
Therefore, many elephants did not die because of the bullet, but were tortured to death before this, which is really outrageous, so why don't these ivory eaters cut off the exposed part or look for the elephant that has died of old age.
The reason is that the exposed part of the elephant's tusks has been exposed to the wind and sun, and the elephant will fight directly with its front teeth, so there will be a certain degree of wear, and its quality and toughness are far inferior to the incisors under the skin.
In addition, a whole ivory must be pulled out of the root of the tooth, which is really valuable for collection or production, otherwise the price will be greatly discounted.
There are two main reasons why elephants are not selected to die of old age, on the one hand, because elephants live for a relatively long time, on average, an elephant can live for about 70 years.
For some illegal traders and poachers, they simply can't wait that long, but elephants can predict their own death, so when they know that their time is near, they will find a hidden corner and wait for death.
The "cemetery" that the elephant is looking for is also called the elephant mound, but no one knows where the specific location is, it is completely the elephant's own choice, rather than looking for the elephant mound, it is better to directly find the elephant herd that can be explored.
On the other hand, because the old elephants are deficient in blood and energy, the quality of their ivory is certainly not as high as that of the elephant in the prime of life, compared with the ivory of the old and dead elephants, the tusks of the old and dead elephants are easy to break, the value of the collection is reduced, and the profit is much less.
For profit reasons, it is only natural that hunters prefer healthy adult elephants so that their ivory can fetch a good price in the market.
However, this practice has brought devastating disasters to elephants, and both Asian and African elephants have been included in the list of endangered species, and the population has also declined sharply.
Although countries around the world have been using various methods to protect their elephants in recent years, the number of elephant herds has not grown rapidly due to the illegal trade in ivory and the destruction of human development and construction.
Not only that, many elephants have also undergone a different "evolution" in the process of human hunting in the past hundred years, this evolution is that many female elephants have no tusks, and because of genetic reasons, some effects do not have ivory, but the life span is very short.
There is no doubt that this is a result of human overhunting, and it is also the forced "regressive evolution" of elephants.
Through various signs, it can be seen that elephants have been cornered by humans, but they did not expect that as a "hegemon" level in nature, they still have not escaped the hunt of humans.
It is hoped that in the future, countries can come up with better plans to protect elephants, establish more nature reserves, and hope that elephants will one day be able to live freely in their habitats.
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