28 endangered elephants have been killed in Cameroon. Reuters reported that the animals were killed by poachers in the Nki and Lobeke national parks in recent weeks.
The amount of elephants in Africa have been on the decline because of poachers killing them for their ivory tusks. Reuters reported that the population of Africa's forest elephants have gone down by 62 percent over the last ten years putting them on track for extinction.
The parks in Camaroon have some the largest populations of these forest elephants.
Zacharie Nzooh, WWF Cameroon representative in the East Region said to Reuters, "elephants in these two protected areas in the Congo Basin are facing a threat to their existence." Between Feb 10 and March 1 23 dead elephants were found, with their tusks taken off, reported the WWF. They were found in the Nki national park while five more were found without their tusks in the Lobeke national park.
"The poachers used automatic weapons, such as AK-47s, reflecting the violent character of elephant poaching,"added Nzooh.
Given the increasing problem in December, Cameroon sent military helicopters to watch and try and protect the park and the animals during the night.
African forest elephants are smaller than African savannah elephants and they have smaller and slimmer tusks and smoother skin, says Wildlife Conservation Society's website.
"They rely far more on fruit than do savannah (or "bush") elephants, though they also feed on bark and herbaceous material. Forest elephants' requirement for mineral salts attracts them to specific, mineral-rich, open forest clearings that occur throughout the forest region, known as bais," says the website.
These areas are popular for poachers who can shoot at whole groups of elephants without obstruction of the forest growth.
Human interaction to these elephants is a major issue. Not only poaching bt also industrial logging and mining and roads are settling into the forests, restricting the habitat for these creatures. New roads that cross through the Congo Basin have also aided in poachers coming in to kill elephant for tusks in the illegal ivory trade to China and other parts of Asia, reports the Wildlife Conservation Society's website. They say these roads have been called by scientists the "highways of death" for the elephants.
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