The Traveller's Magazine
If you’ve ever dreamt of seeing African elephants roaming free in the wilderness, you’d better act quick to plan that safari. At least 80,000 African elephants have been poached since 2006 and delegates warn the species could become extinct within the next ten years.
A major conservation conference in Botswana has revealed that African elephants could be extinct in the wild within the next decade, an alarming fact that will no doubt push a lot of travellers to book flights to Kenya in the near future. The African Elephant Summit was attended by delegates from 20 countries around the world.
The African elephant population fell from 550,000 to 470,000 between 2006 and 2013. In East Africa, the numbers are even more drastic, with numbers falling from 150,000 to 100,000 in the same period.
Last year, Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites under threat. Since the reserve was first listed in 1982, the populations of elephants and rhinos have fallen 90%! Tourism provides essential funds for wildlife conservation, so what are you waiting for? Check out our post, Top 4 places to hang with elephants if you want to get up close to these magnificent creatures.
