Botswana, a rare refuge for elephants

In this July 12, 2014 photo, elephants cross the main highway leading to Zambia in Northern Botswana. Recent years have yielded dire news about ivory poaching in Africa, where conservationists say poachers killed more than 20,000 elephants in 2013 amid rising demand for their tusks in Asia, particularly China. Yet Botswana is a rare bright spot because, the government says, it has about 200,000 elephants and the population is growing. Estimates for the total number of elephants in Africa range from 420,000 to 650,000, according to CITES and other conservation organizations. (AP Photo)CHOBE NATIONAL PARK, Botswana (AP) — No sign of an elephant in all of two minutes, a tourist teased a guide at Botswana's Chobe National Park, home to tens of thousands of elephants. A minute later, their vehicle cleared a knot of shrubs and elephants loomed ahead beside the dusty road.


August 4, 2014 5:22 pm

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