slaughter of the african elephants

people should out there with the elephants so when the people come kill them the scientists can stop them from doing it.In china and the other countries in the far east there has been an astronomical rise in the demand for ivory trinkets that no matter how exquisitely made have no essential utility whatsover. An elephants tusks have become bling for consumers who have no idea or simply dont care that it was obtained by inflicting terror horrendous pain and death no thinking feeling self aware beings. Herds are made up of related females and their young, directed by the eldest female, called the matriarch. Infrequently, an adult male goes with them, but those usually leave the herd when reaching adolescence to form bachelor herds with other elephants of the same age. Later, they lead a solitary life, approaching the female herds only during the mating season. Nevertheless, elephants do not get too far from their families and recognize them when re-encountered. Sometimes, several female herds can blend for a period of time, reaching even hundreds of individuals. The matriarch decides the route and has shown the other members of the herd all the water sources she knows, which the rest can memorize for the future. The relations among the members of the herd are very tight; when a female has given birth to a baby, the rest have acknowledged it by touching her with the trunk; when an old elephant has died, the rest of the herd have stayed by the corpse for a while. The famous elephant graveyards are false, but these animals have recognized a carcass of their species when they found one during their trips, and even if it was a stranger, they formed around it, and sometimes they even touched its forehead with their trunks. Mating happens when the female becomes receptive, an event that can occur anytime during the year. When she is ready, she starts emitting infrasounds to attract the males, sometimes from kilometers away. The adult males start arriving at the herd during the following days and begin fighting, causing some injuries and even broken tusks. The female shows her acceptance of the victor by rubbing her body against his. They mate, and then both go their own way. After 22 months of gestation (the longest among mammals), the female gives birth to a single 90-cm-high calf which weighs more than 100 kg. The baby feeds on the mother's milk until the age of five, but also eats solid food from as early as six months old. Just a few days after birth, the calf can follow the herd by foot. Like all species of elephant, the male African bush elephant experiences musth, a period of extreme aggression accompanied with high testosterone levels. A bull in musth has been known to attack anything which disturbs him including his family members, humans, and other passive animals such as giraffes and rhinoceros. In one case a young male African bush elephant has been witnessed killing a rhinoceros during musth.Killing elephants for ivory has been a major cause of the decline of the African elephant population since at least the 1970s. Most of the ivory harvested is imported into China and Thailan. For example, between 1996 and 2002 forty-five tonnes of ivory in transit to China were seized by authorities. China agreed to reduce imports of ivory; however a Chinese official Chen Jianwei has indicated that many Chinese people are confused about the legality of ivory imports