Ivory Poaching

This week for homework, I had to find an econ-related article that related to my WISE project. So as I was walking through my house the other day, I found a National Geographic magazine with a picture of some elephants. So I began reading the article and found that it was about African elephants that were being hunted for their tusks. Elephant tusks are made of ivory, which is used for jewelry, piano keys, billiard balls, and more.
An elephants tusks are very valuable to them. They are elongated incisors, embedded deep into an elephants head, which contains a pulp cavity made of tissue, blood, and nerves. Elephants use their tusks for a variety of tasks, such as for battling against other elephants, for pretection from predators, to aid in digging, stripping bark off trees, moving things out of the way, and more.
Since hunting elephants is illegal, poachers will secretly hunt these elephants and sell their tusks on the black market. Recently, tusks have even been found being sold on the internet, where thery are being shipped to all parts around the world.
To find out more information about ways elephants are being helped, or to find a way to help these elephants visit: wcs.org/savingelephants and fws.gov/international/afecf/afacf.htm.