Tanzania's Elephant Population Hit Extremely Hard, Losing About 70% In Last Decade

AFTER BEING COLLARED AND REVIVED AN ELEPHANT MAKES ITS WAY BACK TO ITS HERD IN SELOUS GAME RESERVE, TANZANIA

Tanzania's Elephant Population Hit Extremely Hard, Losing About 70% In Last Decade

The global elephant populations is in a state of crisis in many countries. Tanzania is now a key center of Africa's poaching crisis, after a government census analyzing the nation's elephant population from 2009 to 2014 revealed a catastrophic loss of 60% of its elephants in just five years. 

Revealing elephant declines far greater than expected, the census estimated Tanzania's elephant population in 2014 at 43,330, down from 109,051 in 2009. Fast forward to 2018, and Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve has lost almost 90% of the park's elephants over the past 40 years. Forty years ago, 100,000 elephants roamed Selous, located in southern Tanzania, and today the number is estimated to be 15,200. 

"Tanzania has been extremely hard hit by the latest elephant poaching crisis that has hit the African continent for 10 years," Bas Huijbregts, WWF's African species manager, told CNN.