2011 was 'worst year ever' for elephants with record ivory seizures

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45814115/ns/world_news-world_environment/


Joseph Okanga / Reuters, file
Kenyan customs officers and Kenya Wildlife Services officials inspect elephant tusks which were seized inside a warehouse at the port in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa, on December 21, 2011.

JOHANNESBURG — It's been a disastrous year for elephants, perhaps the worst since ivory sales were banned in 1989 to save the world's largest land animals from extinction, the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said Thursday.

A record number of large seizures of elephant tusks represents at least 2,500 dead animals and shows that organized crime — in particular Asian syndicates — is increasingly involved in the illegal ivory trade and the poaching that feeds it, the group said.

Some of the seized tusks came from old stockpiles, the elephants having been killed years ago. It's not clear how many elephants were recently killed in Africa for their tusks, but experts are alarmed.

TRAFFIC's elephant and rhino expert Tom Milliken thinks criminals may have the upper hand in the war to save rare and endangered animals.