I found out today that there are only 8 super tuskers left in the Kenyan Conservation Area of Tsavo. The African bush elephant and the Asian elephant are endangered, and the African forest elephant is critically endangered. Since the early 70s, elephant populations have decreased by horrific figures. World Wildlife Fund figures tell us that elephant numbers have gone down from 10 million African elephants and 100,000 Asian elephants to 415,000 to 40,000, respectively.
I’m writing about elephants – yeah, it’s okay, everyone – because yesterday, Thursday the 22nd of September was Elephant Appreciation Day. Yes, there is such a day and there should be, a day to appreciate earth’s largest land mammal, their incredibly dexterous trunks with which they breathe, smell, touch, grasp and trumpet, their Jumbo ears which they use to regulate their body temperature and hear the infrasound of a storm ten kilometers away. If you can bear it, it’s also a day to appreciate their tusks with which they dig, mark, debark and clear paths, and for which they are sadly hunted.
Pressure CITES (The Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Delegate pressure by donating to organisations like Kenyan Tsavo Trust that aims to help animal conservation and engage local communities in the conservation at the same time, too. But above all appreciate these gorgeous animals that still cohabit the earth with us and be thankful that our backyard fauna don’t have tusks of fashionable value but every value besides it.