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Tanzania has banned wildlife exports after about 130 animals and birds - including giraffes and vultures - were smuggled out of the country.

INVESTIGATIONS into the cause of the plane crash that led to the death of a KWS pilot last Friday have started. Civil aviation experts from the ministry of Transport visited the scene at Manyani over the weekend and carried away some parts of the plane.The commandant in charge of training at the Manyani Training School Julius Mwandai  said the plane crashed after hitting a goal post at the playground and the pilot died on the spot. He sai...

Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson, authors of Walking Thunder, explain why the survival of the elephant is critical for our own future

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 09:26 PM PDT

In an article titled “Another inconvenient truth” (a convenient title I must admit), Elizabeth Bennet states that “A continuing global failure to crack down on a booming trade in body parts from endangered animals could soon cause some species – including rhinos and tigers — to “wink out” of existence. We have been saying in WildlifeDirect that elephants and rhino’s are particularly vulnerable.

THE last mature female elephant in Samburu- Khadija- was killed by poachers just days before President Kibaki torched five tonnes of ivory seized from poachers. Khadija was the last remaining female elephant from a group known as the "Swahili ladies family" in Samburu.

These honorable animals are being slaughtered to feed the Chinese ivory market.

The long and short of it is that, in spite of a well-meaning and fairly organized effort over the past few decades, the world's African elephants in the wild are being systematically exterminated.

I was interviewed on national television after last weeks ivory burn when local journalists began to ask the question – why was no Kenyan ivory burned on the 22nd of July along with the contraband Zambian and Malawian ivory?

The investigation netted one of the largest U.S. seizures of elephant ivory on record, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn.

A Philadelphia African art-store owner was arrested this morning by federal agents and charged with the illegal importation and sale of African elephant ivory.

INVESTIGATIONS into the cause of the plane crash that led to the death of a KWS pilot last Friday have started. Civil aviation experts from the ministry of Transport visited the scene at Manyani over the weekend and carried away some parts of the plane.The commandant in charge of training at the Manyani Training School Julius Mwandai  said the plane crashed after hitting a goal post at the playground and the pilot died on the spot. He sai...