African elephants face extinction over their ivory.

The African elephant, the world’s largest land mammal, faces extinction because of mass poaching fuelled by demand for illicit ivory, mainly in Asian markets. Around 30,000 elephants are killed every year across the continent, a rate of slaughter that could bring about extinction within one to two decades. A century ago Africa had as many as five million elephants, but decades of poaching fuelled by an insatiable demand for ivory has reduced their numbers to no more than 500,000 today. In the past three years alone, poachers have killed more than 100,000 and the species has now reached a tipping point with more being killed than are being born. Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/kenya-largest-ivory-burn-in-history-elephants-illegal-wildlife-trade-poaching-a7008171.html