ENTRY DESCRIPTION
There is a poaching crisis in Africa. Elephants are still being killed at alarming rates for their ivory, despite China's recent Ivory Ban. Some 20,000 elephant may be slaughtered each year in what is a cruel death. I work as an elephant conservationist in north central Kenya. Part of the job means that I am sometimes called to visit elephant carcasses to determine their cause of death as part of the CITES MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants) Programme. It is usually a dispassionate exercise. This time it wasn't. This elephant we had been following for 2 weeks after he had been shot. I had grown to know him. On two separate occasions he was darted by wildlife vets and treated for the wound, but it simply wouldn't heal. He became weaker until one morning we found him, he had died during the night. He had died alone. It broke my heart. For an elephant there is no dignity in death. We were forced to chop out the ivory from the lifeless body to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. It was a gruesome task, bone splinters flying in all directions, flies swarming all around as we worked under the blazing Kenyan sun. The man in this picture is not a poacher. He is a conservancy employee who chopped out the ivory with skill and determination. I watched him work for hours. It was backbreaking work. I could tell by the look on his face that he was deeply affected by this task. This elephant is but one of thousands who die each year but I will never forget him.

AUTHOR
Maurice Schutgens is a conservation biologist working in Africa for an elephant charity. He was born in the netherlands but grew up in Uganda and Malawi. He studied conservation biology in Cape Town South Africa and currently lives in Kenya. He is a passionate conservationist and amateur photographer with a desire to explore far off the beaten track in search of adventure and a story.

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