(Source: US Department of State) The leaders of the United States and China, the world's two largest economies, joined forces in September to protect elephants in the wild and restrict the ivory trade that threatens their very survival. Wild African elephant numbers are down from about one million in 1980 to fewer than half a million today. In the past five years, poachers have killed 60 percent of the elephants -- more than 60,000 individuals -- in Tanzania alone. Without immediate intervention, the Central African forest elephant population is on the tragic course toward extinction within the next decade. China and the United States are among the world's largest markets for illegal ivory,...
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