Africa's elephant population is in crisis
Some 30,000 were killed for their tusks in 2012, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and by some estimates, the population could be decimated in a decade if poaching continues at this rate.
That's where Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen's Great Elephant Census, the project he started with a $7.3 million grant and a partnership with the Botswana nonprofit Elephants Without Borders, comes in.
Nobody knows exactly how many elephants are left in Africa, which makes them extremely difficult to track and protect from poachers and other threats. The GEC seeks to solve that problem by counting the continent's savanna elephants, living and dead, over two years. The idea is that, with accurate count data, researchers and policy makers not only will know how big the population is, but better understand the pachyderms' dynamics as a species. That, in theory, will make the dwindling population easier to protect. Read more...
More about Microsoft, Conservation, Paul Allen, Africa, and Us World
from MashableKate Sommers-Dawes
0 comments:
Post a Comment