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evolution

Discoveries: The Evolutionary Edge of Elephant Trunks and Ancient Giants

2024-01-13 - Beijing, China.

A recent study published in the journal eLife has uncovered new findings on the development of dextrous trunks by indigenous elephants. According to Dr. Shi-Qi Wang, a senior author of the research, the evolution of mandible structure in the ancient Egyptian herbivory Prosecis has been influenced by multiple eco-adaptations. The paper, published in eLife on November 28, 2023, explores the possible co-evolution of the mandible and nose in early elephantiforms.


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birth

Wuhan Zoo works to build home for new Elephant family

2023-08-16 - Wuhan, China.

Born on June 26, 2022, the male elephant marked the first time that the zoo successfully bred an African elephant. The calf's father, named A Hai, and his mother, named A Nan, came to Wuhan in 1997 from Hainan province. Both of them grew up together at the zoo and are now 27 years old. In September 2020, A Nan got pregnant and after a 22-month pregnancy period, gave birth to the calf at the zoo.


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death

Asian baby elephant at Jinan Zoo in Shandong dies of multiple organ failure

2023-03-15 - Jinan, China.

An Asian elephant named Yaqi at Jinan Zoo in East China's Shandong Province died of multiple organ failure on Monday, the zoo announced, breaking heart of netizens. Yaqi would no longer embrace the spring together with us. His departure breaks heart of everyone who loved him," a notice released by the zoo read. Yaqi was an Asian elephant born on June 14, 2020.


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birth

Yunnan, China: Kunming Zoo welcomes a newborn Asian elephant calf

Photo taken on Oct. 20, 2021 shows a newborn Asian elephant calf and his mother Yaming in Kunming Zoo, southwest China

2021-10-21 - Kunming, China.

Yaming, an Asian elephant in the zoo, gave birth to a male Asian elephant calf on Oct. 15, 2021. The new member is in good health and in the period of immune isolation and protection with his mother, unable to meet the public temporarily.


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misc

Frolicking three-year-old is the fifth calf to be born at the chinese park"s breeding centre

Three-year-old Asian elephant calf, named Yishuang, uses the rain forest floor as a make shift

2021-07-08 - Xishuangbanna, China.

The young calf named Yishuang is the fifth elephant to be born at the park's breeding centre within the approximate 900acre valley that's home to hundreds of the giant mammals. A park spokesperson said Yishuang was born on December 22, 2017 and is developing well after becoming the fifth calf born at their breeding centre.


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conservation

NATIONAL PARK PROPOSED FOR WILD ELEPHANTS

2021-06-24 - Kunming, China.

In the past month, Ming Qingzhong, a university professor in Yunnan, has been closely monitoring 15 wild Asian elephants that have traveled 500 kilometers north from their habitat in the south of the province. Ming and his team from the Tourism and Culture Industry Research Institute at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics in Kunming, the provincial capital, have proposed building an Asian elephant national park, aiming to better manage and restore the giant creatures' habitats. "Such a na...


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birth

Three new baby Asian elephants born in SW China"s Yunnan

2021-01-16 - Yunnan, China.

At the Xishuangbanna Tropical Zoo, an Asian elephant named Ya Long also gave birth to a baby weighing 95.4 kilograms on January 14, after 21 months and 19 days of pregnancy. "It took the baby elephant about 20 minutes to get up. Now, its breathing and other physical signs are normal," said Ji Yang, a veterinarian of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Zoo.


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smuggle

Smugglers jailed as China"s "biggest ever" illegal ivory network smashed

2021-01-02 - Beiiing, China.

Seventeen people have been jailed -- including two for life -- for running China's largest ever ivory smuggling ring, moving millions of dollars of tusks from west Africa into the mainland's vast domestic market. A court in the southern city of Guangzhou on Tuesday handed long prison terms to 17 people involved in smuggling over 20 tons of ivory worth more than 1 billion yuan (US$156 million).


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conflict

Human-elephant conflict escalates in China"s Xishuangbanna

A herd of elephants crosses a rural road in Xishuangbanna on April 7.

2020-10-20 - Xishuangbanna, China.

According to the local forest authority, human deaths and injuries from wild elephant attacks in Xishuangbanna have soared since 2016. In 2019 alone, 12 people were killed by wild elephants in the prefecture, compared with 33 over the two decades through 2010. So far in 2020, seven people have died in clashes with wild elephants.


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wild

Baby elephant rescued from pond in southwest China

2020-10-20 - Pu'er City, China.

A baby Asian elephant was rescued on October 17 after it got trapped in a pond in Pu'er City, Yunnan Province. Forest service center staff members discovered the elephant at around 22:30. After freeing the baby, they treated its bruises and returned it to its mother.


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conflict

Cover Story: Death Follows as People Push Into Elephant Enclave

2020-10-19 - Xishuangbanna, China.

Xishuangbanna, the southern-most prefecture in China's Yunnan province, is known as a safe haven for wild Asian elephants where hundreds of the giant animals live in the sprawling tropical rainforests. But balancing modern human activities with protection of wildlife has never been easy. For some people in Xishuangbanna, coexistence with the wild elephants is becoming more and more challenging, or even fatal.


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trade

China says it will phase out ivory trade in 2017

An elephant walks through the bush on the edge of Kruger National Park in South Africa. China on Friday said it would shut down domestic trade in ivory by the end of 2017, a move intended to curb the slaughter of the African elephants

2017-01-01 - Bejing, China.

China says it will ban all domestic ivory trade by the end of 2017, closing down the world’s biggest ivory market in a move wildlife conservationists believe will help curb elephant poaching in Africa. The announcement deals a blow to a global ivory industry sustained in large part by Chinese demand, and comes after years of international and domestic pressure on Beijing to interdict a trade that has threatened the extinction of wild African elephants.


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trade

China to set date to close ivory factories

2016-12-13 - Beijing, China.

China is set to announce when it will close its legal ivory carving factories, 18 months after pledging to act. Last year, the world’s largest market for both legal and illegal ivory said it would shut down commercial sales within the country. But did not set a timeline. At the time, conservationists described the announcement as the “single greatest measure” in the fight to save elephants from poaching. Wildlife advocates have since urged Beijing to get on with the job.


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smuggle

Ivory smuggler gets four years in jail

2016-11-01 - Beijing, China.

A man was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 40,000 yuan ($5,903) on Tuesday for smuggling ivory, a Beijing court announced. Beijing No 4 Intermediate People´s Court sentenced the man, surnamed Liu, on Tuesday morning, saying that he was found smuggling 52 products made of ivory in his suitcase at Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport in June 2014. The value of the ivory was more than 423,800 yuan, the court said.


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trade

With Ivory Ban Imminent, What Will Happen to China’s Legal Stockpile?

A police officer stands guard outside an ivory shop during a protest in Hong Kong. Amid growing pressure after China announced on September 25 that it will ban the ivory trade, Hong Kong said it is now “open-minded” to a ban on its legal ivory trade

2015-11-12 - Bejing, China.

After years of defending and supporting a legal domestic trade in ivory, China made a big announcement in September: It’s shutting down the trade. The United States is, too. Together, the presidents of both countries have made an unprecedented public pledge to put a stop to all ivory trading—legal and illegal.


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fossil

6 Million-Year-Old Skull Of Elephant Found In China

The discovery of the six-million-year old elephant skull in Shuitangba, Zhaotong City in China pushed back the species’ history by one million years. The fossil suggests that the species originated somewhere in Yunnan Province.

2015-11-09 - Zhaotong, China.

An Sinomastodon praeintermedius skull fossil, dating back to six million years, was discovered in Shuitangba in Zhaotong City in China. The recent discovery suggests the species originated somewhere in the Yunnan province or in nearby areas.


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misc

Hong Kong begins destroying 131,000 pounds of elephant ivory

2014-05-17 - Hong Kong, China.

Hong Kong has begun destroying its 29.6-metric-ton stockpile of confiscated ivory. On Thursday authorities in the semi-autonomous Chinese city crushed and incinerated a ton of seized ivory in an action they hope will send a message to poachers and traffickers. Conservationists welcomed the move but said more must be done to address the demand side of the issue.


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conservation

In Land That Values Ivory, Wild Elephants Find a Safe Haven

2014-05-04 - Xishuangbanna, China.

At a time when tens of thousands of elephants across Africa are being slaughtered to feed the Chinese appetite for ivory, it turns out the best place to be a wild elephant may be here in the tropical forests of southwest China. Over the past two decades, the number of Asiatic elephants in Yunnan Province in China has roughly doubled, to nearly 300, thanks to government-financed feeding programs, wildlife education efforts and a strict elephant protection law unmatched anywhere else in the world....


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conflict

Chinese zookeeper dies in elephant enclosure

Staff members of the zoo of Kunming look over the elephant enclosure on Feb 19, 2014 after a zookeeper died in it on Wednesday afternoon.

2014-02-20 - Kunming, China.

A zookeeper died in an elephant enclosure on Wednesday afternoon in southwest China´s Yunnan province, a source at the zoo said. The man, 46, was found dead at about 4:30 p.m. He had injuries to his head, according to the zoo of Kunming, the provincial capital. It is not yet known whether the man had been attacked by an elephant. The cause of the accident is being investigated.


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conflict

2 injured in elephants attack in China

2014-02-09 - Xishuangbanna, China.

Two tourists were injured by a group of wild elephants at a scenic spot in China´s southwestern Yunnan Province, local officials said today. The incident took place at the Wild Elephant Valley in the Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna yesterday when the elephants trying to cross a river attacked a family of five.


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poaching

Biggest Ivory Consumer China to Criminalise Elephant Poaching

A Kenya Wildlife Services ranger shows elephant tusks intercepted from poachers

2013-12-05 - Beijing, China.

Despite being the largest market for illegal ivory, China has agreed to label the trade of elephant ivory as a serious crime along with 30 other countries at a summit in Botswana. The deal is proposing a cooperative, multi-national effort to prevent the killing of thousands of elephants, caused by the lucrative ivory trade, in which China buys 70% of the world´s illegal ivory.


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smuggle

Hong Kong’s ivory cache poses risk

Elephant tusks confiscated in October by Hong Kong authorities join the country’s enormous cache of seizures, which some want destroyed.

2013-12-03 - Hongkong, China.

When Hong Kong intercepted yet another huge shipment of illegal African ivory in early October, it added to a growing headache for authorities: What exactly do you do with one of the world’s biggest stockpiles of elephant tusks?


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smuggle

Chinese ivory traders receive sentences of up to 15 years

2013-12-02 - Beijing, China.

The CITES office in China has released details of a number of cases involving ivory importing and trading. In the most recent case 8 people accused of illegal ivory trading received prison sentences of between 3 and 15 years. The recent case involved the import of 3.6 tonnes of ivory between 2010 and 2012.


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smuggle

China"s ivory-regulation loopholes are as big as elephants

2013-11-13 - Beijing, China.

Meng Xianlin, deputy director of China´s Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office said that China, which has been making prestigious products from elephant ivory for almost 5,000 years, has taken most stringent regulatory measures on ivory trade. China does not ban domestic ivory trade, but it sets a ceiling for the amount of legal market consumption at five tonnes each year.


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misc

Master carver uses mammoth tusks to keep 3,500-year-old art alive

Celebration of Auspiciousness is just one of Chu Chung-shing

2013-11-07 - Hongkong, China. Samuel Chan

Hongkongers have the chance to see more than 200 pieces of mammoth tusk carved by ivory master carver Chu Chung-shing and his 100-strong team at a free show at the Convention and Exhibition Centre today and tomorrow. Chu has been using the tusks of the prehistoric creature, which became extinct more than 10,000 years ago, as a substitute for African elephant ivory ever since a transnational ban on the ivory trade was imposed in 1989 to protect the African elephant.


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smuggle

(Is this header correct? BABY ELEPHANTS?) Hong Kong seizes more than 1,000 BABY elephant tusks in major ivory haul

 Ivory tusks are displayed after being confiscated by Customs in Hong Kong Friday. Customs officials said Friday they had made Hong Kong

2013-07-19 - Hong Kong, China.

More than 1,000 ivory tusks, mainly from baby elephants, were seized by Hong Kong customs in their biggest haul in three years, officials said on Friday. The tusks, which weigh over two tons and are worth more than 2 million dollars, were discovered at the city´s main port in a cargo container from the African country of Togo.


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smuggle

Two men caught attempting to smuggle 5 million yuan worth of ivory and rhino horn products into China

2013-03-25 - Shanghai, China.

On Wednesday, customs officials said two airline passengers were arrested at Pudong International airport for attempting to smuggle rhinoceros horn and ivory items worth over 5 million yuan ($805,000) into Shanghai, according to the Shanghai Daily. A press release from Shanghai Customs said that the two passengers were carrying 11 rhinoceros horn products and over 30 items made of ivory, Global Times reports.


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death

Update on elephants exported to China

They sent us the photos below of the surviving elephant at Taiyuan Zoo.

2013-01-13 - Beijing, China.

They say that the 4 elephants arrived at the end of November 2012. Two went to Taiyuan Zoo, one of which has subsequently died. The other two reportedly went to Xinjiang Tianshan Safari Park. There are apparently still another 14 elephants waiting to be exported and we have to try and stop this from happening


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smuggle

Hong Kong customs make record ivory seizure

Customs officers display some of the seized ivory.

2012-10-21 - Hong Kong, China.

Customs officers have made a record seizure of smuggled ivory - with the discovery of more than 1,200 elephant tusks and a batch of ivory ornaments worth more than HK$26 million - during a joint operation with Guangdong authorities. The consignments, weighing more than 3,800 kilogrammes, were found in two containers shipped to Hong Kong from Tanzania and Kenya.


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smuggle

Man faces 5 years" jail for bringing in ivory

2012-03-08 - Hangzhou, China.

A MAN who bought more than 10 kilograms of ivory and six scales of pangolins worth more than 220,000 yuan (US$34,826) during a trip to Angola may face more than five years in prison on charges of wildlife smuggling. The construction company employer surnamed Tan argued he purchased African ivory, listed as a legal commodity in Angola, as gift for his friends rather than for resale, according to the trial at the Intermediate People´s court in Hangzhou, capital of east China´s Zhejiang...


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smuggle

Looking For Elephant Ivory? Try China

The price for raw elephant tusks in China has tripled in the past year because of growing demand, according to Grace Gabriel, the Asia regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

2012-03-03 - Beijing, China.

Armed with tips from animal welfare activists, I recently went on an ivory hunt with my Chinese assistant, Yang, in an antiques market in Beijing. Activists say China´s growing purchasing power is driving global demand for products from vulnerable animals, everything from elephant ivory to rhino horn.


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smuggle

China Seizes 93 Suspected Ivory Products

2012-01-05 - Jinghong, China.

Police have seized 93 suspected ivory products in southwest China´s Yunnan province after a raid on stores located near the region´s wild elephant habitat, local officials said Thursday. Police searched 293 stores in the city of Jinghong on Dec. 28 and found the suspected products in four stores, the officials said. The raid was part of a crackdown on illegal ivory trading, which has flourished in recent years in some of China´s border regions, the officials said. China banned ...


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smuggle

Hong Kong Customs Seizes Rhino Horns, Ivory Worth Millions

Hong Kong Customs officials display the rhino horns and elephant ivory products they seized November 14, 2011

2011-11-16 - Hong Kong, China.

Hong Kong Customs officials Monday smashed a smuggling case and seized 33 rhino horns, 758 ivory chopsticks and 127 ivory bracelets with a total value of about US$17.4 million. The contraband ivory and rhino horns were hidden inside a container shipped to Hong Kong from South Africa. Acting on a risk assessment, Customs officers selected a container for inspection that was declared to contain 63 packages of "scrap plastic" from a vessel arriving from Cape Town, South Africa.


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conflict

Wild Asian elephant kills villager in SW China

2011-11-06 - Xishuangbanna Dai, China.

Local police confirmed the death of Cao Xiaoer, a resident of Xinshan village in the prefecture, was caused by a wild elephant, said a statement issued by the prefecture government´s information office. Since 1991, wild elephants in Xishuangbanna have attacked more than 140 people and destroyed 50,000 tonnes of grain, local forestry authorities said one year ago.


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conservation

China, Laos Will Expand Nature Reserve To Protect Asian Elephant

2011-10-31 - Kunming, China.

China and Laos have signed an agreement to jointly build another cross-border nature reserve in order to better protect the endangered Asian elephant, reports Xinhua news agency quoting local authorities as saying. The second reserve will cover 20,000 hectares of forest in China and stretch across 35,000 hectares in Laos, according to the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve Administration.


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trade

Chinese Demand Revives Ivory Trade

Elephants carved from illegal Ivory on display at an

2011-09-19 - Hong Kong, China.

A long-dormant threat to Africa´s elephant population is back with a vengeance, thanks to rising demand for ivory from newly affluent Chinese consumers.Reflecting this demand, ivory prices in China have soared to as high as US$7,000 a kilogram in 2011 from US$157 a kilo in 2008, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency, a nongovernmental organization based in London. Estimates from other researchers and NGOs put ivory prices in China as low as US$300 to US$750 a kilo, which neve...


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smuggle

China"s ivory demand skyrockets

2011-02-10 - Beijing, China.

CHINA is driving demand for smuggled ivory from Africa, leading to a surge in the killing of endangered elephants. An international ivory trafficking operation saw a Beijing-based smuggler offering undercover reporters three pairs of recently-arrived tusks with a price tag of $64,000. Asked if he could supply more, he replied, "Don´t worry about that. If we can do a deal today, then next time I have some good ivory, I´ll call you." He said his uncle works in West Africa and uses cont...


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zoo

Zoos to Ban Animal Performances

In this photo taken on December 11, 2009, an elephant was performing in a wild animal park in Xishuangbanna, the southernmost prefecture of Yunnan Province

2010-10-27 - Bejing, China.

Zoos and parks across China will be banned from putting up shows of animal performances for extra profits, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said in a notice Tuesday. The notice explains while China´s zoo industry has experienced rapid development, a few profit-driven zoos were found improperly caring for the animals or even involved in gross neglect in some cases.


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fossil

Elephant fossils discovered in Hubei

2010-09-21 - Hubei, China. Zhang Qian

Fossils of large teeth were found at Li Jiahe Village, Xuan´en County of Hubei Province, according to Hubei Daily. After primary certification, researchers believe the fossil belonged to an elephant that lived about 50,000 years ago. The fossils are being stored at Xuan´en Museum at present. The local culture station, which first received this news, found that the fossil was white color. The fragments of the fossils were noticeably lighter than the surrounding rocks when they were pi...


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smuggle

Hong Kong’s Largest Ivory Seizure in a Decade

2008 in Windhoek, during the first legal auction of elephant tusks in nearly a decade--exclusively for Chinese and Japanese buyers.

2010-09-14 - Hong Kong, China. Sonya Bryskine

More than 1.55 tonnes of elephant ivory tusks were seized in Hong Kong last week, worth $HK10.85 million ($US1.4 million), making it the largest shipment in a decade. Hong Kong customs intercepted the load containing 384 tusks, which were packed in two containers declared as dried anchovies. The ivory is believed to have entered Hong Kong via Malaysia, the Citizen reported.


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fossil

3-meter-long ancient ivory fossil discovered in Anhui

Many villagers came to watch the excavation of the ancient ivory fossil at Zhang Changying Village, Mengcheng County of Anhui Province on the afternoon of Sept 8.

2010-09-10 - Anhui, China.

A 3.34-meter-long ancient ivory fossil were found at Zhang Changying Village, Mengcheng County of Anhui Province on the afternoon of Sept 8. After primary certification, researchers believe the ivory fossil belonged to an ancient elephant that lived about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. The fossil was buried 5 meters under the ground, and the thickest part of it reaches 22 centimeters. And judging from the ivory, it could be an adult elephant.


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smuggle

Hong Kong seizes 1.5 tonnes of smuggled ivory

2010-09-10 - Hong Kong, China.

Hong Kong customs officers had seized over one and a half tonnes of smuggled elephant ivory worth $HK10.9 million ($A1.41 million) shipped from Tanzania, they said Friday. The 384 ivory tusks, weighing a total of 1.55 tonnes, were found Thursday inside two containers labelled as "dried anchovies" at the Tsing Yi container terminal, the Ports and Maritime Command said in a statement.


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abstract

Extinct mammoth tusks fill elephant ivory ban gap

2010-08-13 - Hong Kong, China.

Stumped by a ban designed to save elephants from extinction, Hong Kong´s master carvers turned to a long dead species that left thousands of tonnes of frozen ivory in Siberian mass graves.Mammoth tusks, intricately carved to depict anything from devotional Buddhist scenes and teeming wildlife to bizarre erotic fantasies, now make up most of the ivory for sale in the city.


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conservation

China, Laos agree on nature reserve

2009-12-13 - Shanghai, China.

CHINA and Laos have signed an agreement to jointly build a cross-border nature reserve to better protect Asian elephants and other rare animals, an official said yesterday. Tang Zhongming, deputy director of the state-level Xishuangbanna Natural Reserve Administration, said the reserve covers 31,300 hectares of forests in China and another 23,400 hectares in Laos.


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fossil

Mastodon fossil found in Yunnan may shed light on the evolution of mammals

The recent discovery of a giant mastodon fossil site in northeastern Yunnan may provide science with a better understanding of the evolution of modern mammals, and possibly insight into the origin of humans.

2009-11-05 - Zhaotong, China.

A team of more than 10 Chinese and foreign archeologists have been examining the mastodon fossil site in Zhaotong prefecture, which consists of at least three complete skeletons, according to a Dushi Shibao report. One of the fossilized tusks found at the site is 2.6 meters long and weighs more than 150 kilograms. The fossil was discovered by local farmers who were digging up brown coal.


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pictures

Asian elephants raised in breeding base, NW China

The raiser looks at the new tooth of the wild Asian elephant "Yongyong" at the Xishuangbanna Asian elephant breeding base in Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna, southwest China

2009-08-25 - Xishuangbanna, China.

The breeding base, mainly aiming at protecting, rescuing and multiplying the wild Asian elephants, successfully protects the species diversity and promotes harmonious development between human and animals.


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poaching

Forensics May Prevent Elephant Poaching

2009-06-24 - Hong Kong, China.

Law enforcement officials investigating the source of confiscated ivory (605 elephant tusks) in Hong Kong had no clue where the stash originated before leaving Douala, a port city in Cameroon. DNA technology, however, was able to verify that many of the tusks once belonged to forest elephants that lived in southern Gabon, near the Republic of Congo border. Extracting elephant DNA from confiscated ivory could be an important tool to take wildlife investigations a step farther and to stop poaching...


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zoo

Zoo Celebrates 18-year-old Elephant"s Birthday

2009-04-12 - Hunan, China.

It looked like a normal birthday party with a cake and pink balloons -- but the birthday boy was an endangered Asian elephant. Pamai celebrated his 18th year in style Saturday at Changsha Zoo, in the capital of Hunan Province. His super-sized cake contained more than 100 kilograms of fodder and 30 kilograms of fruit and vegetables. The celebration was also used to highlight the plight of wild Asian elephants. More than 30 college students came to the party to show their dedication to protect wil...


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abstract

Elephant, 18, Seeks 10 Friends Who Love Fruits

2009-04-11 - Hunan, China.

Elephant lovers are being sought by the Changsha Zoo in Hunan province to help celebrate the 18th birthday of Pa Ke, an Asian elephant. In addition to a large birthday cake made of apples, watermelons and other fruits, Pa Ke will wear a red outfit at the party. The zoo hopes to find 10 people who are 18 years old to help at the party. Pa Ke, who has lived in Changsha for seven years, has grown to 3.3 meters from 2.8 meters. It weighs more than four tons, a ton more since he moved to the zoo seve...


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conflict

China"s threatened elephants turn into killers. Local people believe the animals are getting angry as the country"s runaway development destroys ever more of their habitat

China

2008-10-26 - Beijing, China. Dinah Gardner

There are fewer than 300 wild elephants left in China, so when Jeremy McGill, an American tourist, stumbled across a group of adults earlier this year in a nature reserve in Yunnan province, near the border with Laos, he whipped out his camera and started taking pictures. It almost cost him his life.´"I was alone when I came across the four elephants," he said. "One scooped me up into his mouth and bit me. My body was folded in half, my head between my knees, and then the elephant spat me out a...


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misc

Asian elephant unfit for wild after heroin addiction rehab

2008-10-19 - Kunming, China.

An Asian elephant who was cured of heroin addiction in southwest China has been declared unfit for the wild, local zoo keepers said on Sunday. Four-year-old male Xiguang and five other elephants became the targets of illegal traders at the China-Myanmar border in March 2005. Among the beasts, Xiguang, was fed with bananas smeared with heroin by the smugglers who intended to snare the animal. The elephants were captured by police two months later. Four of them, including Xiguang, were later sent ...


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medical

Elephant passes giant stool after falling sick

2008-10-17 - Hunan, China. Sharon Lee

An elephant with a blocked intestinal tract was rescued and relieved after more than seven hours of treatment at Changsha Zoo in Hunan province on Sunday. After honey helped reduce swelling in the Asian elephant's stomach, the 3.2-m-tall specimen finally passed a stool weighing 7 kg with a length of 40 cm and a diameter of 20 cm. The 17-year-old elephant, Pa Mai, had fallen to the ground in pain several times on Sunday afternoon before 20 zoo staff moved it indoors for treatment. Changsha Zoo im...


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medical

"Addicted" elephant heads back to Kunming after heroin detox cure

2008-09-04 - Kunming, China. Sun Yunlong

An Asian elephant who became addicted to drugs after eating a banana smeared with heroin is headed back to Kunming after a three-year detoxification program in China's southernmost Hainan Province. The 4-year-old male elephant, Xiguang, became addicted in March2005. He was among six elephants lured by animal smugglers along the Sino-Myanmar border. They used the bananas as bait for the animals, which were being brought into China's Dehong Autonomous Prefecture of Dai and Jingpo nationalities. Po...


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trade

UN approval of China as legal ivory buyer may fan world’s black market

A Kenya Wildlife Service official holds two pieces of ivory that were confiscated from passengers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.

2008-08-18 - Beijing, China. Dominique Patton

In a cosy workshop filled with the smell of fresh wood chip, neatly arranged tables and well-worn carving tools, Fang Fu Zhai reminisces about his days working with ivory. “Only the best people were picked to carve ivory. If you were chosen, you had to move out of the main workshop to an area where they kept an eye on the piece. They were afraid of it being stolen.” Mr Fang seldom gets his carver’s hands on ivory nowadays. Since the ban on the global ivory trade almost 20 year...


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trade

China defends its ivory policy after UN grants permission for disputed African imports

2008-07-17 - BEIJING, China.

China defended its ivory policy on Thursday after conservationists criticized a U.N. panel's decision to allow the country to import elephant ivory from African government stockpiles. The vote this week by the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, qualifies China for a one-time auction because it has dramatically improved its enforcement of ivory rules. But some environmental groups disagreed, saying that China had over a dozen years lost track of 121 tons of iv...


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misc

Elephant paintings enhance sino-Thailand friendship

2008-06-05 - Beijing, China.

Paintings by elephants? Yes! And the huge mammals with their powerful trunks and floppy ears have even had a showing of their own, in Beijing. The elephant's trunks are applied as distinctive brushes. It takes a long time to train an elephant in the refinements of high art. Many pachyderms sought inspiration for their works from the upcoming 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. The show is organized by the Thailand-China Friendship Association. The elephant is to Thailand, what the panda is to China, a...


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smuggle

Guangxi unearths a large ivory smuggling case

Forest police of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region captured over 790 kilograms ivory worth 36 million yuan, March 19, 2008

2008-03-21 - Guangxi, China.

Forest police in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region intercepted over 790 kilograms ivory worth 36 million yuan from a truck headed toward Nanning on Wednesday. It was the largest amount of smuggled ivory ever confiscated in the region, China News Service reported. Police found more than ten crates of ivory covered with crumbs, for a total of over 270 sections from 139 complete tusks, one of which is 1.83 meters long. Chang Min, team leader of the forest police, said the force sent police out to pa...


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conservation

Protecting China"s last elephant herd

2008-02-15 - Yunnan, China.

In addition to sharing a border – and the Mekong River – with Laos, Yunnan province also shares Chinas last herd of Asian elephants, which in recent years has dwindled to only 400 elephants. The herd lives in nature reserves near the border between China and Laos. This week the Yunnan Provincial Forestry Department met with their counterparts from Laos in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture to discuss ways to protect the endangered Asian elephant, which falls under China's grade-one prot...


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conservation

China and Laos work together protecting Asian elephants

2008-02-14 - Yunnan, China.

China and Laos reached an agreement to protect wild endangered Asian Elephants that live along the border between the two countries, during their annual meeting, held currently in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, Xinhua reported yesterday. According to the Yunnan Provincial Forestry Department, the two countries agreed on four items -- to promulgate animal protection knowledge to villagers; to tighten controls over hunting guns and their activity; to plan an agenda for c...


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accident

Elephant kills man in China nature park

2008-02-09 - Chuncheng , China.

An elephant has killed a man in a Chinese nature reserve where an American tourist was earlier severely injured, the state news agency Xinhua said. The animal attacked Zeng Shaoping on Wednesday as he returned home after celebrating the Lunar New Year with friends, the agency said, quoting the local Chuncheng Evening News. Two of his friends raced to the scene when they heard trumpeting noises, and found him lying on the roadside. An American living in China was severely injured by an elephant i...


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wild

Spectacular Yunnan"s just the cup of tea for tourists

Yunnan Province once boasted an elephant population of more than 100,000, but human intrusion over the centuries and the environmental impact have seen that number dwindle to the 200-odd who now live in Wild Elephant Valley Park.

2008-02-03 - Kunming, China. Yao Minji

Yunnan Province is renowned for its breathtaking natural beauty where rolling mountains covered in large colorful tropical flowers provide a picturesque backdrop for tourists keen to discover the area's unique history and culture. But visitors should not expect to be awestruck on first arriving in Yunnan's provincial capital of Kunming. A typical medium-sized Chinese city going through rapid economic development, Kunming's characteristic historic architecture has been knocked down to make way fo...


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conflict

Wild Elephant Attacks American Tourist at Chinese Nature Reserve

2008-01-28 - Beijing, China.

A wild elephant in southern China attacked an American tourist by tossing him with its trunk, causing the man to suffer from fractured ribs and stomach injuries, an official said Monday. Jeremy Allen McGill, who teaches English in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, was found unconscious by a security guard around dusk Thursday at the "Wild Elephant Valley" nature reserve in the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan province.


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conflict

Wild elephants attack in SW China, injure American tourist

2008-01-27 - Kunming, China.

An American tourist was seriously injured after he was apparently attacked by wild Asian elephants roaming in a nature reserve in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Thursday, officials confirmed on Sunday. Jeremy Allen McGill, who teaches English at Huazhong Agricultural University in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and arrived in Xishuangbanna for sightseeing on Wednesday, was under intensive care at the central hospital in the Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna, the foreign affairs...


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fossil

Mammoth skull fossil discovered in NE China

2007-12-20 - Changchun, China.

At the beginning of this year, Mr. Ren, a citizen of Changchun City in northeast China's Jilin Province, found an extraordinary stone while working in a sandpit near Dong'antun. His workmates thought that it was just an ordinary stone and suggested throwing it away. However, Ren was convinced that it was a fossilized bone. The stone is about the size of a man's palm and it was cracked in two places. "At first, when I saw the lower part of the stone, I thought that there should be an upper part j...


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film

Largest bone carving in China - Dragon Boat

2007-11-29 - Guangdong, China. Liu Fang

Ivory carving is a time-honored craft for centuries in south China's Guangdong province. The craft reached its acme during the Ming and Qing dynasties. For many years the ivory trade was brisk. Then in the late 1980's that trade came to an end as an international ban was imposed on trading ivory. Then, local craftsmen began seeking a new medium for their artistic creations. Zhang Minhui in Guangzhou, chose ox bones.


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trade

Taste for exotic posing a danger to rare wildlife

2007-11-19 - Hong Kong, China. Nishika Patel

Growing consumer spending power in south China has been fueling the illegal trade of endangered Southeast Asian pangolins and African ivory, making Hong Kong a crucial strategic hub. Statistics obtained by The Standard from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department show that the amount of imported ivory seized in Hong Kong rocketed from 26.8 kilograms to 4,027.9kg between 2004 and last year, while pangolin seizures jumped from 1,005.5kg, or 939 carcass heads, to 2,037kg, or 6,478 ca...


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trade

Traffic news: China hosts ASEAN to close net on wildlife crime

ASEAN-WEN is an intergovernmental initiative bringing ASEAN governments together to combat wildlife crime

2007-09-14 - Guanzhou, China.

China has wrapped up an historic five-day exchange with law enforcement officers from five ASEAN countries to address one of the region’s major crime issues jointly. The China-ASEAN Wildlife Law Enforcement Co-operation exchange in Guangzhou and Shenzhen aimed to strengthen regional co-operation in the fight against wildlife crime. Eight officials representing police, Customs and environmental agencies from Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines joined Chinese counterpart...


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fossil

Prehistoric Cave Found in South Anhui

Experts have verified it as an Asian elephant tooth, the first one of its kind to be excavated from southern Anhui Province.

2007-09-07 - Xuancheng, China. He Shan

Sealed away from the outside world for millions of years, a mountain cave located in Xintian Town, Xuancheng City, southern Anhui Province has recently been excavated and classified by archeologists as a prehistoric cave. It harbors a trove of animal fossil bones and vessels. A huge crescent fossil bone weighing two kilograms was unearthed during the discovery. Experts have verified it as an Asian elephant tooth, the first one of its kind to be excavated from southern Anhui Province.


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welfare

Elephant recovers from heroin addiction

2007-08-31 - Yunnan, China.

The China Daily is reporting that a bull elephant from Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan has recovered from a serious heroin addiction it picked up as a victim of illegal elephant trading. The elephant, nicknamed "Big Brother", was fed heroin-laced bananas in order to make it easier to control him and his herd, which they led westward to Dehong, near China's border with Myanmar.


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relocation

Heroin-addict elephant to rejoin herd after rehab

2007-08-30 - Beijing, China.

A once drug-addled elephant fed heroin-laced bananas by illegal traders will soon return to the wild after being weaned off his addiction through methadone and round-the-clock care. Big Brother, a bull elephant that once lived peacefully with his herd near the China-Myanmar border in Yunnan province, was caugh by traders in 2005, the China Daily said on Thursday. To control it so that it could lead the herd to where they wanted, the traders kept feeding it bananas laced with drugs, the paper sai...


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event

Beijing Zoo holds birthday party for baby elephant from Sri Lanka

2007-06-24 - Beijing, China.

Baby elephant Migara, a gift of friendship from Sri Lanka to China in February this year, celebrated his sixth birthday at the Beijing Zoo Saturday. With a red ribbon on head, the male elephant received birthday wishes from both Chinese and Sri Lanka children, as well as delicious bananas from its raiser. Migara was presented as gift by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to the Chinese people on Feb. 26 to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties of the two countries...


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pictures

Shanghai Elephant May Day

2007-05-02 - Shanghai, China.

A woman performs with an elephant during a show as part of the week-long May Day Holiday activities at the Shanghai Wild Animal Park in Shanghai May 2, 2007.


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smuggle

Foreigner on trial for smuggling 60 kgs of ivory into China

2007-04-10 - Guangzhou, China.

Hussein Yahya Al-Asri from Yemen went on trial in the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court in south China's Guangdong Province on Monday on charges of smuggling ivory. Al-Asri, an 27-year-old businessman, was charged after customs discovered 60.73 kilograms valued at 3.5 million yuan (0.45 million U.S. dollars) in his luggage at the Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou on June 7, 2006.


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accident

Frustrated elephant retaliates against taunting tourists in China Wuhan zoo

2007-02-27 - Wuhan, China. Donald

A young girl was injured at Wuhan Zoo in central China on Sunday when an African elephant, in retaliation to abuse from a group of tourists, hurled a stone towards the mob, striking the girl in the face. The 13-year-old elephant, named Ahai, was being subjected to taunts from tourists and was being pelted with stones, mud and plastic bottles, according to an unnamed spokesman with Wuhan Zoo. Ahai, who has lived in the zoo with his friend A'nan for seven years, curled up a stone in his trunk and ...


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relocation

Sri Lanka President begins visit to China. Presenting China with Pinnawela elephant Migara.

2007-02-26 - Beijing, China.

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa landed in China this morning for a six-day state visit that coincides with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The President presented a five-year-old Sri Lankan elephant, Migara, to the Chinese government as a gift to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations. The baby elephant is finding a new home at the Beijing Zoo.


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event

Migara trumpets ties between Sri Lanka and China

Pic by Sudath Silva

2007-02-25 - Beijing, China.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who left for China last night, will hand over a Pinnawela baby Elephant to China at a ceremony today to mark 50 years of diplomatic ties between Sri Lanka and China. Here the baby elephant, named Migara, which is already at the China Zoo is seen attending a rehearsal yesterday prior to today’s ceremony.


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smuggle

Beijing customs officers seize around 70 kg of ivory products

2007-02-16 - Beijing, China. Xinhua

A total of 67.45 kilograms of ivory products was seized from the luggage of a female passenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo at Beijing Capital International Airport on Tuesday. The female passenger, flying from Addis Abba to Beijing, chose to go through the nothing-to-declare lane of the customs upon her arrival in Beijing. She was found to be carrying half-finished mahjong sets, bracelets, necklaces and other ornaments made of ivory when customs officers examined her luggage. Anti-smug...


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relocation

Bachelor Elephant Finds Long-distance Love

2007-02-12 - Nanning, China.

A male elephant in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, traveled thousands of miles to marry a female elephant in Sichuan Province recently. Xing Xing, a 10-year-old male elephant at Nanning Zoo, was old enough to marry, but did not have a mate. The zoo posted advertisements looking for one on the websites of other zoos and finally received a response from the Bifengxia Zoo in Ya'an, Sichuan Province, which had an adult female elephant in need of a spouse.


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relocation

Mateless Zoo Animals Starting to Get Cranky

Yakun (left) stands next to his mate Liya at Jinan Zoo in Shandong Province

2007-01-19 - Jinan, China.

"Altogether, seven endangered animals now have difficulties in finding a mate, and most of them are male," zoo manager Wu Kongju said. They include rhinoceros, black ape, musk deer, elephant, golden monkey and zebra. "If an elephant wants to go on a journey to mate, it is impossible to find a cage and truck big enough to transport it," Wu said as an example. Liya was brought from Beijing Zoo to mate with Yakun in May 2006. The two finally fell in love in September. According to Wu, the major rea...


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wild

Wild elephants seen in S.W. China

A herd of seven wild elephants are seen at the Wild Elephant Ravine in a forest park in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China

2007-01-18 - Yunnan, China.

A herd of seven wild elephants are seen at the Wild Elephant Ravine in a forest park in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province January 17, 2006. Wild elephants are seen at the Wild Elephant Ravine in a forest park in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province January 17, 2006.


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blog

"Goddess of Chang Jiang": The Chinese river dolphin declared extinct

2006-12-14 - Yangzi, China.

The fate of the baiji reminds me of the recent book by Mark Elvin, The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China. For millennia, elephants roamed as far north as Beijing and throughout the Chinese heartland and in fact could still be found in regions south of the Yangzi basin as recently as the 14th century. Elvin argues that the 'retreat' of the elephants, "from northeast to southwest, was the reversed image in space and time of that of the economic development and environment...


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accident

Tourist injured in elephant attack

2006-11-29 - Yunnan, China. Chuncheng, Evening News China Daily

A female tourist from Yunnan Province was badly injured when four elephants attacked her on a road neighbouring a nature reserve in Xishuangbanna over the weekend. The woman was resting with her tour group at the side of the road when the four elephants attacked. Experts said such attacks were rarely reported and that the elephants may have been frightened by someone else nearby.


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conflict

Chinese officials hope to lure hungry wild elephants away from farmland by offering "dinner halls" with banana and sugar

2006-07-01 - BEIJING, China.

Twenty years ago, Xishuangbanna had only 80 wild elephants compared to some 300 today. Last year three villagers were killed by elephants around nature reserves in Xishuangbanna in the southwest province of Yunnan. Crops belonging to 12,000 families were also destroyed. Wildlife officials are planning "dinner halls" of banana plantations and sugarcane planted several kilometres from villages to entice the animals away, So far, 70 ha (170 acres) have been set aside.


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accident

Elephant kills its keeper in Shanghai safari park

2006-06-09 - Shanghai, China.

A 46-year-old animal keeper was killed accidentally by an elephant in a safari park in Shanghai, east China, on Thursday, sources with the safari park confirmed on Friday. Li Guohua, the animal keeper, was suddenly thrown away by an Asian elephant using its trunk when he was helping veterinarians to treat this ill elephant at about 8:00 p.m. Thursday.


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smuggle

Hong Kong seizes smuggled elephant tusks

2006-05-10 - Hong Kong, China.

Elephant tusks smuggled in a shipping container have been seized by customs officials in Hong Kong. The 3.9 tonnes of tusks from Cameroon, worth about 8 million Hong Kong dollars (about €805,500), were the largest such seizure “in recent years,” Hong Kong Customs said in a statement. Officials couldn’t say when the last big seizure was. Officers found the tusks in a concealed compartment in a shipping container that was declared to be carrying timber from the West African nation of Camer...


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trade

Chinese wealth spells elephants" doom

2005-12-13 - Beijing, China. Meera Selva

Across China, new shops are opening for hundreds of thousands to buy items that only a generation ago were beyond their reach. Ivory is one of them. "On a recent visit to China, I found twice as many shops selling ivory products than I saw only a few years ago," said Esmond Martin, a conservationist who has tracked the global ivory trade. Chinese companies are making their mark, building roads in Ethiopia, buying up the Sudan's oil and relaunching Sierra Leone's tourism industry.


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poaching

Professionals trained to monitor Asian elephants

2005-10-14 - Xinhua, China.

Wildlife observers are being trained in southwest China's Yunnan Province to monitor and protect the critically-endangered Asian elephants that roam virgin forests in the western and southern parts of the province. The training program, scheduled for Oct. 10-15, is sponsored by MIKE (Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants), an international environmental protection system that protects elephants from ivory poachers.


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research

Tuskless elephants evolving thanks to poaching

2005-07-20 - BEIJING, China.

A recent study predicts that more male Asian elephants in China will be born without tusks because poaching of tusked elephants is reducing the gene pool. Research by Zhang Li, an associate professor of zoology with the college of life sciences at Beijing Normal University, discovered that the gene for tusklessness is spreading among the endangered species in its habitat in Yunnan Province of southwest China, said China Daily.


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poaching

Elephants with tuskless gene beat poachers

volutionary pressure may lead to more Asian elephants in China born with a gene that leaves them tuskless, and so less desirable for poachers

2005-07-18 - Beijing, China.

More male Asian elephants will be born without tusks because poaching of tusked elephants is reducing the gene pool, Chinese researchers say. The tusk-free gene, which is found in between 2 and 5% percent of male Asian elephants, has increased to between 5 and 10% in elephants in China, says zoology researcher Associate Professor Zhang Li, from Beijing Normal University.


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conservation

China makes remarkable achievements in Asian Elephant protection

2005-03-16 - Beijing, China. People's Daily Online

A delegation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) recently completed a visit to China, during which they investigated the protection of Asian Elephants and trade of ivory in China. The delegation came to the conclusion that China had made great efforts at protecting Asian Elephant population and habitats, standardizing the management of ivory processing and trade, severely cracking down on illegal smuggling and trade of ivory etc. and had...


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conservation

China protects wild Asian elephants, habitats

2005-03-07 - BEIJING, China. Xinhuanet

China has taken measures to protect Asian, or Indian, Elephants and their wild habitats in thepast years, which helped stabilize the number of the species in the country.

China now has 150 to 250 wild Asian Elephants living in Yunnan Province, the southwest of the country, according to the State Administration of Forestry.


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smuggle

Ivory "smuggler" guilty

2005-01-07 - Shanghai, China.

A 53-year-old Shanghai resident thought he was rescuing cultural relics when he bought two Chinese ivory carvings at a Paris auction and brought them back home.

But rather than thank him, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court yesterday sentenced Zheng Songqing to two years in prison with a probation of two years and fined him 15,000 yuan (US$1,807) for violating the country's laws on ivory trading.


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smuggle

China Leads the World in Importing Illegal Ivory

2004-11-01 - Beijing, China. Zhang Guanghua, Voice of America

Chinese officials have been unable to curb its flourishing illegal ivory
trade, despite signing the International Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora in 1980, which bans killing
elephants for trade purposes.

Since 1990, China has held the dubious title of the world’s largest importer
of illegal ivory. Their inability to stop importation coincides with a
flawed record in domestic wildlife protection.


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conservation

China mulls Asian elephant protection corridor along its border with Laos.

2004-10-14 - BEIJING, China. Xinhuanet

The Asian elephant is the largest terrestrial mammal in Asia. Although many thousands of domesticated Asian elephants are found in Southeast Asia, this magnificent animal is facing extinction in the wild.

China is trying to alleviate the situation by establishing an Asian elephant protection corridor in the south of the country, along its border with Laos.


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conservation

China Plans to Build Asian Elephant Breeding Base

2002-07-19 - Yunnan, China.

The Chinese government will spend 50 million yuan (6.02 million US dollars) on building an Asian elephant breeding center in southwest China's Yunnan Province, to better protect the wild creatures from extinction. China began breeding Asian elephants in 1994 in the zoo at Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province. Six Asian elephants have been born there so far.


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smuggle

Macau police nab elephant tusks

2001-05-11 - MACAU, China. CNN

Macau marine police have seized nearly 92 kg of ivory, including tusks believed to have come from a baby African elephant.

Five full tusks and five pieces of tusk, weighing a total of 91.95 kg, were discovered in a wooden crate at Macau International Airport, a marine police spokesman said.


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fossil

Asian Elephant Fossils Found in Guangxi

2000-07-14 - Guangxi, China.

Chinese archaeologists have discovered well-preserved fossils of the Asian elephant dating back about 50,000 years to 100,000 years in a mountain cave in Pubei County of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The archeologists believe that the fossils were those of Asian elephants that lived in the late period the Pleistocene.


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death

Elephant death devastates Chinese town Zhengzhou

1999-01-22 - Zhengzhou, China.

The central Chinese city of Zhengzhou is mourning the death of a much-loved elephant, called Luwen, at the local zoo.

The BBC's Carrie Gracie in Beijing: "Daily health bulletins made top news on local television" Thirty keepers and vets from across China struggled to save her, but the 25-year-old Burmese elephant died of stomach problems after lying on her side for a month.


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98 Headlines about Elephants from China2024-01-13 - Beijing, China - Discoveries: The Evolutionary Edge of Elephant Trunks and Ancient Giants 2023-08-16 - Wuhan, China - Wuhan Zoo works to build home for new Elephant family 2023-03-15 - Jinan, China - Asian baby elephant at Jinan Zoo in Shandong dies of multiple organ failure 2021-10-21 - Kunming, China - Yunnan, China: Kunming Zoo welcomes a newborn Asian elephant calf 2021-07-08 - Xishuangbanna, China - Frolicking three-year-old is the fifth calf to be born at the chinese park"s breeding centre 2021-06-24 - Kunming, China - NATIONAL PARK PROPOSED FOR WILD ELEPHANTS 2021-01-16 - Yunnan, China - Three new baby Asian elephants born in SW China"s Yunnan 2021-01-02 - Beiiing, China - Smugglers jailed as China"s "biggest ever" illegal ivory network smashed 2020-10-20 - Xishuangbanna, China - Human-elephant conflict escalates in China"s Xishuangbanna 2020-10-20 - Pu'er City, China - Baby elephant rescued from pond in southwest China 2020-10-19 - Xishuangbanna, China - Cover Story: Death Follows as People Push Into Elephant Enclave 2017-01-01 - Bejing, China - China says it will phase out ivory trade in 2017 2016-12-13 - Beijing, China - China to set date to close ivory factories 2016-11-01 - Beijing, China - Ivory smuggler gets four years in jail 2015-11-12 - Bejing, China - With Ivory Ban Imminent, What Will Happen to China’s Legal Stockpile? 2015-11-09 - Zhaotong, China - 6 Million-Year-Old Skull Of Elephant Found In China 2014-05-17 - Hong Kong, China - Hong Kong begins destroying 131,000 pounds of elephant ivory 2014-05-04 - Xishuangbanna, China - In Land That Values Ivory, Wild Elephants Find a Safe Haven 2014-02-20 - Kunming, China - Chinese zookeeper dies in elephant enclosure 2014-02-09 - Xishuangbanna, China - 2 injured in elephants attack in China 2013-12-05 - Beijing, China - Biggest Ivory Consumer China to Criminalise Elephant Poaching 2013-12-03 - Hongkong, China - Hong Kong’s ivory cache poses risk 2013-12-02 - Beijing, China - Chinese ivory traders receive sentences of up to 15 years 2013-11-13 - Beijing, China - China"s ivory-regulation loopholes are as big as elephants 2013-11-07 - Hongkong, China - Master carver uses mammoth tusks to keep 3,500-year-old art alive 2013-07-19 - Hong Kong, China - (Is this header correct? BABY ELEPHANTS?) Hong Kong seizes more than 1,000 BABY elephant tusks in major ivory haul 2013-03-25 - Shanghai, China - Two men caught attempting to smuggle 5 million yuan worth of ivory and rhino horn products into China 2013-01-13 - Beijing, China - Update on elephants exported to China 2012-10-21 - Hong Kong, China - Hong Kong customs make record ivory seizure 2012-03-08 - Hangzhou, China - Man faces 5 years" jail for bringing in ivory 2012-03-03 - Beijing, China - Looking For Elephant Ivory? Try China 2012-01-05 - Jinghong, China - China Seizes 93 Suspected Ivory Products 2011-11-16 - Hong Kong, China - Hong Kong Customs Seizes Rhino Horns, Ivory Worth Millions 2011-11-06 - Xishuangbanna Dai, China - Wild Asian elephant kills villager in SW China 2011-10-31 - Kunming, China - China, Laos Will Expand Nature Reserve To Protect Asian Elephant 2011-09-19 - Hong Kong, China - Chinese Demand Revives Ivory Trade 2011-02-10 - Beijing, China - China"s ivory demand skyrockets 2010-10-27 - Bejing, China - Zoos to Ban Animal Performances 2010-09-21 - Hubei, China - Elephant fossils discovered in Hubei 2010-09-14 - Hong Kong, China - Hong Kong’s Largest Ivory Seizure in a Decade 2010-09-10 - Anhui, China - 3-meter-long ancient ivory fossil discovered in Anhui 2010-09-10 - Hong Kong, China - Hong Kong seizes 1.5 tonnes of smuggled ivory 2010-08-13 - Hong Kong, China - Extinct mammoth tusks fill elephant ivory ban gap 2009-12-13 - Shanghai, China - China, Laos agree on nature reserve 2009-11-05 - Zhaotong, China - Mastodon fossil found in Yunnan may shed light on the evolution of mammals 2009-08-25 - Xishuangbanna, China - Asian elephants raised in breeding base, NW China 2009-06-24 - Hong Kong, China - Forensics May Prevent Elephant Poaching 2009-04-12 - Hunan, China - Zoo Celebrates 18-year-old Elephant"s Birthday 2009-04-11 - Hunan, China - Elephant, 18, Seeks 10 Friends Who Love Fruits 2008-10-26 - Beijing, China - China"s threatened elephants turn into killers. Local people believe the animals are getting angry as the country"s runaway development destroys ever more of their habitat 2008-10-19 - Kunming, China - Asian elephant unfit for wild after heroin addiction rehab 2008-10-17 - Hunan, China - Elephant passes giant stool after falling sick 2008-09-04 - Kunming, China - "Addicted" elephant heads back to Kunming after heroin detox cure 2008-08-18 - Beijing, China - UN approval of China as legal ivory buyer may fan world’s black market 2008-07-17 - BEIJING, China - China defends its ivory policy after UN grants permission for disputed African imports 2008-06-05 - Beijing, China - Elephant paintings enhance sino-Thailand friendship 2008-03-21 - Guangxi, China - Guangxi unearths a large ivory smuggling case 2008-02-15 - Yunnan, China - Protecting China"s last elephant herd 2008-02-14 - Yunnan, China - China and Laos work together protecting Asian elephants 2008-02-09 - Chuncheng , China - Elephant kills man in China nature park 2008-02-03 - Kunming, China - Spectacular Yunnan"s just the cup of tea for tourists 2008-01-28 - Beijing, China - Wild Elephant Attacks American Tourist at Chinese Nature Reserve 2008-01-27 - Kunming, China - Wild elephants attack in SW China, injure American tourist 2007-12-20 - Changchun, China - Mammoth skull fossil discovered in NE China 2007-11-29 - Guangdong, China - Largest bone carving in China - Dragon Boat 2007-11-19 - Hong Kong, China - Taste for exotic posing a danger to rare wildlife 2007-09-14 - Guanzhou, China - Traffic news: China hosts ASEAN to close net on wildlife crime 2007-09-07 - Xuancheng, China - Prehistoric Cave Found in South Anhui 2007-08-31 - Yunnan, China - Elephant recovers from heroin addiction 2007-08-30 - Beijing, China - Heroin-addict elephant to rejoin herd after rehab 2007-06-24 - Beijing, China - Beijing Zoo holds birthday party for baby elephant from Sri Lanka 2007-05-02 - Shanghai, China - Shanghai Elephant May Day 2007-04-10 - Guangzhou, China - Foreigner on trial for smuggling 60 kgs of ivory into China 2007-02-27 - Wuhan, China - Frustrated elephant retaliates against taunting tourists in China Wuhan zoo 2007-02-26 - Beijing, China - Sri Lanka President begins visit to China. Presenting China with Pinnawela elephant Migara. 2007-02-25 - Beijing, China - Migara trumpets ties between Sri Lanka and China 2007-02-16 - Beijing, China - Beijing customs officers seize around 70 kg of ivory products 2007-02-12 - Nanning, China - Bachelor Elephant Finds Long-distance Love 2007-01-19 - Jinan, China - Mateless Zoo Animals Starting to Get Cranky 2007-01-18 - Yunnan, China - Wild elephants seen in S.W. China 2006-12-14 - Yangzi, China - "Goddess of Chang Jiang": The Chinese river dolphin declared extinct 2006-11-29 - Yunnan, China - Tourist injured in elephant attack 2006-07-01 - BEIJING, China - Chinese officials hope to lure hungry wild elephants away from farmland by offering "dinner halls" with banana and sugar 2006-06-09 - Shanghai, China - Elephant kills its keeper in Shanghai safari park 2006-05-10 - Hong Kong, China - Hong Kong seizes smuggled elephant tusks 2005-12-13 - Beijing, China - Chinese wealth spells elephants" doom 2005-10-14 - Xinhua, China - Professionals trained to monitor Asian elephants 2005-07-20 - BEIJING, China - Tuskless elephants evolving thanks to poaching 2005-07-18 - Beijing, China - Elephants with tuskless gene beat poachers 2005-03-16 - Beijing, China - China makes remarkable achievements in Asian Elephant protection 2005-03-07 - BEIJING, China - China protects wild Asian elephants, habitats 2005-01-07 - Shanghai, China - Ivory "smuggler" guilty 2004-11-01 - Beijing, China - China Leads the World in Importing Illegal Ivory 2004-10-14 - BEIJING, China - China mulls Asian elephant protection corridor along its border with Laos. 2002-07-19 - Yunnan, China - China Plans to Build Asian Elephant Breeding Base 2001-05-11 - MACAU, China - Macau police nab elephant tusks 2000-07-14 - Guangxi, China - Asian Elephant Fossils Found in Guangxi 1999-01-22 - Zhengzhou, China - Elephant death devastates Chinese town Zhengzhou

20 years on Internet!

ELEPHANT NEWS was created on 2001 in Munich, and relaunched in Phnom Penh in 2020, with almost 8 000 links to news articles about elephants on the Internet

A number of articles now also have a cross reference to the elephant database, either for individuals elephants and/or to an article about the location holding

In the right column, you can also see if an elephant has birthday today, and follow the link to more facts!

medical

Third elephant tests positive for virus at Dublin Zoo

2024-07-10 - Dublin, Ireland.

Dublin Zoo has confirmed that a third elephant has tested positive for a virus which has left two other elephants dead over the last ten days. Eight-year-old Avani and seven-year-old Zinda died from E...


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medical

Houston Zoo Elephant Receives First Ever mRNA EEHV Vaccine

2024-06-18 - Houston, United States. Houston Zoo

Tess, a 40-year-old Asian elephant at Houston Zoo, has been given the first-ever dose of an mRNA vaccine created by virologists at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) to prevent the deadly elephant endot...


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Extern Link Read about Houston Zoo in the Elephant Database
birth

Blackpool Zoo confirms 2 elephants are expecting babies

2024-04-26 - Blackpool, United Kingdom.

The latest round of pregnancy tests at Blackpool Zoo has revealed that two of its elephants are expecting babies. Mother and daughter Noorjahan and Esha are both pregnant and due to give birth in late...


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Extern Link Read about Blackpool Zoo in the Elephant Database
death

RIP 2 year old “Chi Pich”

2024-04-02 - Sen Monorom, Cambodia.

There was sad news from Mondulkiri Province, with the death of 2 year old elephant “Chi Pich” being announced. Sources from the Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment Organization (ELIE) said ...


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Extern Link Read about Chi Pich in the Elephant Database
Extern Link Read about Elephant Valley Project Cambodia in the Elephant Database

Extern relevant Links (external link which opens in new window):
EEHV (Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus)


Extern relevant Links (external link which opens in new window):
EEHV (Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus)
death

Popular tusker Mangalamkunnu Ayyappan dies

2024-03-26 - Kochi, India.

Popular tusker Mangalamkunnu Ayyappan, 55, 55, died at Mangalamkunnu in Palakkad on Monday. The elephant owned by M A Haridasan had been under treatment for the past few months.


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Extern Link Read about Mangalamkunnu brothers in the Elephant Database
birth

Pinnawala Orphanage sees birth of 76th calf

2024-03-23 - Kegalle, Sri Lanka.

The 76th elephant calf was born at the Rambukkana Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage on March 20.This baby elephant was born to 32-year-old she-elephant Shanthi and 19-year-old Pandu at the Pinnawala Elepha...


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Extern Link Read about Pinnawala elephant orphanage in the Elephant Database
organisation

SANParks partners with neighbouring nations to benefit communities

2024-03-23 - Pretoria, South Africa.

In the ongoing efforts to curb poaching and snaring of animals within the Zimbabwe and Mozambique borders, South African National Parks (SANParks) is working to create more partnerships with neighbour...


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event

Toledo Zoo Shares the Name of Precious New Baby Elephant

2024-03-15 - , United States.

After weeks of voting and thousands of submissions, the Toledo Zoo has officially chosen the name of their precious baby elephant and we're personally thrilled about the news! Ladies and gentleman, Ki...


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Extern Link Read about Kirk in the Elephant Database
Extern Link Read about Toledo Zoo in the Elephant DatabasePress Release: The Toledo Zoo is thrilled to announce the birth of a healthy baby elephant, born to African elephant, Renee.Press Release: The Toledo Zoo is thrilled to announce the birth of a healthy baby elephant, born to African elephant, Renee.
birth

Reid Park Zoo welcomes new baby elephant

2024-03-09 - Tucson, United States.

A baby elephant was born at Reid Park Zoo. The zoo said Semba, the facility’s African elephant matriarch, gave birth to a 265-pound calf around 3:31 a.m. Friday, March 8. Reid Park Zoo said the calf...


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Extern Link Read about Reid Park Zoo in the Elephant Database
event

Baby elephant in Copenhagen named after Thai river

2024-03-04 - Copenhagen, Denmark.

A female baby elephant in Copenhagen Zoo has been named Chin after the Tha Chin river in central Thailand. The elephant was born last week in the Danish zoo. The zookeepers, who take care of the young...


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Extern Link Read about Chin in the Elephant Database
Extern Link Read about Copenhagen Zoo in the Elephant Database
conflict

This elephant misses his mahout, authorities seek police help

2024-02-29 - Alappuzha, India.

Evoor Kannan, the elephant known for his murderous rage and with a history of killing two mahouts is in a bad mood these days. He had been gentle under the care of his former Mahout Sharath Parippally...


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Extern Link Read about Evoor Kannan in the Elephant Database
Extern Link Read about Evoor Major Sri Krishnaswamy Temple in the Elephant Database
birth

Third elephant calf born in Beekse Bergen

2024-02-20 - Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands.

African elephant Punda has become the mother of a healthy elephant calf after a 22-month pregnancy. This is the third calf born in the Safari Park Beekse Bergen k in four months. Never before have thr...


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Extern Link Read about Tendai in the Elephant Database
Extern Link Read about Beekse Bergen Safaripark in the Elephant Database
death

Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium’s elephant calf dies at age 2

2024-02-15 - Pittsburgh, United States.

The zoo said Tsuni died Thursday after a sudden, brief battle with elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV). Her EEHV was detected through routine blood testing on Feb. 8, even though she presente...


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Extern Link Read about Tsuni in the Elephant Database
Extern Link Read about Fairhope Conservation Center in the Elephant Database

Extern relevant Links (external link which opens in new window):
The Elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus


Extern relevant Links (external link which opens in new window):
The Elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus
death

Farewell to Seoul"s oldest elephant passing at age of 59

2024-02-15 - Seoul, South Korea.

The oldest female elephant in South Korea passed away Tuesday at a zoo in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, at the age of 59, zoo officials said Thursday. The female elephant, named Sakura, had suffered fr...


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Extern Link Read about Sakura Jjang in the Elephant Database
Extern Link Read about Seoul Grand Park Zoo in the Elephant Database
birth

A star is born: Baby elephant debuts

2024-01-30 - Bangalore, India.

The Bannerghatta Biological Park is brimming with excitement as it welcomes a delightful new addition—a baby boy elephant calf. This adorable arrival brings the elephant count in the Bannerghatta zo...


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Extern Link Read about unknown in the Elephant Database
Extern Link Read about Bannerghatta Biological Park Zoo in the Elephant Database
death

Guruvayur Kannan, nine-time winner of elephant race, dies at 62

2024-01-27 - Guruvayur, India.

Elephant Kannan, of the Guruvayur Devaswom Elephant Camp, a nine-time winner of the festival-related elephant race, has passed away. His demise was around 5:30 pm on Saturday. The tusker's age at the ...


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Extern Link Read about Guruvayur Kannan in the Elephant Database
Extern Link Read about Guruvayur Devaswom elephant camp in the Elephant Database
poaching

A baby elephant is found dead

2024-01-27 - Koh Nhek, Cambodia.

Villagers found a baby elephant dead in Koh Nhek district, Mondulkiri province in the middle of the forest​ on January 26, 2024, suspected of being shot. Mondulkiri Provincial department of environm...


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evolution

Discoveries: The Evolutionary Edge of Elephant Trunks and Ancient Giants

2024-01-13 - Beijing, China.

A recent study published in the journal eLife has uncovered new findings on the development of dextrous trunks by indigenous elephants. According to Dr. Shi-Qi Wang, a senior author of the research, t...


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poaching

Alleged poaching kills 46-year-old Sumatran elephant in Riau park

2024-01-13 - Pekanbaru, Indonesia.

The Tesso Nilo National Park in Pelalawan District, Riau Province, again lost one of its Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) after a poacher allegedly killed it for its tusks. The 46-year...


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Extern Link Read about Rahman in the Elephant Database
Extern Link Read about Tesso Nilo WWF-BKSDA Flying Squad camp in the Elephant Database
fossil

Celebration of Elephants: A Must-see New Exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History

2024-01-11 - New York, United States.

In a narrow but sprawling curatorial space at the uptown museum, The Secret World of Elephants, now opened, tells the story of elephant species and their relatives through life-size models, videos, gr...


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Extern Link Read about American Museum of Natural History in the Elephant Database


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Elephant News

ELEPHANT NEWS

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