not have to kill these poor animals just to get their ivory. Elephants first started
heading towards extinction in the 1980s. Before that in the beginning of the 19th
century, piano sales were booming. Middle-class Americans and Europeans had an
increase in prosperity opening gateways to buying pianos and the instruction of them.
The piano had begun to appear in many public places such as hotels and schools.
Piano production rose up to 310,000 annually. Each piano also needed more than a
pound of ivory to be made. That is why the number of elephants declined so fast in
the 19th century.
Some Illegal and Scary Situations
There has been lots of illegal activity and attacks to get ivory.
In New York
City’ s sparkling diamond district, a jewelry store was found discreetly selling ivory.
Also there was a mass attack on the elephants in January of 2012.
Hundreds of
raiders came on horseback carrying AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. Entire
families of elephants die in the mass killing.
This is a nightmare not just for
elephants that witnessed the killing or survived, but also for the people that worked at
the facility, Chad’ s Zakouma National Park, where the elephants were slaughtered.
I did a survey on a hundred people to see if they were aware that there were only two
species of elephants left in this world and did they think that it would be a very big
impact on the environment if elephants were extinct. Not very many people knew
that fact, but luckily, they did think it would have an impact on the environment and
now they are more aware. With elephants extinct, the food chain might be messed
up. Some lions might be in need for some food and a lone elephant might be weak