Armed Outlaw Elephant Poachers Are Waging War on Conservation Personnel in Congo

Well, here’s something depressing as hell: the Associated Press has the story of Congolese rangers engaged in violent conflict with armed outlaw groups who are targeting African elephants for slaughter. Damn.
22 More Zimbabwean Elephants Poisoned to Death by Poachers
Rangers in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park have reportedly found the bodies of 22 more African elephants who were poisoned by cyanide, reports The Guardian. It is believed the elephants were killed by poachers for their ivory tusks.
Dozens of African Elephants Found Poisoned to Death on Game Reserve
Well, this is horrible. Yesterday rangers at Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park discovered 26 dead elephants who’d been intentionally poisoned with cyanide for the purposes of ivory harvesting, reports The Guardian. And this is in addition to another 14 found last week.
Escaped Circus Elephant Kills German Man
An escaped circus elephant killed a German man early Saturday morning in the woods near Buchen, the Associated Press reports. The man was 65 years old; the elephant is 34 years old: her name is Baby, and she is an African elephant. She was captured and returned to the circus.
Here's More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About Elephant Dick
"The team needs to act fast to gain access to the bull's penis before it retracts back into its sheath" is the first thing you hear in the preview above for the new PBS series Sex in the Wild, which premieres Wednesday. And that's all you need to know about whether or not this clip is for you, because really it is all…
Elephant Attacks Car in Safari Park, Safari Park Kills Elephant
An elephant that attacked a car in a South African safari park in December, piercing a British schoolteacher with its tusks in the process, was put down by the park for behaving aggressively.
Zookeeper Fatally Trampled By Impatient Elephant Named Patience
A 9,000 pound Asian elephant with a history of aggression named Patience fatally crushed a 62-year-old zookeeper in Missouri yesterday.
Here Is a Picture of an Elephant Wearing a Raincoat
The shot above comes from photographer Michael Nichols' photoessay on the New York Times' Lens blog, "Documenting Elephants’ Compassion, and Their Slaughter." Nichols spent 20 years in the Central African Republic documenting the lives of elephants. Many of his photos appeared in National Geographic, and they're…
Ringling Bros. Elephant Shot in Mississippi Drive-By
We may never know if the person who fired his gun into the BancorpSouth Arena parking lot in Tupelo, Mississippi at 2 a.m. Tuesday morning intended to hit the circus elephant traveling there while on tour with a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show. We may never know if the shooter, in the heat of the moment,…
OC Fair Bans Elephant Rides; Mustache Rides Still Free
Organizers of the Orange County Fair called a halt to the event's twenty-five year tradition of offering elephant rides today.
Elephants Have Social Networks
A new study by the University of Pennsylvania suggests elephants are even smarter and more socially complex than previously thought. The conventional wisdom was that elephants lived in small herds that centered around females, while the males wandered independently. The new study shows that the herds are actually…
