Elephant population numbers are suffering the double whammy of poaching and slow recovery due to having one of the slowest reproductive cycles of all mammals. By one estimate illegal killing of forest elephants, primarily for their tusks, according to one source, resulted in a 62% decline in their numbers from 2002 to 2013. Due to their slow reproductive cycle, even if poaching ceased immediately, it would taken an estimated 90 years for forest elephant populations to each their pre 2002 levels.
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Is this the end of the African elephant?