World Elephant Day: Nigeria’s elephants going extinct – Expert
Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
The Country Director of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Nigeria, Mr Andrew Dunn says the country’s elephant population is going extinct.
He raised the alarm in Calabar to mark this year’s World Elephant Day and said everyone should work in concert to reverse this trend as there are less than 500 elephants presently in Nigeria.
“There are less than 500 elephants remaining in Nigeria. We should not allow our elephants to go extinct.
“We need many more people to supports elephant conservation by regularly visiting the Cross River National Park, Yankari Games Reserve and other parks in the country where some of these animals are”, he said.
He lamented that Nigeria is possibly the leading source of elephant tusks sale worldwide and poachers are daily going after the tusks of the elephants to enrich the sale of ivory trade in the foreign markets.
The World Elephant Day commenced on the 12th of August 2012 and is dedicated to the animal’s protection and preservation.
The day makes people come to terms with the need for better protection for elephants and end the illegal poaching and trade of ivory.
