The world’s largest elephants, living in Mali, are feared to be at risk of extinction, Xinhua reports Mali’s director for Water and Forests Biramou Sissoko to say.
The elephants, better known as the Gourma elephants, are bigger in size than those found in Asia and the other African countries.
Sissoko attributed the extinction threat to poaching and the presence of terrorists among other factors.
Since the end of 2014, 90 elephants have been killed by poachers, which is equivalent to about 20 percent of the elephants in the region, results of a recent study revealed.
Forced migration is also said to contribute to the decrease in the number of Gourma elephants.
“In June 2007, there were 367 elephants in Gourma region. But due to drought and the presence of a high number of domestic animals around them, the elephants were forced to abandon their water points and move far away for fear of dying as it happened in 2010,” Sissoko said.
This year, he said, about 20 elephants died because “they left Banzena waterhole where about 50,000 domestic animals had been taken in search for water. They were heading towards the direction of Lake Haougoundou, but before they arrived, the young ones died.”
The Gourma elephants are said to the the only elephants that engage in migration.
