Kenya wildlife rangers kill poacher during shootout...
Hussein
Ture, 60, was killed during a gunfight with rangers Thursday in Tsavo
East National Park, said Connie Maina, a spokeswoman with Kenya
Wildlife Service. The park is 350 kilometers (215 miles) east of the
capital, Nairobi.
"We have been chasing him for the last 20 years," Maina said, adding
that nobody knows for sure how many animals he has killed during that
entire span. Conservationists have been tracking him in earnest in
recent years.
Poaching is a perennial problem in this East African nation. Rhino horn
is sold around US$1,800 (around €1,300) on the black market, while an
elephant's ivory goes for around US$70 (€50).
Conservationists say there were once around 20,000 white and black
rhinos in Kenya but their population has been decimated by poachers.
Rhino horns are used in traditional Chinese medicine or for ceremonial
dagger handles.
Kenya's elephant population is estimated at 35,000, down from a peak of
167,000 in the 1970s due to rampant poaching.