See link for photos.
—-
A wild Asian elephant is killed by ivory poachers in a nature reserve in Xishuangbanna, southwest China’s Yunnan Province. [Photo: weibo.com]
Local police will reward informants for any tip-offs on illegal poaching activities after an Asian elephant was killed for ivory in a natural reserve in Xishuangbanna, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, according to the verified Xinhua weibo account.
Initial investigations showed the elephant was killed by a military firearm.
Zhang Li, a representative of the Asian Elephant in China Project of the International Fund for Animal Welfare said that poaching of ivory has increased in recent years.
According to Zhang, between 2 to 5 percent of all Asian Elephants did not have tusks naturally, due to a genetic disorder.
However, as more male tuskers were killed by poachers, elephants without tusks tend to have a higher survival rate, causing more no-tusk genes to be passed down to the next generation.