endangeredment

There are a couple of main reasons why elephants are endangered – illegal killing of them and the destruction of their habitat. Most  are illegally killed to take their ivory tusks. They are sold for an unbelievable amount of money which makes engaging in that activity so enticing. Poachers are now slaughtering up to 35,000 of the estimated 500,000 African elephants every year for their tusks. A single male elephant's two tusks can weigh more than 250 pounds, with a pound of ivory fetching as much as $1,500 on the black market.