Exclusive: This Is Africa's New Elephant Poaching Hot Spot
Mike Chase, principal investigator of the Great Elephant Census, discusses the findings.
As the slaughter of Africa’s elephants continues for their ivory, the Great Elephant Census (GEC), a landmark, continent-wide aerial count of the survivors, has just been completed for another country: Angola.
According to ecologist and lead survey investigator Mike Chase, when the Angolan overflights began, in October 2015, he was hopeful that the country—once a bastion for elephants—had escaped the killings that have convulsed the rest of the continent. Instead, he says, the news was grim: The rate of elephant poaching in Angola is among the highest in Africa.
Funded by philanthropist Paul G. Allen and managed by his company Vulcan, Inc., the GEC is the first standardized aerial survey of savanna elephants—and one of the largest comprehensive animal surveys
