Elephants have been targeted by ruthless poachers looking to make some good money off ivory for far too long now. Ivory is used in ornaments and jewelry, and is believed to bring luck, which is why ivory is in such high demand in places like China; however, it is cruel and completely unnecessary to ruin an elephant's entire life for jewelry. Poachers carefully target elephants and go through the work of shipping the ivory to China and Hong Kong though because of the hefty monetary reward. Sadly, money tempts many people to do horrendous things and the elephant population is paying the price. An aerial survey of the Niassa reserve in Africa done in 2011 revealed that about 2,500 elephants had been killed in one year and that basically the Niassa reserve had lost approximately 60% of its elephants.

Wildlife photographers, such as David Yarrow and James Suter, get a firsthand chance to see and document the horrific violence. Their work is difficult but also important because the more that people see the images of the poor poached animals, the more empathy they will have for these intelligent and emotional giants. James Suter has talked about how incredibly sad it is to come across an elephant carcass, but how even more heartbreaking it is to see the entire herd linger near the dead body, confused and scared.

There are many amazing people living in Africa who patrol areas and try to stop the poaching, like the Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit, who are passionate about saving elephants. Many baby elephants are additionally sadly orphaned if their parents are killed, and then need to be taken into a facility to be taken care of. Despite all the efforts made by various people, the ivory business continues to be merciless.

Although there have been several useless attempts to ban the ivory trade before, many people are hopeful that the new year will finally bring about actual changes before it is too late. The Chinese government has stated that it plans to not only slow down the poaching but completely shut down the domestic ivory trade by the end of 2017. China is currently working on implementing and enforcing the ban better so that elephants can continue to be alive in the wild for future generations to see.