POISON SORROW
ONE of Africa’s last giant tusker elephants has been killed by poachers.
And the beast was felled with a poison arrow, conservationists said.
Satao II – who was said to be about 50 years old – was shot while feeding near the edge of Tsavo national park, Kenya, according to the Tsavo Trust.
The carcass was found on January 4 before its ivory, some 220lb, could be stripped.
Two weeks later, wildlife rangers arrested two “notorious” poachers, recovering an AK47 along with 12 poison arrows and three bows, the trust said.
They added that the gang, who are believed to be responsible for three other recent elephant deaths in the area, had been “broken forever”.
It is estimated there are as few as 25 African giant tuskers left in the wild, with about 10 in the 10,000sq miles Kenyan park.
They are named because of their huge, rare tusks which brush the ground as they move.
A Tsavo Trust spokesman said: “Although this is a very sad loss, we can take some positive. Satao II’s carcass was found with the ivory intact and recovered before it could fall into the wrong hands and further fuel the illegal ivory market.”
African elephants have seen numbers tumble by more than 100,000 in the last decade because of a surge in poaching to supply the illegal global trade in ivory in countries such as China, Thailand and Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Thai authorities have seized 422 elephant tusk pieces and arrested a Gambian man suspected of smuggling the ivory into Bangkok’s main airport. The tusks were hidden in a shipment listed as unprocessed gemstones.
Customs department chief Kulit Sombatsiri said the parcel was examined because items from Malawi are regarded as high-risk for smuggled goods.
The seizure of 726lb of ivory worth about £390,000 was the first in Thailand this year.