Elephant Poaching Spikes In Sierra Leone - Populations Down 50 - 80% Since Before Civil War - AFP

Authorities in Sierra Leone on Thursday expressed concern at the upsurge in elephant poaching after at least 10 jumbos were killed in the past two months in the west African country for meat and illicit ivory trade.

Senior wildlife official Kailie Bangura said the animals were killed in two wildlife parks in the remote northern Outaba Kilimi and Loma Mountain parks near the border with Guinea. He suspected the elephants fell prey to foreign hunters.

"These illegal hunters are killing these animals because of their tusks and meat," he told AFP.

Kenneth Moore, a wildlife officer, said the last official elephant census in 1989 counted around 5,000 animals, but the war slashed the number down to between 1,000 and 2,500 according to an unofficial survey carried out in 2002 after the country's decade-long civil war.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/071018161524.jii8t9so.html