According to the World Wildlife Fun (WWF), an estimated 100,000 African elephants were killed each year in the 1980s as the demand for ivory grew.
A recent report from the United Nations announced that many African elephant populations are small, fragmented, and not well-protected, making them vulnerable to poaching and hunting.
A century ago, the population of African elephants was about 5 million. Now there are about 400,000, and that number continues to decline as more and more people illegally poach the animals and hunt them for sport.