ABSTRACT
In early 2016, a census of African elephant populations was carried out for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. The census contributed to IUCN's African Elephant Status Report, which was launched at the 2016 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meeting in Johannesburg. The elephants in central Africa have been massively affected by poaching since 1990s, and West Africa's elephant populations are fragmented and isolated. According to the Save the Rhino charity, 100 years ago there were some 500,000 rhinos in Africa and Asia, but this had fallen to around 70,000 by 1970. Donkeys have never been high on any list of endangered species, but a number of African countries have put export bans in place to prevent the export of animals to China, where they have long been a key part of rural life as beasts of burden and transport.
