Elephants and rhinos are being exploited for their body parts for use primarily in East Asia - rhino horn for supposed 'medicinal' value and status symbols, and elephant tusks for the ancient tradition of ivory carving, mainly in China. The poaching of rhinos and elephants has rocketed over the past few years. Rhino poaching has increased from 83 killed in 2008 to a shocking 1004 in 2013 in Africa
, due to an increase in demand in Vietnam and China for their horn. Greater one-horned rhinos in the Indian subcontinent are also being targeted. Elephants, living in groups of strong family units, are often killed all at once, and this has seen death tolls increase rapidly, with new tactics using poison and ground pits to kill as many off as possible in just one attack. On average one elephant is killed every 15 minutes, somewhere in Africa. Action has been taken, but sadly, more needs to be done to save these beautiful animals. Please like and share this page to raise more awareness of these illegal crimes and organisations that are threatening these two stunning species.