Ivory trade

The Budapest Festival Orchestra came to New York to play an all-Dvorak concert at Lincoln Center in New York. But the musicians were shocked when US Customs officials at JFK Airport seized seven bows belonging to the orchestra’s string section. New federal regulations ban the commercial import of any and all elephant ivory – including the tips of classical violin bows.

Not just for warfare or spying anymore, drones are being enlisted in the battle to protect African elephants from the epidemic of poaching.

Illegal sales of ivory and rhino horn are estimated to be a $2 billion a year industry. And some of that money is going to fund Islamic militant terrorists, according to a Dutch conservation group.

The New York Times’ Jeffrey Gettleman talks about the latest massacre of 11 elephants.

Jeffrey Gettleman, East Africa Bureau Chief for The New York Times, wrote that the poaching of elephants for the illegal ivory trade has gotten out of control in Central Africa, and has become increasingly militarized.