Clipmark

Rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo believe that rising demand for ivory in China is to blame for an unprecedented wave of elephant poaching in one of the country's war-torn national parks.

Fourteen elephants have been slaughtered in as many days as government soldiers and militias use ivory to raise money for guns.

The concerns came as South Africa lifted a 13-year moratorium on elephant culling, aimed at tackling a surge in population numbers, despite the protestations of animal rights activists.

23 tonnes of ivory seized on its way to the Far East between August 2005 and August 2006

$750 estimated price per kilogram of black-market ivory in China and Japan

7 kilograms of ivory are yielded by an average elephant’s tusks

500,000 estimated population of wild African elephants, down from 1.3 million in 1979

A report last year suggested that as many as 23,000 elephants were being

killed across the continent to meet soaring demand