Elephants have a diet that mainly consists of vegetation. They use their tusks and trunks to eat leaves and knock berries off of the trees. Due to their diet during the dry season, from June through November, elephants migrate to locations that are closer to water sources to survive.
Poaching is the biggest threat to elephants and rhinos. According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are an estimated 20,000 elephants killed illegally each year. They are targeted due to their large tusks, which are made of ivory. Ivory is highly valuable and sought after due to its use for jewelry, carvings and traditional medicine. There have been many efforts to reduce the threat of poaching. In Malawi, the rhions are under 24-hour surveillance with a team of guards, and in some places, they remove the horns from the animals to make them unwanted by poachers. In Liwonde, there have been no reports of poaching for the past five years, which is a step in the right direction to save these amazing creatures.
