Word: elephantic
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Just the week before, Japan declared a total ban on ivory imports. The country's ivory carvers have traditionally been the most avid consumers of tusks taken from African elephants. But in recent years, concerned that the rapid depletion of elephant herds could mean the end of their ancient trade...
Relentless poachers have thinned the ranks of some animals to perilous levels. In the past ten years, for example, they cut Kenya's elephant population from 65,000 to 17,000. This threatens to extinguish not only the species but also income from tourism, which last year totaled $390 million...
With the full-moon tides each May and June, tens of thousands of crabs swarm ashore like magic. Skittering shadows the size of an elephant's hoof, they mingle in piles along the water's edge. The sandy shoreline becomes the site of a vast, squabbling, tumultuous crab orgy.
As zoos fight back, they are pulling along the public with some shrewd tactics. Conservationists often select an irresistible, oversize crowd pleaser -- pandas are perfect, but snow leopards and black rhinos work fine -- and lead a campaign to preserve the creature's habitat. "There is a utility in the concern...
WHEN asked why hostage-taking had become such a prominent tactic among Lebanese Shiite Muslims, one of their leaders, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, reportedly said, "We are mosquitoes defying an elephant."