Photo: Elephant Slaughter Discovered Along African "Highways of Death"

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Relatively little is known about the biology of forest elephants—which are smaller and have shorter tusks than their savanna cousins—because they live in dense, remote forests.

A new study reports that roads penetrating deep into the rain forests of the Congo Basin region are giving poachers better access to the last refuges of the critically endangered species.

Photograph © Thomas Breuer/WCS

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