Poachers pose with a slaughtered elephant and its severed tusks
Revelling in death: Poachers pose with a slaughtered elephant and its severed tusks in images found on ivory trafficker’s phone as two men are arrested in Congo
- The photographs revealed a group of six poachers standing over dead elephant
- Two men were arrested after being found with four ivory tusks weighing 44lbs
- Four tusks would be worth tens of thousands of pounds on the black market
Ivory traffickers have been caught with photographs on their phones showing them proudly posing next to the carcass of a dead elephant.
Illegal wildlife trade enforcement agency, the Eagle Network, said the distressing images were found on the mobiles of two men who were arrested in Congo on June 21.
The photographs show a group of up to five or six men that can be seen posing with the head and carcass of an elephant.
A man holds what appears to be an assault rifle, and is potentially what was used to kill the animal.
A group of ivory traffickers in Congo has been caught with photographs on their phones that show them proudly posing next to the carcass of a dead elephant and led to the arrest of two of the men
While it’s unknown whether the photographs show more than one kill, the men were found with four tusks weighing roughly 20 kilograms.
The haul would have been worth tens of thousands of pounds on the black market – an astonishing amount in a country where average wages are less than £400 a year.
The poachers were tracked down and arrested with help from Eagle Network, which monitors the illegal wildlife trade across sub-Saharan Africa.
The tusks would have been worth tens of thousands of pounds, an astonishing amount in a country where the average wage is less than £400 a year
Perrine Odier, a coordinator for Eagle’s partner agency PALF in Congo, said: ‘These photos were found in the phone of the main ivory trafficker.
‘He keeps it as his memories. He does not need to show it to customers because he does not need that to do the business.
‘It is clear that they are proud to pose with weapons and the elephant corpse.’
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