A small herd of elephants spends the afternoon grazing on the windswept grass of the savannah under the sweltering African sun. Some calves frolic playfully around their mother's legs. This peaceful vision is just a moment of silence before a bloody scene unfolds. What this small herd is blissfully unaware of is that poachers are silently stalking them with murderous intent. This herd of elephants has a plethora of “white gold”. These poachers are after only one thing about elephants: their ivory tusk. By the end of the day the herd will be virtually annihilated and only a small number of lucky survivors will survive. Unfortunately, elephant poaching is not an atypical occurrence in all African countries. Between the late 1970s and the late 1980s there was a notable reduction in the wild elephant population from approximately 1.2-1.3 million in 1979 to approximately 600,000 in 1989 (“Economics of Antipoaching Enforcement” 2 ). However, it is important to note that the vast majority of elephants killed during this period were killed illegally (“Economics of Antipoaching Enforcement”3). There were herds that had been completely wiped out by poachers with assault rifles firing from jeeps and helicopters. According to the World Wildlife Fund, approximately 80% of the ivory traded in the 1970s was acquired through poaching activities (“African Elephants: Threats”). To address the decline of the African elephant population, in October 1989 the United Nations on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora overwhelmingly approved a ban on trade in ivory, also known as CITES (Sands and Bedecarre). 1). In support of the ban on the ivory trade, the United States...... at the center of the document ......(Chad) between 2002 and 2008." Mammalia: International Journal of Systematics, Biology & Ecology of Mammals 74.3 (2010): 235-246. Academic research completed. EBSCO Web. 2 May 2011 Pulaski, Stephen, et al. “A tale of three villages: choosing an effective method for assessing poaching levels in the western Serengeti , Tanzania". 2010): 178-184. EBSCO Web. 2 May 2011.Randerson, James. "Fangs of a Dilemma". .Sands, Philippe J. and Albert P. Bedecarre "Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species extinction: the role of the public interest." Boston College Environment Affairs Law Review 17.4 (1990): 799. EBSCO Web May 9, 2011 "While supplies last: Global Agenda (2010): 2. EBSCO Web 2011.