These gentle giants are some of the last of their kind.
Elephants with tusks this large have become rare.
Only a handful remain in all of Africa.
They're protected, but they're not safe from poachers who feed an insatiable demand for ivory.
The sharp decline in Africa's elephant populations is being compounded by human encroachment on their habitat.
Projections say four billion people will live south of the Sahara by century's end.
This report traces the significance of ivory from prehistoric times to the present: from the stone age caves in Germany to the savannas of Africa to China and to Russia, where the Siberian permafrost contains tusks from an extinct species that could help save Africa's elephants.
The earliest known artifacts made from woolly mammoth ivory were unearthed in the mountains of southwestern Germany.
In 2017, the site of their excavation was added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites under the designation caves and ice age art in the Swabian Europe.
The perforated rock formed during earth's middle life era is riddled with extensive caves.
