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Chapter 36: No More Pretending, Time to Come Clean!
Elephants are social animals, living in matriarchal clans based on family units. In other words, the elephants within a single herd are essentially all "relatives" belonging to the same family. Whether it’s foraging, resting, or migrating to new habitats, everything is directed by the eldest female elephant—the matriarch. Adult male elephants typically patrol the periphery of the herd, protecting the family from predators and driving away threats.
This structure bears some resemblance to the social hierarchy of bees, though the fate of male bees is far more tragic—after mating, they die. Elephants, on the other hand, can live up to 70 years, making them one of the long-living species in the animal kingdom. Their massive size, the largest on land, ensures that few creatures dare to provoke them. After all, those long tusks aren’t just for show; a single stab could be fatal.
If they were left to live peacefully on the plains without natural predators, elephants would undoubtedly lead happy lives. But with the arrival of humans, their existence underwent a dramatic shift.
In the past, African hunters primarily sought elephant meat and hides. However, due to their tough, parasite-ridden flesh, elephants weren’t exactly a delicacy. Unless faced with starvation, most Africans avoided eating elephant meat when other food sources were available.
But in the 1970s, another part of the elephant's body became the target of human greed: ivory. The surge in demand for ivory in the international handicraft market, coupled with financial instability during that era, turned ivory into a highly sought-after commodity. Much like gold and diamonds, ivory was viewed as a stable investment, coveted and stockpiled by major Western banks.
Thus, a financial crisis that had nothing to do with elephants directly led to their catastrophic decline. By the early 1980s, the annual trade volume of ivory on the international market reached 1.3 million kilograms, with over 90% originating from Africa. Within just ten years, the price of African ivory skyrocketed from $13 per kilogram to $156—a twelvefold increase. This profit margin fueled an insatiable frenzy.
Wild African elephants began disappearing at an alarming rate. During that time, the plains were littered with the corpses of slaughtered elephants, their bloody tusks carted away in truckloads. After extracting the tusks, poachers often left the carcasses to rot in the wild, where hyenas and lions feasted on them until only bleached bones remained.
Today, thanks to efforts by organizations like the World Animal Protection (WAP), elephants are now classified as endangered and protected under strict laws worldwide. African nations have enacted stringent anti-poaching legislation. Poachers caught hunting elephants face consequences nearly as grim as the fate of their victims.
Those who haven’t experienced the chaos of war in Africa cannot fully grasp the true meaning behind the “armed patrols” conducted by conservation teams. Back at WAP headquarters, Wang Ping once heard a member of Team One recount how their captain had captured a gang of poachers targeting African savanna elephants. Unfortunately, before the team could apprehend them, the poachers destroyed all evidence.
Faced with this situation, the captain made an unexpected yet unsurprising decision: he tied the poachers to trees deep within elephant territory and let the grieving herd decide their fate. Wang Ping vividly remembered the storyteller’s expression—it was filled with awe and sorrow. The enraged elephants trampled the poachers into pulp, leaving no trace behind.
Though elephants are known for their gentle nature, they are not without temper. An elephant can remember the scent of a deceased family member for up to a decade. When a family member dies, the entire herd mourns for years. So when the poachers carried the scent of lost kin, their fate was sealed.
Now, standing far away and watching the grieving herd trumpet in anguish, Wang Ping couldn’t help but feel how cruel life could be. Gu Lang, meanwhile, was standing there with his mouth agape, staring blankly at the distant herd of elephants, his mind seemingly lost in thought. However, his hand gripped the knife tightly, the veins on his knuckles bulging from the force.
From time to time, elephants in the herd would lower their heads to nudge the fallen bodies of their companions. Their trunks gently sniffed the corpses, brushing away swarms of flies. After repeated attempts, they would raise their heads and trumpet mournfully.
As the herd moved, glimpses of the dead occasionally came into view through the gaps between their massive bodies. Both Wang Ping and Gu Lang saw two elephants lying side by side—one large, one small. The larger one, a female, had a gruesome wound where her tusks should have been; the ivory had been brutally hacked off. Unlike Asian elephants, whose females rarely grow visible tusks, African female elephants possess prominent tusks used to protect themselves and their families. Now, these tusks had become instruments of death.
The smaller elephant lay near the adult, its body riddled with bullet holes, blood pooling beneath it and staining the surrounding grass red.
Wang Ping’s imagination painted a vivid picture of what must have happened the previous night. A playful young calf wandered too far from the herd. Its mother, a robust female, followed in search of it but fell into a poacher’s trap. Hidden snipers shot the mother, and she collapsed in a pool of blood. Desperate poachers rushed out to violently extract her tusks before the herd arrived. Upon discovering its mother’s fate, the enraged calf charged at the poachers, only to be gunned down beside her lifeless body.
“Damn it!” Gu Lang cursed under his breath.
Wang Ping turned to look and was surprised to see tears streaming down Gu Lang’s face.
Slap!
Gu Lang suddenly struck himself across the cheek, startling Wang Ping. What’s wrong with him?
“I need to do something! You can’t stop me this time!” Gu Lang said solemnly, his tone unusually serious.
Uh, at least tell me what you’re planning to do!
Wang Ping tilted his head, his expression one of pure confusion. Though his current face was undeniably cute, it failed to convey any sense of bewilderment.
Thankfully, Gu Lang wasn’t just talking to himself. He quickly explained his plan.
“I know your past with cameras makes you wary. But this scene—we can’t keep it to ourselves! I may not have much influence, but my livestream has thousands of viewers. I need to show them… They need to know…”
At first, Gu Lang spoke with conviction, but his voice trailed off into a whisper, sounding like a mix of grief-stricken muttering and regretful sighing.
Wang Ping grew even more confused. Livestream? Thousands of viewers? Who gave him such a bold script? Did the director approve this?!
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