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The country�s elephant population fell by 60 percent historically years to around 43,000, according to a recent nationwide census. The census results were recently announced by Tanzania's minister of natural resources and tourism, Lazaro Nyalandu. (Read about how most of Tanzania's elephants are disappearing.)

Picture of an elephant in Tanzania
A male elephant in Tanzaniaâ��s Serengeti National Park spreads his ears as a warning. Between 2009 and 2014, elephant numbers in the Serengeti ecosystem  doubled, to 6,087. But in larger, more remote areas, poaching has taken a terrible toll.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MITSUAKI IWAGO, MINDEN/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
The East African nation of Tanzania has been the main source of illegal ivory from savanna elephants for  a decade, according to a new DNA study of tusks from confiscated ivory shipments.

Nyalandu drew praise for making such grim figures public even as they was seeking nomination as the ruling party�s next presidential candidate. (They didn�t make the shortlist.)

Yet the announcement also sparked ridicule.

Nyalandu characterized the survey results as a "mixed bag" and said his ministry would "launch an extensive operation in search" for 12,000 "lost" elephants.

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ng is accused of recruiting runaway foreign laborers from the Chiayi and Yunlin areas to join the group, the publication reports.

REPTILE SMUGGLING: Authorities arrested a man suspected of trying to smuggle 15 endangered reptiles out of Jakarta�s Soekarno-Hatta Airport, says Coconuts Jakarta. The reptiles included green tree pythons, an Argentine red tegu, and an Indian star tortoise.

Fact of the Week: Plains zebras, which have a variety in east and southern Africa, are not listed as threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, an organization that classifies the conservation status of species. But wildlife activists think that overhunting of the animals for their meat and skins poses a serious danger to zebra populations.

IVORY SEIZURE: Forest department officials in the Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, India, busted people accused of poaching elephants in Similipal National Park, according to Business Standard. They confiscated pieces of the group�s ivory.

This story was produced by National Geographic�s Special Investigations Unit, which focuses on wildlife crime and is made feasible by gra