Elephant painting

My first elephant painting just off the easel. The current unprecedented poaching levels of these magnificent animals indicate a bleak future. Intelligent and sensitive, elephants form strong and close bonds with each other, have memory and a concept of death. They will spend a lot of time gently nuzzling the bones any that have died. A baby will grieve terribly for the loss of it's mother, so much so that it's considered very hard to successfully raise an orphaned elephant. Devoted carers are assigned to stand in for the baby's mum in it's crucial early months of life to ensure it's survival, even sleeping with them for the necessary reassurance they desperately need. What can be done to stop the trade in ivory and the senseless death of so many of these majestic and iconic African animals. It has almost reached a state of war between those determined to save elephants and those who want to exploit them. It's a sad and terrible situation that unless something is done elephants may disappear from the world in our lifetime. Personally I find the idea of Africa without elephants unimaginable. 

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