African elephant’s tusks

Tusks of African elephant mounted on a wooden pedestal. Elephant ivory has been worked for centuries to obtain jewelry, furnishings and various other objects, though since the end of the 20th century this material lost most of its appeal in Europe. It is however still very much in demand in Asia and Africa so that its price remains high, also due to the difficulty to obtain it: in 1989, in fact, it entered into force an international treaty which strictly prohibits the trade of ivory from animals killed after 1976. For this reason, African elephants today are often hunted illegally and, while not yet in extreme danger of extinction, their population has decreased considerably in recent decades.