Earlier this month the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced that Gabon’s Minkebe Park has lost over 11,000 elephants due to poaching. Gabon contains over half of Africa’s forest elephants, with a population estimated at over 40,000, however with this recent drop, WCS scientists confirm that Africa’s largest elephant population has been cut in half during the past ten years. Elephants are poached mainly for their ivory, which has been an important part of Asian art for over a thousand years. Ivory can also be carved and used in everything from billiard balls to piano keys…