Satao, a beloved African elephant whose long tusks made him one of the largest living pachyderms in the world, has died after poachers savagely attacked him for his prized ivory last month.
"Satao is dead, killed by an ivory poacher's poisoned arrow to feed the seemingly insatiable demand for ivory in far off countries. A great life lost so that someone far away can have a trinket on their mantlepiece," Tsavo Trust, which runs Kenya's Tsavo East National Park, said in statement late Friday. "Rest in peace, old friend, you will be missed."
Satao, who was believed to have been 45 years old, was most likely attacked May 30, the Trust said. He was found dead in Tsavo Park June 2, but it took 10 days to officially identify his carcass, as it
was so badly mutilated, CNN reported.
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An estimated 30,000 African elephants fall victim to ivory poachers each year, according to CNN. The attackers often sell the tusks for thousands of dollars, pumping more and more money into an illegal ivory market that has doubled worldwide since 2007.
"The surge in the killing of elephants in Africa and the illegal taking of other listed species globally threatens not only wildlife populations but the livelihoods of millions who depend on tourism for a living," Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. environment program, told CNN.
The area of the park that Satao roamed "is a massive and hostile expanse for any single anti-poaching unit to cover," roughly 386 square miles, Tsavo Trust said.
"The communities living just beyond the National Park boundary persistently carry out illegal activities inside the Park in this area," the agency reported. "Understaffed and with inadequate resources given the scale of the challenge, ground units have a massive uphill struggle to protect wildlife in this area."
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