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Brent Stirton's Image
Possibly the largest recent mass killing of elephants was in 2012 in the Bouba Ndjida National Park in north Cameroon.
A group of 100-200 men on horseback, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK47s, herded the elephants together before shooting every single one, including tuskless babies. ‘These weren’t local poachers,’ says Brent. ‘Their leaders were rumoured to be from north Sudan.’ Here, a village ranger examines corpses. These were animals he had worked with for 20 years.
Behind the lens
Brent Stirton
South Africa
Brent is a Senior Correspondent for Getty Images. He does most of his work for National Geographic Magazine, focusing on the intersection of humans and the environment.
Image details
- Canon EOS 5D Mark II
- 16-35mm f2.8 lens at 19mm
- 1/250 sec at f5.6
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