28 Elephants Killed: Africa's Forest Elephant Population down by 62 Percent, Poachers Hunt for Ivory

Poachers have killed 28 endangered forest elephants in the Nki and Lobeke national parks in southeast Cameroon in recent weeks, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

As demand for ivory is rising across Asia, poachers have reduced the population of Africa's forest elephants by 62 percent over the last decade, putting the species on track for extinction, according to conversationists.

The parks of southeast Cameroon, along with parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo andGabon, have some of the last significant populations of forest elephants.

"Elephants in these two protected areas in the Congo Basin are facing a threat to their existence," said Zacharie Nzooh, WWF Cameroon representative in the East Region.

As of Feb. 10 and March 1, Nzooh said that the WWF found carcasses of 23 elephants with stripped tusks in the Nki national park. A further five were also found without tusks in the Lobeke national park, further east of the park.

"The poachers used automatic weapons, such as AK-47s, reflecting the violent character of elephant poaching," he said, adding that park wardens lacked good weapons.

There are about 2,000 Cameroon forest elephants, and the elephants there are typically smaller than the Savannah African elephants who have straighter tusks.

In December, Cameroon deployed 600 soldiers with night vision gear and military helicopters to try protecting the elephants from being poached again.