Gallery: Close-Up Aerial Photos of Africa's Last Elephants

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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    01

    Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching

    Zakouma National Park in southern Chad was home to nearly 4,000 elephants in 2005.
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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    02

    Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching

    An elephant is fitted with a GPS collar to track it's movements and help protect it from potential poachers.
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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    03

    Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching

    Elephant tracks in the grass at Zakouma National Park.
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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    04

    Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching

    Brooks took her photos from a small airplane. Just above the plane's shadow you can see a lone antelope.
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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    05

    Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching

    Since 2010, Zakouma's managers have been making an intense anti-poaching effort. As a result, the population has stabilized.
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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    06

    Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching

    Elephants respond to stress, and herds will not make babies when they are being intensely targeted by poachers.
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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    07

    Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching

    For the first time in many years, calves have been observed in Zakouma's herds.
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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    08

    Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching

    A view of migrating birds over Zakouma National Park.
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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    09

    National Wildlife Property Repository

    In November 2013, the U.S. government destroyed 6 tons of ivory. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted Brooks access to the National Wildlife Property Repository, where it stores illegal animal parts. A row of shelved tiger heads is stored in the repository.
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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    10

    Africa's Poaching Epedmic.

    The carcass of an elephant named Bonsai who was shot several times in June 2013, lays in the park with two rangers in the background. Bonsai's mother was also killed by poachers.
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    Kate Brooks/Redux
    11

    Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching

    Scientists believe that at the current rate of poaching, the sun could set on the elephant species within 100 years.
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