Gallery: Close-Up Aerial Photos of Africa's Last Elephants
Kate Brooks/Redux01Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching
Zakouma National Park in southern Chad was home to nearly 4,000 elephants in 2005.
Kate Brooks/Redux02Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching
An elephant is fitted with a GPS collar to track it's movements and help protect it from potential poachers.
Kate Brooks/Redux03Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching
Elephant tracks in the grass at Zakouma National Park.
Kate Brooks/Redux04Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching
Brooks took her photos from a small airplane. Just above the plane's shadow you can see a lone antelope.
Kate Brooks/Redux05Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching
Since 2010, Zakouma's managers have been making an intense anti-poaching effort. As a result, the population has stabilized.
Kate Brooks/Redux06Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching
Elephants respond to stress, and herds will not make babies when they are being intensely targeted by poachers.
Kate Brooks/Redux07Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching
For the first time in many years, calves have been observed in Zakouma's herds.
Kate Brooks/Redux08Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching
A view of migrating birds over Zakouma National Park.
Kate Brooks/Redux09National 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.
Kate Brooks/Redux10Africa'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.
Kate Brooks/Redux11Zakouma National Park: Combating Poaching
Scientists believe that at the current rate of poaching, the sun could set on the elephant species within 100 years.
