Elephants are being killed on a massive scale. There is a way to stop this | Patrick Barkham

As a pilot is shot down trying to stop elephant poaching, the extent of big game slaughter is becoming clear. But we must get to the cause of the problem

The death of the British helicopter pilot Roger Gower, shot down by elephant poachers over a game reserve in Tanzania, shows the dangers faced by the heroes attempting to save our most charismatic mammals from extinction.

We are in the midst of a crazy killing spree, the slaughtering of elephants, rhinos and lions on a scale never before witnessed on Earth. The 1989 ban on the international trade in ivory and conservation efforts that helped populations of big African animals recover in the 1990s now looks like a golden age. In 2007, 13 rhinos were poached in South Africa. In 2014, 1,215 were poached. Last year, numbers fell for the first time since 2007 - to 1,175. More than 129,000 elephants have been killed for their ivory since 2012.

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