The census of African elephants published last week demonstrated the scale and urgency of the crisis. It found that in just seven years, 30 per cent of the entire population of savannah elephants had been eliminated, equivalent to the slaughter of over 20,000 a year. The rising prosperity of people in countries such as China and Vietnam has fuelled the demand for ivory in recent years, producing a catastrophe on the ground in parts of Africa, with massive poaching linked to corruption and organised crime.

The reasons why this should be unacceptable to the whole of humanity hardly need stating. The massacre of elephants will severely damage the ecosystems of some of the world’s best remaining habitats, and it undermines the future sustainability of their local communities. But most of all, it is morally indefensible. That magnificent creatures who, left to themselves, lead long lives in close-knit families, should be murdered wholesale, their younger ones orphaned and their babies abandoned is repugnant to anyone who cares about the natural world. How would we ever explain to a future generation that we stood by while the elephants were destroyed?