CANDACE

• Loxodonta africana sapiens

• Long hunted for their ivory this remarkable species has suffered at the hands of humans for generation after generation.  Slaughtered for their tusks and forced into shrinking habitats, Candace and her kind have had enough! 

  • Between 1979 and 1989, the worldwide demand for ivory caused elephant populations to decline to dangerously low levels. During this time period, poachings fueled by ivory sales cut Africa's elephant population in half. In 1977, 1.3 million elephants lived in Africa; by 1997, only 600,000 remained. Recently, that number has stabilized, due in large part to the 1990 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ban on international ivory sales.  But in June, 1997, CITES voted partially to lift trade sanctions and to allow Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to sell stockpiled ivory to Japan, where there is a major ivory market. Many conservation groups fear that this slight loosening of the ivory ban will rekindle poaching throughout the elephants' range.  Even though it is illegal to kill an elephant in Africa, people continue to slaughter the mammoth beasts -- if not for ivory, then for revenge.

• With a temper to match her mass, Candace will rampage poachers' campsites without quarter.   Her preferred weapon of choice is the R.P.G. and then to gore and finish off the enemy with her titanium armored tusks.  The last thing she wants the poachers to see is their own bodies impaled on her tusks. Candace is great friends with Affsonso as they are neighbors and share similar plights.  Very protective of her loved ones and her I.W.G. team members, Candace is considered to be the group's mother figure and loved equally in return.

• Get the Candace the Designer Vinyl Toy!