They're the last individuals" Romain Gary wrote in his magnum opus The Roots of Heaven in 1956. Today, more than twenty years after the 1989 ivory ban, the elephant population is crumbling under the menace of trophy hunters, collectors and poachers who are ransacking the last great herds of the family of Abu for trinkets. Down from 1 million strong in the early 1980's the numbers have dwindled to only 400,000. Can future generations imagine a world without elephants? Within less than a generation the great herds could be gone due to the vanity of curiosity seekers in Asia. It is one of the signature events in biological history. Humanity now walks a tightrope in relation to existence. What happens to the elephant happens to us.