NewsTracker Answers for week of Jan. 09, 2017

Q: Zimbabwe’s wildlife agency said it has sold 35 elephants to a Chinese wildlife park to ease overpopulation and raise funds for conservation. Where is Zimbabwe?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Zimbabwe officials said conservation efforts have been affected by restrictions on selling the country’s ivory stockpile. What nation - the world’s biggest ivory consumer - said it would ban the trade by the end of this year?

A. China

B. India

C. Russia

D. United States

A. China said it will ban all domestic ivory trade and processing by the end of 2017. Ivory goods are seen as a status symbol in China, where consumer demand has led to widespread poaching and the decimation of Africa’s elephants.

Q: The once-prosperous country’s economy has fallen apart, and Zimbabwe’s government has said it needs to sell wildlife to support its people and conservation efforts. What is the poorest nation in both Africa and the world?

A. Afghanistan

B. Haiti

C. Somalia

D. Yemen

C. With an annual GDP of only $400 per person, Somalia is far poorer than Zimbabwe with $2,000 per person. By comparison, GDP per person is $56,100 in the United States and $132,900 in Qatar, which tops the list in the CIA World Factbook.

Q: Zimbabwe officials also say their conservation efforts have been hampered by restrictions on trophy hunting. Which nation - the biggest market for Zimbabwe big game hunting – has banned some trophies?

A. China

B. India

C. Russia

D. United States

D. The United States has banned imports of elephant and lion trophies from Zimbabwe. Restrictions on wealthy U.S. hunters, have led Zimbabwean officials to woo trophy seekers from China and Russia. U.S. officials have doubts about where money is going that has been raised by big game hunts by wealthy Americans like Donald Trump’s two sons, who killed an elephant in Zimbabwe in 2011.

Q: In addition to poaching, African elephants dying as their habitat to Africa’s exploding human population. What continent has the slowest population growth?

A. Asia

B. Europe

C. North America

D. South America

Between 2010 and 2016, Europe’s population increased at a rate of only 0.08 of a percent of a year. Africa’s population rose at a rate 2.57 a year, while Zimbabwe’s population is increasing at a rate of 2.2 percent. Zimbabwe’s wildlife agency has said the wildlife-rich southern African country has 36,000-plus more elephants than it can support.