With funding from several conservation NGOs Douglas-Hamilton organized an immensely ambitious survey of elephant populations throughout the continent.. from the results, compiled in 1979, he figured that africa then contained about 1.3 million elephants, but that the number was declining at too fast a rate.. Some experts in the fied disagreed, and struggle between the two sides over elephant conservation policy in the 1980s became known as the ivory wars..105-115
Douglas-hamilton spent years investigating the status of elephant populations in Zaire, South Africa, Gabon, and elsewhere,both up in his airplane and on the ground.. He flew into Uganda during the chaos that followed the collapse of the government of the time and saw the bodies of slaughtered elephants all over the national parks.."it was a dreadful time.i really spent a terrible 20 years doing that, "he says now.. 116-125