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In light of World Elephant Day, conservationists are fighting to raise awareness and stop the slaughter of one of the world's largest mammals, as more governments join the herd and ban elephant-made products.

The animals are dying at a rate of 35,000 a year due to the lucrative growing market for ivory-coated trinkets, which are made from the elephants' majestic tusks and teeth. Criminal cartels export the luxury good – worth more than $1,000 a pound – by illegally gunning down the plant-eating pachyderms and then bribing border guards and police, says the United Nations Environmental Program. Wildlife trafficking is worth $7-$10 billion annually.

The population of endangered Asian elephants has dipped below 40,000 while their threatened African peers total 400,000, a decrease of 76 percent since 1980.

Despite the declining numbers, a network of conservation groups – including the Wildlife Conservation Society, the World Wildlife Fund, the African Wildlife Foundation, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare – have linked arms to collaborate with African nations and fight trafficking groups.

What's behind the vast multinational and NGO efforts? Terrorism.

As part of the stronger response, the World Elephant holiday – established in 2012 – helps spread awareness on the existential threat elephants face from poaching massacres. Coupled with the expansion of national parks and sanctuaries – where elephants frolic, graze and thrive – proposed measures offer hope for saving the endangered animal.

A number of governments have now jumped on the ivory bandwagon. The United States has previously destroyed tons of confiscated ivory, wrecking it to dust in order to pressure other countries to enforce international laws protecting the animal. In terms of a nationwide ban, the US is strengthening legal statutes, reports News Observer.

And in Kenya, conservationists are fighting back by petitioning for the arrest of Feizal Ali Mohamed, a businessman evading an earlier warrant for an ivory seizure, reported The Associated Press. Despite meting out harsh punishments – life-in-prison – Kenya has yet to squelch the illicit trade in elephants' ivory, meat, and body parts.

Aside from poaching, other problems include captivity – home to 1 in 3 elephants – a habitat that has been proven to "significantly degrade their quality of life, both in terms of longevity and mental health," reports Mother Nature Network. And a loss of forested vegetation due to human settlement and climate change has added stress to the previously resilient animal.

In light of the many pressure factors, environmental group WCS has a launched a publicity campaign to save the animal, 96 Elephants, named after the number of elephants killed daily. The initiative plans to photograph and film elephants in Kenya, then disseminate the images worldwide.

As one photographer working on the campaign told National Geographic:

One of the so-called Big Five, or the most popular game animals, elephants intrigue us as they graze in wild habitat or roam in zoos, says Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair.

"We admire elephants in part because they demonstrate what we consider the finest human traits: empathy, self-awareness, and social intelligence," said Mr. Carter. "But the way we treat them puts on display the very worst of human behavior."