Pandas do not have tusks , but can China care for Elephants in Africa in the same way as they do for Pandas?

In 2008 the international community allowed four African countries – Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana – to sell their stockpiles of ivory to Japan and China for a total of $15 million (£9 million) in a bid to control the slaughter of elephants in the wild for their tusks.

All of the ivory available in China is technically supposed to have come from that auction, and each carving carries its own credit card-sized certificate of provenance.

But environmentalists warn that there is rampant cheating in the system and that illegal ivory is easily laundered. A survey by IFAW in 2011 found that out of 158 shops and carving factories in Beijing, Shanghai, Fuzhou and Guangzhou, 101 were not licensed, or were selling smuggled ivory.