Why elephants now

The BBC published a factual and predictive article on elephant hunting and its future in Africa (http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28842965). There are good figures provided and a compelling case has been made for the eventual eradication of elephant if current trends continue (~7% or Africa's elephants killed annually--above the replacement level) or intensify. The usual suspects, the Chinese are blamed, though the article points out that this is a global problem. It also recognizes, unlike many of the other pieces written, that pachyderm populations vary across the African landscape with the south holding sufficient numbers and other parts (the east, central, etc.) at risk of elephant extirpation. I cannot argue with any of the main points made and have made feeble attempts earlier to contextualize elephant hunting in southern Africa (http://erickeys.blogspot.com/2014/08/from-huffington-post-nra-wants-to-kill.html). I don't see a need to rehash these arguments made earlier by more articulate colleagues (cf. William Moseley at Macalester College-http://www.macalester.edu/academics/geography/facultystaff/billmoseley/).
What interests me now is how elephants have made their way back into the mainstream media (not front page stuff but still present (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/100000-elephants-killed-across-africa-in-two-years-study-finds/; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/candace-calloway-whiting/tiny-baby-elephant-rescue_b_5689500.html; and plenty more on this topic). If we can look at news of Syria, Ferguson, South Sudan, or Los Angeles, shake our heads and move on what hope does the conservation of charismatic species have? Plenty, and here is where I become opinionated...I think that the prospect for elephants is probably better than that of their human relatives because the problem has a solution: eliminate poaching and manage herds responsibly, shame a villain (China and poor Africans involved in the ivory trade), and donate money to what seems to be a non-partisan and non-risky proposition. While elephants will disappear from the headlines in a few days or weeks (and will come back again, they always do) the pathway to their preservation is mostly clear and mostly painless for the West and partners and painful for the Chinese. A win-win all around?