This is an unfortunate article for a few reasons. Firstly, keeping elephants in zoos will not help the species survive, as elephants do not do well in captivity. They rarely breed, even with invasive sperm harvesting and artificial insemination, and calf mortalty is high. The captive population will die out in the absence of new animals being taken from the wild - hardly a conservation success story. Secondly, the work described has no value for elephant conservation. Collecting gametes will not make any useful contribution to their genetic diversity; no one seriously believes that frozen sperm is needed to inseminate wild elephants. The key to survival of elephants is to build on the efforts of dedicated field conservationists, who are working with governments and local communities to secure natural habitat areas. But finally, Laura Graham seems like a nice person, and it feels uncharitable to criticise her. Her work is of some scientific value, just not to conservation.