From "I f*cking love science"

[logicatwork]

27. Who are the poachers?

Okay these poachers are not rich people. If they were then they'd be in another profession. These are Kenyans. From the average elephant you can make $180 off of the ivory. The meat however sells for about $5 per pound. Selling all of an elephants meat results in about $5000-$10000. If I had a pile of meat which I could easily cut up and carry along with tusks I'd take both. But I'm weird like that.

Googling elephant tusks for sale shows many pairs of tusks selling for $180.

"Fortunately, due to the fear of being caught with illegal elephant products, the maximum value of an elephant carcass is not achieved by the hunters. Often, only the tusks and a small amount of meat are taken, but the potential value of meat can far exceed that of ivory. The meat from an adult male could earn a hunting party up to US$5,000, a price that could only be achieved by very large tusks. Potentially, the carcass of a single adult elephant with large tusks could earn a hunting group over US$10,000. Any relaxation in the enforcement of legislation would provide greater opportunities to hunters and increase the frequency of poaching."

From : https://www.iucn.org/news_homepage/news_by_date/?9281/Sale-of-Elephant-Meat-Increases-Threat-to-Elephants-in-Central-Africa