Johny Wheeler, age 9, of Lexington, Ky., for his question:

Is the elephant in danger of extinction?

The Indian elephant is a very useful animal, trained to do very hard work. Hence he is a very valuable animal. As a rule, people do not allow their valuable animals to become extinct. So the Indian elephant is in no danger.

The African elephant is a wild creature, and for ages people hunted and killed him to get his valuable ivory tusks. If this had been allowed to go on, no doubt he would have been wiped out. But strict laws were passed to protect him from hunters, and huge parks were set aside for his herds to roam unharmed. A few hunters still try to steal his tusks, but he is not in danger of extinction.