Most illegal ivory that have been confiscated in Africa since 2002 came from elephants that died recently, specifically within three years of confiscation, suggesting that only a few "old" ivory are being traded around the world in large quantities.

This new study presents alarming data about new and old ivory stocks as it is especially hard to tell if they originated from government stockpiles for decades or if they have just been freshly poached.

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A team from the University of Utah and international researchers from the UK and Kenya obtained 231 ivory from 14 seizures, estimated to weigh more than half a ton, during 2002 to 2014.

With the help of radiocarbon dating, the scientists collected data about the animals' time of death and date of confiscation and discovered that more than 90 percent of the ivory were taken within three years before confiscating.

African elephants are suffering from yet another poaching crisis similar to the massive killings in the 1970s. In 2010, more than 70 percent of illegal ivory was confiscated in bundles. The illegal trade is estimated to bring worth US $597 billion every year into the African continent.

The team used a "bomb carbon-14" dating process to identify the old from the new ivory. This is a natural isotope produced from carbon that is created when cosmic rays hit our atmosphere. Due to nuclear tests in the 1960s, massive amounts of carbon-14 were emitted and absorbed by the atmosphere in carbon dioxide molecules.

After this time, plants and animals absorbed this carbon-14 via the food web. Sentine in elephant tusks deposited carbon-14 in the process.

Researchers can determine the date when this ivory was poached and whether if it was obtained via natural death, by analyzing its carbon-14 content in the tusks.

In this new study, only three samples from these 231 samples were more than five years between death and confiscation. If these samples all came from government stockpiles, the ivory should be aged more than 27 years. This also means that illegal ivory trade and poaching of elephants in Africa is still rampant as ever in this decade.

These new findings about illegal ivory trade in Africa were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.