4. At the end of last year, there were 540,000 elephants left in the world. Each year 3.5% die of natural causes and 8% from poaching. The annual birth rate averages to 5.3%. Suppose these rates continue, using goal seek, determine in how many years, elephants will become extinct. Hint: use the formula: population*(1+br-dr-p)^n, where br is the annual birth rate, dr is the annual natural death rate, p is the annual poaching rate and n is the number of years.

Conservation initiatives are bringing awareness to the plight of elephant population and, in turn, impacting consumer sentiments towards poached products. Suppose you want to analyze elephant population further at the extinction year determined above, build a sensitivity analysis using Excel’s variable table tool to show elephant population given varying poaching rates from 0% to 20% at 1% intervals.