Prince William makes emotional plea

Prince William has made an emotional plea in the forward of a new book about conservation.

The Duke of Cambridge, 36, has worked tirelessly to help conserve elephants and rhinos and other species affected by illegal trade in wildlife.

It has been a central part of his public work and he has now contributed the forward to The Last Elephants.

In this final episode of The Windsors, we explore the extent to which Prince William became the beneficiary of relentless media fascination, and at times, intrusion. (Article continues.)

The Duke wrote about how elephants are on course for extinction "at the hands of poachers, criminal gangs and traffickers".

The spoke about how there were millions of elephants in Africa almost 37 years ago when he was born, and his distress that by the time his daughter Princess Charlotte was born in 2015, the number of elephants in the savannas of Africa had fallen to 350,000.

Quoting the Great Elephant Census, he said, "At the current pace of illegal poaching, when Charlotte turns 25 the Africa elephant could be gone from the wild."

“I’m not prepared to be part of a generation that lets these iconic species disappear and have to explain to our children why we lost this battle when we had the tools to win it,” he said.

The book is due out next month.