Elephant tusks, leopard heads, crocodile skin purses and tiger skins — more than 1.5 million items in all — fill the shelves of a warehouse on a wildlife refuge near Denver.

US officials are destroying more than six tonnes of confiscated ivory tusks, carvings and jewellery – the bulk of the country’s “blood ivory” stockpile - to support the fight against a US $10bn (€7.5 bn) global trade that slaughters tens of thousands of elephants each year.