African savanna elephant Stories

  • The Survey

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2024
    The 2022 KAZA Elephant Survey was designed to help estimate elephant numbers, but it also provided other crucial information.
    A small plane flying over the African landscape
  • In good news for elephants, Africa’s largest savanna elephant population is stable

    October 04, 2023

    Seven aircraft surveyed over 40,000 miles of southern Africa’s Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) to estimate the number and distribution of Africa’s largest savanna elephant population. The first-ever synchronized transboundary survey took two months, from August 22 to October 28, 2022, to cover what equates to nearly twice the circumference of the globe. The results were just published and found an overall stable and slightly increased population of 227,900 elephants in the region.

    Photo of an airplane in flight over savanna landscape
  • WWF’s Ming Yao on why China’s elephant ivory trade ban matters

    September 28, 2018

    WWF spoke with Ming Yao, a member of WWF’s wildlife conservation team who has worked closely with elephant ivory demand reduction projects, to learn more about her point of view on China’s ivory ban and how it has influenced consumer behavior in her country.

    elephant walking
  • Most Chinese consumers support an upcoming ban on elephant ivory in China—if they know about it

    By the end of December, it will be illegal to sell or buy elephant ivory in China. But will the new and critical ban succeed in a country that’s home to the largest legal ivory market in the world?

    elephants stand close together