African Elephant Stories

The enchanting grasslands of Kenya’s Maasai Mara swept me off my feet.

The 2022 KAZA Elephant Survey was designed to help estimate elephant numbers, but it also provided other crucial information.

In Southern Africa, five countries united by a shared vision for conservation undertake an elephant survey of historic proportions

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.

WWF and our partners are pursuing two initiatives united by a shared vision for a sustainable future

In the remote Namibian village of De Riet, goat herder Rebecca Adams builds a better future while living alongside elephants and lions.

The first-ever synchronized and coordinated aerial survey of Africa's largest savanna elephant populations is underway in the five countries that make up the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA). Launched in northwest Zimbabwe at the end of August, the survey is undertaken by the five KAZA partner countries—Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—and with support from WWF and other partners.

As seasonal waters ebb and flow, the movements of elephants and other wildlife follow.

A new webinar series by WWF and Natural Habitat Adventures offers travel-lovers an inspiring way to explore the world —all from the comfort of home.

In Zambia's Kafue National Park, WWF and partners are instituting new thermal imaging technology to monitor and protect wildlife from poachers, and to keep local people safer in the process.

In honor of World Wildlife Day, we celebrate some hopeful conservation stories to remind us actions make a difference and there’s still time to preserve our natural world if we all do our part.

Two years ago this month, China took the monumental step of banning elephant ivory trade within the country. Dec. 31, 2017 was the last day it was legal to buy or sell ivory there.

Singapore takes an important step in protecting species from illegal wildlife trade.

For Chinese tourists traveling internationally, ivory demand has increased. WWF worked to combat that trend via a social media campaign focused on reaching travelers through Chinese social platforms.

In 1930, as many as 10 million wild elephants roamed huge swaths of the African continent. But decades of poaching and conflict have since decimated African elephant populations.

China made history by banning elephant ivory sales in 2017; now WWF is working to stop the demand.

With elephant ranges expanding and human populations growing and requiring more land for agriculture, finding effective ways to deal with human-elephant conflict has never been more important.

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.

Elephants, found in both Africa and Asia, are vital to maintaining the rich biodiversity of the ecosystems that they share with other species. Here's a snapshot of what you should know about them.

Thanks to satellite collars, 60 elephants will be monitored for better protection against poaching in one of the last great African wildernesses, Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve.

In 2016, the US government imposed a “near-total ban” on imports, exports, and domestic trade of African elephant ivory. The findings led to recommendations that could help the US regulate the trade.

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?

On World Heritage Day, we’re highlighting some of the incredible sites that WWF is working to save. These sites belong to all of us, and together we can protect them for wildlife and people around the world.

A new report by WWF reveals that World Heritage sites are especially vulnerable to illegal harvesting of species listed by CITES, including tigers and African elephants.