Elephant Stories

Elephants’ important role in maintaining biodiversity and healthy ecosystems has earned them various names including ecosystem engineers, seed dispersers, and forest gardeners. However, African forest elephants—a species inhabiting the dense rain forests of central Africa—are increasingly recognized by another name: ‘climate hero.’

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

Asian elephants are both culturally important and vital to ecosystems. Learn more about these magnificent creatures and what WWF is doing to protect them.

Four teams of 10 to 12 trained researchers, rangers, community members, and porters traversed different parts of the Tulin Onsoi area of North Kalimantan to find signs of elephants.

Amidst the rage she felt from her damaged crops, farmer Nichakan Pongsarikit saw an opportunity that elephants offered and embarked on a journey to become a local guide.

WWF’s Elly Allies aims to reverse population declines, safeguard and restore habitats, and move towards sustainable coexistence between elephants and people.

Whether starting from a place of profound love for these magnificent animals, or one born of a need to defend homes and damaged livelihoods, many people play unique and necessary roles in building a future in which elephants can thrive in healthy habitats alongside communities.

Combatting climate change helps save wildlife populations around the globe, but the reverse is also true: Wildlife conservation plays an essential role in regulating our climate. By saving wildlife, we help save the planet, including ourselves.

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.

WWF-India is in the process of fitting GPS-enabled collars on wild elephants to better understand the animals’ basic movements and help local communities.

Human-wildlife conflict, which involves many species of wildlife across the globe, is a nuanced and complex issue. Sustainable management of these conflicts and a more significant move towards coexistence can only be achieved by combining a comprehensive suite of measures with efforts to address the drivers or root causes of such conflicts and the associated social dynamics.

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

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.

Governments from around the world recently gathered to discuss the threat of wildlife trade on species.

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.

More than 100,000 Asian elephants may have existed at the beginning of the 20th century, roaming from the Persian Gulf to India and China. But their numbers have dropped in the past three generations.

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?