Tag: elephant population

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Conservation efforts

Elephant Poaching: Facts & Statistics

An African elephant with large tusks on the savanna
(Photo by ray rui on Unsplash)

In the space of a single century, Africa’s elephants fell from millions to a few hundred thousand — and the sharpest losses came from a poaching crisis that peaked in the early 2010s. This is the story of elephant poaching in numbers: how many are killed, how the ivory trade works, how bad the crisis got, and where things stand today.

The short answer: at the height of the crisis around 2010–2012, an estimated 100,000 elephants were killed for ivory in just three years (Wittemyer et al., PNAS 2014). Poaching has fallen significantly since that 2011 peak, but it hasn’t stopped — and forest elephants remain in freefall, now listed as Critically Endangered.

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Conservation efforts

Reasons Why Elephants Are Endangered

The African Elephant is since long endangered.
The African Elephant is since long endangered. Photo by elCarito.

The elephant is the largest known mammal to live on land. This creature’s large tusks, enormous ears, and muscular but sensitive legs make it stand out among other animals.

Even though all elephants share some similarities, every species has distinct features. But there are still some main reasons why elephants are endangered in the world today.

There are three living species of elephant: African bush elephant (also known as savannah elephant), African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. Asian elephants have smaller ears and a level back, while African elephants have larger ears and a more concave back. Meanwhile, the Asian elephant is listed as endangered by the IUCN.

In this article we’ll discusses why elephants are endangered, their natural habitats, what makes them significant to the wildlife world, the dangers they face as a species, and ways we can prevent their extinction. Read on!

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Conservation efforts Elephants in the wild Questions & Answers (FAQs)

How Many Elephants Are Left in the World?

Big Elephant in Africa

While some African elephant populations are growing primarily in southern Africa, other areas are seeing decreasing populations. A lot of work has been done trying to determine the elephant population in the world, but it’s incredibly difficult to get accurate numbers. Experts can only guess at the total number of African elephants remaining.

One commonly accepted estimate is that there are about 400,000 African Elephants remaining, and between 50,000 and 100,000 Asian elephants left living in the wild.

The African Elephant population has dropped by 62% in the last decade and is expected to drop another 30% by 2025 making them an endangered species.

In fact, the elephant is labelled as “critically endangered” with WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and other organisations trying various conservation efforts to help stop the killing of these threatened species.

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