African elephant populations haven’t recovered from high levels of poaching over recent decades. During the 1970s and 1980s in particular, the high value of the elephant’s tusks proved too tempting for subsistence farmers - and sometimes even cash-strapped governments and revolutionaries who needed money for firearms for civil wars.


At a glance
The African elephant, loxodonta Africana, is listed by the IUCN (World Conservation Union) as vulnerable. It is also on Appendix I of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which means all trade in elephant parts is prohibited.

Not all governments support the ivory ban, though. In Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Botswana, elephants are farmed on ranches for trophy hunters. The argument is that trade in ivory should be regulated, not prohibited, and ivory could be sold to pay for the elephant’s conservation. The counter argument is that the only effective solution is a total ban, because there is no way to distinguish legal ivory from that which has been poached.

What is the threat?

• An elephant needs a lot of land because it eats so much. It is in direct competition with humans who have converted much of its habitat to farmland. When people and elephants live close together, elephants raid crops, and ‘rogue’ elephants (aggressive male elephants during the breeding season) rampage through villages. Local people shoot elephants because they fear them and regard them as pests.
• Hunting has also been a major cause of the decline in elephant populations. Elephants have always been prized trophies, but more recently, hunters have slaughtered elephants for their ivory tusks. Even though worldwide concern over the demise of the elephant led to a complete ban on the ivory trade in 1989, the elephant is still suffering because intensive poaching led to the collapse of its social structure – the biggest elephants with larger tusks were targeted, leaving young elephants without any adults to teach them. Many of Africa's remaining elephant groups are leaderless sub-adults and juveniles.
• The elephant is also still poached for its ivory and as bushmeat. African national parks and reserves have protected elephant habitats, but these are too isolated from each other to allow elephant populations to recover. Some countries are developing refuges linked by corridors to allow seasonal migration and genetic exchange.

'As the largest land mammal on earth, adult elephants consume about eight per cent of their body weight in vegetation each day.'

What are charities doing to help?
Tusk Trust and the Northern Rangelands Trust, in association with the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Save the Elephants, are working to conserve the elephants and habitats of Africa. They promote environmentally sustainable community development initiatives, improve environmental education and generate responsible eco-tourism.

More on Save the Elephants
Save the Elephants is doing pioneering work combining technology with conservation to gather the most thorough information to date on elephant habits and movement. There are many initiatives in place, from education projects for children, to setting up a sensitive early-warning system to warn of any renewed ivory poaching. Save the Elephants is working with the Kenya Wildlife Service to create a new elephant-management strategy for the area of northern Kenya.

What can I do?

• Never endorse the ivory trade by buying any of its products.
• Donate funds to the BBC Wildlife Trust.

Did you know?

• The African elephant once occurred across all of Africa, but it is now reduced to groups in scattered areas south of the Sahara.
• An African bull (male) elephant can weigh as much as seven tonnes, and can be 3m in height at the shoulder.
• Reaching their physical and mental prime at about 40 years of age, elephants can live for 70 years.
• A cow (female) matures sexually at around 9 to 12 years old and can reproduce into her 40s. She produces a calf (twins are rare) every four to six years after a 22-month pregnancy. Even though the bull reaches sexual maturity around the age of ten, he often does not breed until he is about 30, when he becomes large and strong enough to compete for females with other large males.
• African elephants live in socially complex groups comprising up to ten related adult cows and their immature offspring. The matriarch - the oldest, largest, dominant cow - is the leader. During times of danger, such as severe drought or intense poaching, many family units form a large herd.
• As the largest land mammal on earth, adult elephants consume about eight per cent of their body weight in vegetation each day and spend as many as 18 hours out of 24 feeding.