elephants

Elephants are highly intelligent and social, forming close family groups and showing understanding, cooperation and empathy in their relationships. Now, an international team of animal behaviorists have confirmed that elephants greet each other with a complex array of gestures and vocal cues, depending on the individuals and circumstances. “Elephants live in multi-level societies where individuals […]

At the beginning of the 20th century, more than 100,000 Asian elephants were living in the wild. Now, it is estimated that just 52,000 remain. Among the reasons for their decline — in addition to poaching and human-elephant conflict — is the boom of newly built roads and railways, which lead to collisions, habitat loss […]

In a “landmark” ruling, Bangladesh’s High Court has suspended all licenses for the adoption of critically endangered wild elephants, meaning they can no longer be legally taken into captivity or exploited, reported the BBC. The ban to protect the approximately 200 wild elephants remaining in Bangladesh was welcomed by animal rights groups. Nearly half the […]

A first-of-its-kind study by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) has found that older elephants will have less chance of survival as the climate warms, and this will reverberate throughout the surrounding landscape. The research team has developed models for potential mitigation scenarios, which have already […]

A new study by a team of scientists with the Conservation Ecology Research Unit at South Africa’s University of Pretoria has found that the best way to keep elephant numbers stable is to let them roam freely in protected areas connected to buffer zones, rather than in “fortress” conservation areas where they have less space. […]

Large herbivores like elephants, moose and bison are some of the most recognizable and iconic species on the planet. But they’re not just impressive to look at — their consumption of plant matter and movement throughout the landscape provide great benefits to the ecosystems in which they live. In a new study, an international team […]

Zimbabwe’s largest national park is reporting its biggest migration of elephants and other wild animals to its neighbor Botswana since 2019, as a climate crisis-fueled drought in the region has caused water holes to run dry. Hwange National Park is home to around 50,000 elephants, according to Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks), The […]

Despite their iconic status and long association with humans, Asian elephants are one of the most endangered large mammals. Believed to number between 45,000 and 50,000 individuals worldwide, they are at risk throughout Asia due to human activities such as deforestation, mining, dam building and road construction, which have damaged numerous ecosystems.