It’s World Elephant Day, and we’re going BIG this year with our celebration! In partnership with the 96 Elephants campaign, we are joining more than 150 institutions in an attempt to break the Guinness World Records title for the largest display of origami elephants. The current record is 33,764. Collectively, we’re looking to fold 35,000 of them—the number of African elephants lost to poaching each year for their tusks.
Come on out to the Zoo today and fold an origami elephant with us at the World Elephant Day station set up in Elephant Reserve between 10am and 3pm. We’ll collect all of the folded elephants and send them to 96 Elephants to be part of the display. If you can’t make it to the Zoo today, you can still participate in the origami folding at home by following the directions here.
In addition to spreading awareness, the Zoo directly supports elephant conservation in the wild. In Sumatra, elephants and people often come into conflict when elephants wander into human settlements. These elephants are often relocated to a Sumatran Elephant Conservation Center. Support from the Zoo through the International Elephant Foundation provides supplies and training to ensure that the elephants are cared for properly. We also provide funds for Conservation Response Units whereby captive elephants, carrying their mahouts and forest rangers, are trained to patrol the forest to deter crime, monitor wildlife, herd wild elephants away from human settlements and conduct community outreach.
When you look at the collective impact that zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) have on elephant conservation, it’s quite impressive. Over the past five years, the AZA community invested more than $6.3 million in elephant conservation efforts, across more than 240 reported projects benefitting all three elephant species: the Asian elephant, African bush elephant, and African forest elephant. Support from AZA-accredited facilities helps organizations and campaigns such as the International Elephant Foundation, Amboseli Trust for Elephants, and 96 Elephants continue their crucial mission of fostering human-elephant coexistence, reducing pressure from the ivory trade and poaching, conducting vital ecological research on wild elephants, and furthering a variety of other on-the-ground field conservation measures.
YOU are a big part of this effort! By visiting AZA zoos, you are helping us save elephants. We couldn’t do it without your support! Sabu, Schottzie, Mai Thai, Jati and their wild counterparts thank you. Trunks up!
