BRUSSELS—Habitat loss, competition for natural resources, human-wildlife conflict, the climate crisis, poaching, and trophy hunting all threaten the survival of elephants worldwide. All three existing elephant species—the Asian elephant, the African savanna elephant, and the African forest elephant—are at risk of extinction: estimates suggest that there are only 50,000 Asian elephants and 415,000 African elephants left in the wild.
These figures reflect a dramatic decline in population, with Asian elephants having decreased by at least 50% since 1945, African forest elephants by at least 90% and African savanna elephants by 70% during the 52 years between 1964 and 2016.
World Elephant Day, celebrated on August 12, is an opportunity to assess the progress of positive efforts to advance elephant protection, and Humane World for Animals (formerly called Humane Society International), has long championed innovative immunocontraception and co-existence campaigns that are helping to make a difference for this iconic animal.
Dr. Audrey Delsink, senior director of wildlife at Humane World for Animals South Africa, who has dedicated her life to these initiatives, sees this as an occasion “to celebrate elephants, but also to question the assumptions underpinning their management. We see it as a call to move beyond one-size-fits-all traditional lethal models, beyond outdated paradigms of dominance and utility, and beyond conservation frameworks that ignore animals’ well-being and the principles of justice, and coexistence. Backed by science, humane elephant population interventions let us lead with care, transforming community and elephants’ lives”.
Immunocontraception, a form of fertility control developed for animals, is a proven, humane alternative to the culling of elephants, which many scientific professionals, including Delsink, consider a misguided attempt to control wild populations. She and her colleagues believe that immunocontraception offers a better pathway to reduce elephant numbers and other highly effective mitigation tools exist for impact and human-elephant conflict in the long-term, and they’re demonstrating its value in an ongoing vaccination program encompassing dozens of reserves in South Africa.
While elephant populations are declining overall, habitat loss and land-use policies often confine them to limited areas through physical barriers e.g., fences or unprotected areas, leading to competition for resources and clashes with people. Since relocation is limited, immunocontraception offers a humane way to address these issues. The vaccine is delivered remotely, without immobilizing the animals, and works by safely preventing fertilization.
Thanks to a pioneering immunocontraception program by Humane World for Animals, partners at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Population Management Laboratory, implementing specialists and partner reserves, more than 1,700 wild female elephants in 50 reserves across South Africa have been safely vaccinated to prevent overpopulation and reduce clashes with people in the long-term. To date, 70% of the female elephants outside the Greater Kruger National Park—where this contraceptive method is not used—have been treated. A single female can produce 8–10 calves in her lifetime, so the exponential effects of the immunocontraception program are self-evident.
Humane World for Animals is promoting range expansion and elephant-safe zones for human communities through the promotion and completion of an elephant-proof fence at the Ithala Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal province. In the same province, the organization is supporting three community-sourced elephant monitors in community stewardship reserves housing elephants.
Coexistence is a philosophy and a state of mind, which favors more tolerant and informed views of elephants. As part of its outreach, Humane World for Animals has joined with specialist partners and the South African Conservation Trust to fund the printing and distribution of 10,000 “Vusa the Elephant Guardian” comic books promoting human-elephant coexistence in South African and Botswanan rural schools living alongside elephants.
In Asia, the organization has active projects in India and Viet Nam.
India is home to the world’s largest population of Asian elephants, and the work of Humane World for Animals in Karnataka focuses on creating a safe, inclusive model of coexistence that safeguards both communities and elephants. The organization’s program combines ecological research with social research to understand community attitudes and perceptions. The resulting interventions strengthen surveillance and conflict mitigation systems through capacity building initiatives that better equip communities with the knowledge to share space with elephants safely. The work also provides evidence to support policy reforms such as easy-to-access crop insurance schemes to offset losses faced by marginalized farmers, and other initiatives that can be replicated across India.
In Viet Nam, in close partnership with the national government and local communities, our science-based initiative in Dong Nai has, for the first time, provided detailed, evidence-based data on individual elephants, population structure, and breeding—including the identification of over 25 elephants and new calves as of 2025—through camera traps and innovative community monitoring. These achievements, along with humane and collaborative approaches, have shaped the Vietnam Elephant Conservation Action Plan to 2035, officially approved in August 2024.
To ensure nationwide impact, Humane World for Animals developed comprehensive field manuals and practical training to support rangers’ efforts to better protect elephants across the country. Staff members also joined with the Viet Nam government and the IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AsESG) to co-host the 12th AsESG Meeting and organize Elephant Week in Dong Nai in September, to highlight research, training and community engagement strategies to foster coexistence with elephants.
Although the international ivory trade is banned under CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora, the illegal trafficking of elephant tusks continues to fuel their killing and the depletion of their populations. In addition to the devastating impact of poaching, there is the terrible impact of trophy hunting, which involves purchasing permits to kill elephants and bring home parts of their bodies as gruesome souvenirs—an activity enabled by a legal loophole to the ban on the movement of ivory. South Africa is the leading exporter of CITES-listed mammal hunting trophies in Africa—including elephants—and one of the largest globally, with more than 23,000 individual animals exported as trophies between 2019 and 2023.
The United States and the European Union are the world’s top importers of hunting trophies. Humane World for Animals has been leading a campaign to urge the European Union and its member states—through the #NotInMyWorld initiative, which people can support by sending a message—to introduce an import ban.
Together with other concerned parties, Humane World for Animals has also warned that trophy hunting is having a particularly negative impact on the Greater Amboseli-Kilimanjaro West ecosystem in East Africa, where it is threatening the survival of super tusker elephants. Super tuskers are typically older males with at least one tusk that weighs over 45 kilograms (100 pounds), and they play a crucial role in maintaining the balance of their ecosystems and the sociality of bulls. Sadly, fewer than 50 of these iconic bulls remain across the entire African continent.
A short film version of “Tuskers: Saving the Last Gentle Giants”, produced by Humane World for Animals South Africa, was selected as a semifinalist at the Pet Carpet Film Festival—an international film event dedicated to animal and environmental protection, founded in Italy by journalist Federica Rinaudo. Directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Nick Chevallier, the documentary investigates the tragic plight of super tusker elephants and their critical importance to the survival of species. Through interviews with influential Kenyan and Tanzanian community members, pastoralists, scientists and conservationists—including Dr. Audrey Delsink and Claire Bass from Humane World for Animals—the film highlights the biological, ecological, economic and cultural significance of these imperiled animals.
For elephant campaigners worldwide, World Elephant Day is not an occasion of despair or resignation. It’s a call for renewed dedication and efforts to educate a global audience about elephants, to raise awareness of their needs, and to address their plight in a practical way, with innovative and high-impact program work that is scientifically grounded and executed with careful attention to the interests of humans and elephants alike.
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