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A $7 million, comprehensive census of African elephants has found that the population decreased by nearly a third between 2007 and 2014.

 was conducted over three years, and set out to effectively count every savanna elephant in 18 countries in Africa, accounting for 93 percent of the savanna elephants in those countries. The conclusion — that the population declined by 144,000 animals in just seven years — is sobering.
The 


"If we can't protect the world's largest land mammal, the prognosis for wildlife conservation is bleak," 

, the lead scientist on the project and the founder of an elephant conservation group based in Botswana called 

The survey took enormous resources to pull off. It was funded in part by an American philanthropist, Paul Allen, and was a collaboration between Elephants Without Borders and government and non-government groups in the 18 countries surveyed.

Because individual countries have been responsible for counting their own elephant populations until now, the data from past years was not standardized. Different governments counted animals at different frequencies, using different methods. The Great Elephant Census changed that, providing a standardized baseline of the savanna population across the 18 nations.


The team used small aircraft to fly over enormous swaths of land, recording themselves counting and photographing the elephants they saw. Technical advisers meticulously combed through the data to make sure they weren't counting elephants twice — a concern because 

.
Past estimates of the elephant population in Africa 

ranged from around 400,000 to over 630,000

, and there was a lot of disagreement about the numbers. The Great Elephant Census estimate, based on the most rigorous survey so far, finds there are just 352,271 elephants in 93 percent of the animals' range.
Much of the decline in the elephant population is due to illegal poaching by people who sell elephant tusks on the Chinese market, as NPR 

 of how many elephants are illegally killed were based on models and incomplete carcass counts, as opposed to comparing population numbers. The new survey finds tens of thousands of elephants are being killed each year.



"A key component of this is not only counting live elephants but looking to really develop a master plan for elephant protection across Africa," 

says team member Andrew Parker of African Parks, a cross-border park management agency

Many governments have tried to prevent illegal elephant hunting by establishing parks and disrupting the market for ivory, which drives poachers to go after the animals. Kenya has held public ivory-burning events for years — at the most recent one, in April, the government burned the tusks of nearly 7,000 elephants.

In a statement after the results were published, the deputy head of the U.N. Environment branch, Ibrahim Thiaw, released a statement saying elephant poaching "makes no sense on any level — moral, economic or political."


The findings of the Great Elephant Census will help guide discussions at the next meeting of the international body that regulates trade of threatened animals, the 

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

Crime, Law and Justice

Environmental News

Rebecca Hersher

Author

A census of African savanna elephants in 15 countries between 2007 and 2014 found the population decreased by 144,000 animals.

African elephant population declines by 30 percent

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