Latest Elephants Stories

The Houston Zoo and Baylor College of Medicine today announced a groundbreaking collaboration on a project to study the elephant herpes virus in an effort to protect elephants in zoos and in the wild from this deadly disease."The Houston Zoo is committed to this cause, not only to benefit our own elephants, but elephants throughout the world," said Houston Zoo Director Rick Barongi. "Baylor College of Medicine is a recognized leader in virology research for humans and it is our...

A U.S. study shows the negative effects of African elephant poaching persist for decades after the killings. Kathleen Gobush, a research ecologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who led the study, said African elephants rely heavily on matriarchs to lead groups and keep families together. Before the 1989 ban on ivory trade, nearly 75 percent of all elephants in Tanzania's Mikumi National Park were killed, many of them females with large tusks. A lot of these females...

An African elephant never forgets "“ especially when it comes to the loss of its kin, according to researchers at the University of Washington. Their findings, published online in the journal, Molecular Ecology, reveal that the negative effects of poaching persist for decades after the killing has ended."Our study shows that it takes a long time "“ upwards of 20 years "“ for a family who has lost its kin to rebuild," said lead researcher Kathleen Gobush, Ph.D., a research ecologist for...

For the first time in 30 years, elephants will not be part of the annual military parade in New Delhi, an Indian official says. An Indian Defense Ministry spokesman identified only as D. Mohanty said this year's ban on elephants was prompted by security concerns raised during last year's event in the Indian capital, the BBC reported Friday. During last year's parade, two elephants nearly stampeded while approaching the president's platform, Mohanty said. But the Defense Ministry official...

A new survey has shown that more than 600 endangered Asian elephants are living in Malaysia's biggest national park. Researchers from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and Malaysia Department of Wildlife and National Parks discovered what could be the largest collection of endangered elephants in Southeast Asia.Researchers were surprised at the results of the new survey, which estimates that 631 animals are living in Taman Negara National Park.Taman Negara is "one of the...

Officials said a scheme to outfit elephants at Kenya's Ol Pejeta conservancy with text-messaging collars has been successful in protecting crops. Save The Elephants, a British-registered charity based in Kenya, is outfitting elephants at the conservancy with collars that send hourly updates on their positions to a central server in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and alert rangers with text messages when the mammals are straying too close to farmlands, The Telegraph reported Friday. At first I...

Elephants in Zakouma National Park, the last stronghold for the savanna elephants of Central Africa's Sahel region, now hover at about 1,000 animals, down from an estimated 3,000 in 2006. Ivory poachers using automatic weapons have decimated elephant populations "“ particularly when herds venture seasonally outside of the park.Civil unrest has made conservation exceedingly difficult in Chad. Several park guards have been shot and killed in recent years. However, safety conditions have...

There is only one elephant left at the Los Angeles Zoo. His name is Billy, a 21 year-old Asian Elephant who in his natural habitat would walk 20-30 miles per day with a life expectancy of 60 years. Billy stands still, bobbing his head unnaturally in a small facility, as other elephants have in the past, most of which never made it to age 20. "It's time to close the elephant exhibit and send Billy to retirement and to an appropriate sanctuary," said Lily Tomlin, actress and animal welfare...

The sale of tons of elephant ivory in Namibia this week has conservationists concerned it may trigger widespread poaching of elephants. The $1.18 million ivory sale in Namibia Monday was the first in almost a decade and several more auctions are to take place across the region in the coming weeks, The Times of London reported on its Web site Tuesday. In all, about 108 tons of ivory -- the equivalent to the tusks of 10,000 elephants -- are expected to be sold to Asian buyers, the Times said....

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW - http://www.ifaw.org/) applauds eBay's decision to institute a global ban on the sale of elephant ivory products by 1 January 2009 and calls on all other internet traders to follow their example. eBay's decision was announced just hours before the release of IFAW's latest investigative report showing internet trade in wildlife poses a significant and immediate threat to the survival of elephants...