World Elephant Day Awareness Event: Save the Date for Conservation

World Elephant Day History
Facts about Elephant Day
Importance
Elephant Day related Holidays
Timeline
Statistics that Matter
How to Celebrate Elephant Day?
Domestication and Care
World Elephant Day Dates
FAQs

World elephant day is a day that reminds us their humanizing prehistoric magnificence, religious relevance, and environmental significance. This special day for elephants is celebrated every year on August 12. Currently, the number of elephants is falling very rapidly since last decade and it can be easily expected that at the end of current decade, they might have been extinct. Isn’t it really serious situation?

World Elephant Day History

Elephant day, a day for the largest land animal in the world was observed for the very first time on 12 August 2012. This day came into being after the constant efforts of filmmaker Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation (Thailand) in 2011. Afterwards, famous film star and legend William Shatner supported it too through a 30-minute documentary “Return to the Forest”.

Facts about Elephant Day

Common Name

Scientific Name

Number of Species

Population Size

Lifespan

Weight

Length

Top Speed

Predator

Prey

Most Distinctive Feature

Elephant

Elephas maximus, Loxodonta africana

2 (Asian and African)

40,000 – 50,000 (Asian), 415,000 (African)

70 years (Asian), 60 – 70 years (African)

11,000 lbs (Asian), 14,000 lbs (African)

9.8 ft (Asian), 13 ft (African)

25 mph (Asian), 35 mph (African)

Humans, lions, hyenas, and crocodiles

Grass, bark, twigs, roots, leaves, fruits

Trunk and Tusks

Importance

Around 100 African elephants are killed each day by poachers due to ivory. In order to raise awareness among people and educate them, elephant day is celebrated. A large number of elephant lovers come together to save, protect and help the elephants. This day is an opportunity to create and approve the conservation solutions to make the world suitable for elephants and their habitats. On a related note, got the scoop on African Forest Elephant!

Elephant Day related Holidays

Save the Elephant Day: April 16th
World Elephant Day: August 12th
Elephant Appreciation Day: September 22nd

Timeline

279 B.C.

Armed elephants

Greek general Pyrrhus restored “Alexander the Great’s empire” by attacking southern Italy with 20 armed and reinforced elephants.

218 B.C.

Loyal companion

Hannibal (Carthaginian general) led 37 elephants, and only 1 (Surus) survived the journey across the Alps, thus being his loyal companion for 15 years.

801 A.D.

Arabian Nights

Charlamagne sent a Jewish trader (Isaac) to get an elephant, which afterwards became very famous in many “Arabian Nights” stories.

1903

Topsy for General Electric

The Edison Manufacturing Company filmed the public electrocution of an elephant named Topsy for General Electric.

1916

Instant death

Mary the elephant, pushed her unprepared trainer and accidentally hurt him. Sadly, she was sentenced to death due to this incident.

Statistics that Matter

400,000 African elephants are remaining in the wild, being threatened
Elephants can detect sounds with the frequencies of 14 – 16 Hz
Gestation period of elephants is very long, lasting for 22 months
Elephants, being herbivores can eat up to136 kg of food in a day
Lifespan of elephants is relatively longer, living up to 60 years

How to Celebrate Elephant Day?

Spread Awareness

A best way to celebrate world elephant day is to educate yourself and others about these heaviest and magnificent mammals, their life challenges and their basic needs. Not only this, share this knowledge with others through social media.

Watch movie

An easiest way of celebration is to watch some documentary or movie based on the life of elephants. You can choose from “The Jungle Book”, “Alexander”, “The Protector”, or “Water for Elephants”. Some most famous documentaries about elephants are “Echo: An Elephant to Remember,” “African Elephants: Giants of the Namib,” and “The Secret Life of Elephants.

Refuse products

Teach your children and family about the ivory and urge them to say no to such products. Ensure every time when you buy some pianos, antiques, or other products that the manufacturer has not used elephant tusks at all during the production process.

Domestication and Care

Domesticating elephants is not a practical activity as they have specialized needs for life. For example, maintaining their habitat and food is not an easy task. Moreover, they love to remain in wild with their fellows, such maintenance can’t be made at homes. However, if you really want to give them better life then try to end the problems, faced by them.

World Elephant Day Dates

Year	Date	Day
2024	August 12	Monday
2025	August 12	Tuesday
2026	August 12	Wednesday
2027	August 12	Thursday
2028	August 12	Saturday

World Elephant Day Dates (theinfox.com)

FAQs

Although, there are various factors which are posing threats to elephants, the major one is the ivory trade. For the present time, ivory demand is touching sky in China, exceeding the price of Gold. Other factors include habitat loss, conflict with humans, illegal trade, poaching, and wildlife crime.

Being the largest land animals on earth, elephants are much heavy than you think. Since there are 2 categories of elephants, both have different weight:

African Elephants: 2,268 – 6,350 kg (Males), 1,814 – 4,536 kg (Females)
Asian Elephants: 2,041 – 4,990 kg (Males), 1,588 – 3,175 kg (Females)

Due to human –wildlife conflicts, poaching and ivory, elephants are under great threat. Result of these factors is a rapid decline in the population of elephants. According to estimates, only 40,000 – 50,000 elephants are currently left in the wild.