African Elephants (Loxodonta africana and L. cyclotis) Fact Sheet: Population & Conservation Status

Population estimates

• New estimates from the IUCN SSC African Elephant Specialist Group forthcoming (expected 2025)
• 2016 estimate: “African elephants” (savanna and forest elephant species combined)
  • Approximately 415,000 (based on datasets until 2016) (Thouless et al. 2016; AfSEG Elephant Database 2024)
  • See Thouless et al. (2016) for regional data
• Overall, continent-wide population declines over the past few decades (Thouless et al. 2016; Gobush et al. 2021; Gobush et al. 2022; Edwards et al. 2024)
  • However, decreased global demand for ivory since about 2014 (UNODC 2024) 
  • Levels of intense ivory poaching that began around 2006 (eg, Underwood et al. 2013; Chase et al. 2016; Thouless et al. 2016 citing CITES 2016; Edwards et al. 2024) has decreased; some savanna elephant populations stable or beginning to increase (United Nations 2024)
• Savanna elephant
  • New global population estimates from IUCN SSC African Elephant Specialist Group are forthcoming
  • Chase et al. (2016) reported at least 350,000 individuals in an analysis of 18 (of 30+) range countries
  • Overall, continent-wide declines of about 70% over a 50-year period (mid-1960s to 2016) (Edwards et al. 2024)
    • Populations in western, northern, and central Africa at higher risk (see Chase et al. 2016; Edwards et al. 2024)
  • Largest populations in southern Africa (most intact, continuous range) (Thouless et al. 2016)
    • Roughly twice as many individuals as East Africa (Poole et al. 2013)
  • Conservation gains made in southern Africa
    • Since the mid-1990s, many savanna elephant populations in southern Africa—where 70% of the global population occurs—have stabilized or slowly begun increasing (Edwards et al. 2024; Huang et al. 2024; R. Huang, personal communication, 2025)
      • Indicates that conservation efforts are succeeding—steep population declines have halted and populations beginning to recover across this region
  • Some other regional populations show signs of early recovery (eg, Kibale National Park, Uganda; Reyna-Hurtado et al. 2023)
  • Recovering populations may still have disrupted social systems and sex ratios, which can impact mortality rates and population recovery (eg, Poole and Thomsen 1989; Archie and Chiyo 2012; Wittemyer et al. 2013; Breuer et al. 2016; Jones et al. 2018; Campbell-Staton et al. 2021; Poole and Granli 2022)
• Forest elephant
  • Approximately 135,000 individuals (CITES SC78 65.1, p. 31) (new IUCN AfESG Status Report forthcoming)
    • Surveys conducted between 2016 and 2022
  • Overall, continent-wide declines of at least 90% over a 50-year period (Edwards et al. 2024)
    • Many subpopulations driven to local extinction (Gobush et al. 2021)
  • Most populations have sharply declined in just 1 to 2 decades (Michelmore et al. 1994; Blake et al. 2007; Maisels et al. 2013; Poulsen et al. 2017; Nowak 2018; Amin et al. 2020; Bush et al. 2020; Kouakou et al. 2020; Funk et al. 2022)
    • Driven primarily by poaching for the illegal ivory trade, and also habitat loss and food shortages driven by climate change
    • Poulsen et al. (2017), studying a remote protected area in Gabon, estimated an 80% population decline over a 10-year period (2004 to 2014)
    • Kouakou et al. (2020) found that forest elephants were locally extinct in 84% of protected areas they surveyed in Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire)—a country named for its historic abundance of elephants
  • Forest elephant at higher extinction risk than savanna elephant (eg, Turkalo et al. 2017; Amin et al. 2020)
    • More confined range and limited suitable habitat
    • Forest elephant populations appear to take far longer to recover, compared to savanna elephant populations (Turkalo et al. 2017; Turkalo et al. 2018)
    • Nearly extinct in Democratic Republic of Congo (Blake et al. 2007; Maisels et al. 2013)
  • Largest populations in Gabon and Liberia (Nowak 2018; Laguardia et al. 2021; also see Brand et al. 2020)
    • A nationwide, systematic DNA-based survey by Laguardia et al. (2019) estimates about 95,000 individuals in Gabon

Historical population estimates

(Milner-Gulland and Beddington 1993; Nowak 2018, and as noted)

• Estimates prior to the 1960s “largely anecdotal” (Edwards et al. 2024)
• Early 1800s
  • Perhaps as many as 27 million “African elephants”
• Mid-1800s
  • Fewer than 10 million individuals
    • Dramatic decline due to habitat loss and hunting
• About 1900 to 1950
  • Rough estimate of several million individuals

IUCN

• African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana)
• Endangered (2020 assessment) (Gobush et al. 2022)
• African forest elephant (L. cyclotis)
• Critically Endangered (2020 assessment) (Gobush et al. 2021)

CITES

• Appendix I (Stiles 2004; Van Aarde and Ferreira 2009; UNEP 2019)
• Except for populations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, which are included on Appendix II (Riddle et al. 2010; UNEP 2019)
• African forest elephant (L. cyclotis)
• Combined listing with savanna elephant (L. africana)
• Not yet recognized as a separate species with distinct protection needs (Poulsen et al. 2017)
• Poulsen et al. (2017) recommend listing on CITES Appendix I

• International ivory trade was banned under CITES in 1989 (Lemieux and Clarke 2009), with some legal trade exceptions (Stiles 2004; Stiles 2009; see UNEP 2024)
• Ban followed a period of intense elephant poaching in the 1970s and 1980s (Lemieux and Clarke 2009; Nowak 2018)

Poaching and illegal trade

• African elephants typically killed for their tusks, or “ivory”; sometimes for their meat (Poole and Thomsen 1989; Blake et al. 2007; Blanc et al. 2007; Stiles 2011; Turkalo and Barnes 2013 citing Mubalama and Mapilanga 2001; Turkalo et al. 2013; Wittemyer et al. 2014; Bennett 2015)
• Elephant poaching decreased substantially from 2014 to 2020 (UNODC 2024; CITES CoP20 76.4), following a period of intense ivory poaching that began around 2006 (eg, Underwood et al. 2013; Chase et al. 2016; Thouless et al. 2016 citing CITES 2016; Edwards et al. 2024; CITES CoP20 76.4)
  • Lower levels of poaching attributed to new government policies that banned commercial ivory imports and sales (such as domestic bans in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, a number of European nations, and the United States), alongside large declines in ivory prices, law enforcement efforts targeting criminal networks (including convictions of high-ranking ivory traffickers), and possibly disrupted supply chains after the COVID-19 pandemic (Gao and Clark 2014; Yu et al. 2017; Zhou et al. 2018; Harris et al. 2019; New Zealand Government 2020; Permata and Wahyuni 2020; Miao et al. 2022; Government of Canada 2023; Chen et al. 2023; UNEP 2024; UNODC 2024; WJC 2025; Xia et al. 2025)
• However, elephants still one of the animals most harmed by illegal trade, globally (UNODC 2024), and commercial profit from elephant body parts remains a threat to elephant populations across Africa (Beyers et al. 2011; Poole et al. 2013; Wittemyer et al. 2014; Bennett 2015; Chase et al. 2016; Hauenstein et al. 2019; Schlossberg et al. 2020; Nkape et al. 2022; Stiles 2022; Kuiper et al. 2023; WJC 2025; Edwards et al. 2024)
  • Crime networks still active (eg, Titeca 2019; Häefele 2022; Stiles 2022, 2024)
  • Percentage of elephant deaths due to illegal killing currently much higher for forest elephants (about 60% of elephant deaths in Central Africa) than for savanna elephants (10 to 20% in Southern and East Africa, respectively) (Sharon Baruch-Mordo, personal communication, 2025, and also see CoP20 Doc. 76.4 and MIKE elephant mortality data)
  • Seizures of illegal ivory totaled nearly 20 tons in 2023 (CITES CoP20 Doc. 76.5, Figure 2, p. 11)
• Poaching kills elephants outright—but also indirectly disrupts and harms survivors’ family members and social relationships (Poole and Thomsen 1989; Gobush et al. 2009; Archie and Chiyo 2012; Goldenberg and Wittemyer 2018; Parker et al. 2021)
  • Can affect everything from survival rates (Parker et al. 2021) to growth/physiology/tusk expression (Campbell-Staton et al. 2021; Parker and Wittemyer 2022; Parker et al. 2022) to movements and social behavior (Goldenberg and Wittemyer 2017; Goldenberg and Wittemyer 2018; Ihwagi et al. 2018; Goldenberg et al. 2018; Ihwagi et al. 2019; Ihwagi et al. 2024)
    • Females show some ability to “compensate” (ie, fill important social positions) when poachers kill individual elephants in their group or social network (eg, Goldenberg et al. 2016)
• Elephant populations can rebound if poaching stops (Foley and Faust 2010; Gobush et al. 2022; Western and Mose 2023; Foley et al. 2024)
  • Recovery more likely if a region has effective national governance, strong law enforcement, and when local people are healthier and have good incomes (Hauenstein et al. 2019; Kuiper et al. 2023)

Habitat loss

• Range restriction
  • As human populations expand in Africa, many elephant populations have greatly reduced range sizes and limited ability to disperse (Riddle et al. 2010; Roever et al. 2013; Leimgruber and Songer 2021; Wilkinson et al. 2022; Western and Mose 2023; Huang et al. 2024)
    • May be confined to unnaturally small ranges
• Habitat fragmentation
  • Elephants cannot remain where habitats severely fragmented (Hoare and Du Toit 1999)
    • Unable to search new areas for food, water, family members, mates, etc. (Shrader et al. 2010; Pretorius et al. 2019)
  • Movement corridors lost to land development and physical barriers, such as fences, buildings, and infrastructure projects (Cushman et al. 2010; Kioko and Seno 2011; Leimgruber and Songer 2021; Huang et al. 2022; Huang et al. 2024)
    • Populations become more confined and isolated as more habitat lost (Barnes et al. 1991; Blanc et al. 2007; Blake et al. 2008; Rabanal et al. 2010; Turkalo and Barnes 2013; Nowak 2018; Mekbeb et al. 2019)
  • Social interactions different than in large, open, connected populations (Shannon, Slotow, et al. 2013; Pretorius et al. 2019)
• Causes of land conversion
  • Human settlements (urban development) (Hoare and Du Toit 1999; Kouakou et al. 2020)
  • Agriculture (eg, Hoare and Du Toit 1999; Mekbeb et al. 2019; Kouakou et al. 2020)
    • Water siphoned from natural waterways for crop irrigation
    • Forests in West Africa highly fragmented by agriculture (e.g., Turkalo and Barnes 2013)
  • Livestock rearing (Mekbeb et al. 2019; Shifra Goldenberg, personal communication, 2025)
    • Overgrazing can contribute to less resilient plant communities, impacting elephant food sources and exacerbating drought conditions
  • Infrastructure projects, such as roads, railways, canals, dams, powerlines, and oil pipelines
    • Even remote areas of forest elephant’s range significantly impacted (eg, Blake et al. 2007; Blake et al. 2008; Turkalo and Barnes 2013)
  • Natural resource extraction
    • Logging, and oil and mineral extraction (eg, Daniel 1992; Turkalo and Barnes 2013; Mekbeb et al. 2019)
• Also see latest IUCN Red List assessments for African savanna elephant and African forest elephant

Insufficient protected areas

• Elephants commonly live outside protected areas (Blanc et al. 2007; Laguardia et al. 2021; Wall et al. 2021)
  • Nearly 60% of their habitat falls outside protected areas (Wall et al. 2021)
• Not all protected areas equally effective (Correa et al. 2024)
  • Influenced by amount of funding, community support, and other factors (Correa et al. 2024)
  • In southern Africa, only half of elephants live within large, well-protected conservation areas (Huang et al. 2024)

Human conflict & coexistence with elephants

• Causes of conflict
  • Competition between humans and elephants for land and access to water (Hoare 2000; Hoare and du Toit 2001; Sitati et al. 2003; Turkalo and Barnes 2013 citing Parker and Graham 1989; Chase et al. 2016; Nowak 2018; Pozo et al. 2018; Shaffer et al. 2019; Binlinla 2022; Gross et al. 2022)
    • In the 1900s, hundreds of thousands of savanna elephants killed along frontiers of expanding agriculture
      • Also see Redmore (2024) for more historical perspective
    • Today, conflict may increase as elephant populations in some parts of Africa recover from poaching (see Poaching and illegal trade, above) and elephant habitat spaces continue to shrink from expansion of human activities
  • Elephants eat and trample crops, sometimes causing significant losses of income for farmers (eg, Kiiru 1995; Ngure 1995; Sitati et al. 2003; Chiyo et al. 2011b; Tiller et al. 2021; Matsuura et al. 2024)
    • Guarding crops can also greatly impact human lifestyles and health (eg, see Gross et al. 2021 and Matsuura et al. 2024)
  • Elephants may also damage property (eg, Gross et al. 2021) and infrastructure (eg, Kiiru 1995; Sitati et al. 2003)
    • Requires money, time, and materials to repair
  • People may kill elephants, either to prevent severe crop losses (lost income) or in retaliation for human injuries/deaths (eg, Kiiru 1995; Ngure 1995; Hoare 2000; Stiles 2011; Mariki et al. 2015; Tiller et al. 2021)
  • Note: Humans can also benefit from sharing space with elephants, such as through tourism (which creates and diversifies economic opportunities; eg, Naidoo et al. 2016) and improved availability of certain natural resources (Buchholtz et al. 2019)
• Crop raiding
  • Elephants appear to seek crops for better energy/nutrition than they gain from wild plants (Hoare 2000; Branco et al. 2019; Vogel et al. 2020); also see Diet
    • Males that eat crops may gain a body size advantage (see Chiyo et al. 2011c)
  • However, feeding on crops can cause stress (Oduor et al. 2024) and carries the risk of injury and even death for elephants (Lahm 1996; Hoare 2000)
  • Elephants balance benefits and risks of eating crops by tending to enter fields at night (to avoid contact with humans) (eg, Sitati et al. 2003; Graham et al. 2009; Gaynor et al. 2018; Troup et al. 2020) and also moderating their use of fields over longer time intervals (see Hahn et al. 2022)
• Additional aspects of elephant motivation and behavior
  • Developing approaches to prevent human–elephant conflict is complex and challenging (eg, Hoare 2015; Shifra Goldenberg, personal communication, 2015)
  • Elephants are observant, curious, excellent problem solvers, and socially cooperative (eg, McComb et al. 2001; Byrne and Bates 2011; Garstang et al. 2015)—traits that allow them to “overcome” restrictions that humans develop to limit human–elephant conflict (see below) (eg, Graham et al. 2009; Mumby and Plotnik 2018; La Grange et al. 2022)
    • Elephants can become habituated to deterrents or may find a way to neutralize them (eg, discover how to break fences)
    • Knowledge about accessing crops can also be passed on socially (ie, social learning) (eg, Chiyo et al. 2012)
• Examples of conflict prevention strategies (not comprehensive) (recently reviewed by Hoare 2015, Shaffer et al. 2019, Gross et al. 2022, Kei et al. 2025, Saha and Soren 2024)
  • Community-based conservation
    • Community-led discussions and decision-making
    • Community member groups that track/monitor elephants
    • Cultural and educational initiatives to promote coexistence with elephants and other wildlife
    • Alternative income sources, such as community-based insurance programs
  • Crop and property protection
    • Exclusion: fences, trenches, and other barriers that physically separate elephants
    • Behavioral modification: eg, various kinds of repellants—beehive barriers, bright lights, sirens, or scents that elephants dislike (eg, chilis)
    • Farming choices: planting crops that elephants don’t like to eat, such as onions, chamomile, and mint
  • Spatial planning
    • Protected areas or other “elephant-only zones”
    • Movement corridors allow elephants to freely and safely move among fragmented habitat patches
    • Land use designs to separate resources used by elephants and humans
  • Technologies
    • Early warning systems that communicate elephant movements in real time and avert confrontations with humans
  • More severe interventions, such as translocations, negative conditioning (example), detusking, etc., are not covered here
• Human–Elephant Coexistence (HEC) research, tools, and strategies
  • SDZWA Journal articles
    • “Common Ground: Mapping the Path to Human-Wildlife Coexistence” (07 Jul 2025)
  • Save the Elephants HEC Toolbox
  • Resources — IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group
  • Search the African Elephant Library for research publications

Additional threats

• For forest elephant, climate change has potential to drive food shortages by reducing fruit production or altering the timing/cycles of fruit ripening (see Bush et al. 2020)
  • Bush et al. (2020) documented 80% less fruiting over a 30-year period
  • Likely caused by rising temperatures and reduced rainfall
• Injury/death from snares set for other animals sold for bushmeat (Becker et al. 2013)
  • Becker et al. (2015) found young elephants were most harmed

African savanna elephant near Ndutu Lodge—on the border of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons with Creative Commons. (Creator: nickandmel2006 on Flickr.)