World Elephant Day

PowerPoint Show by Andrew

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Since 2011, August 12 has been set aside as World Elephant Day. Supported by numerous conservation agencies, it’s a day to “spread awareness, share knowledge, and provide solutions for better care and management of both captive and wild elephants.

Elephants face numerous challenges, including poaching, habitat loss, exploitation, abuse, and proximity to human conflict and poverty. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists African elephants as “vulnerable” and Asian elephants as “endangered.”

On this World Elephant Day, I present a collection of images of these amazing animals.

Melbourne Zoo's newest Asian elephant receives a nudge from her mother after going on display to the public for the first time on February 10, 2010.

A herd of adult and baby elephants walks in the dawn light with the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, in the background, in Amboseli National Park, southern Kenya, on December 17, 2012.

A one-and-a-half-month-old baby elephant with its mother at Chitwan National Park in Chitwan, south of Kathmandu, on December 30, 2014.

A mahout climbs his elephant as he heads towards the Chitwan National Park at Sauraha in Chitwan, south of Kathmandu, on December 28, 2012.

An Asian elephant swims in a 65-meter-long pool at Fuji Safari Park in Susono, at the foot of Mt. Fuji, Japan, on July 13, 2015.

Elephants spray villagers with water during the Songkran water festival in Thailand’s Ayutthaya province, north of Bangkok, on April 10, 2015.

A five-month-old-orphaned elephant named Tembo plays with his keeper, at Mkomazi rhino sanctuary in Mkomazi, Tanzania, on June 19, 2012.

An aerial picture taken on April 5, 2013, shows the main herd of elephants in Zakouma National Park, 800 kilometers east of N'Djamena in Chad.

A mahout decorates his elephant using chalk while preparing for the Elephant Festival at Sauraha in Chitwan, Nepal, on December 26, 2014.

A swan swims as an elephant from the Circus Knie bathes in Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland, on October 4, 2010.

Baby elephant Chima (which means “surprise”) runs through the bush at the Botlierskop game farm near Mossel Bay, about 400 kilometers east of Cape Town, South Africa, on November 30, 2009.

Men ride white elephants at a camp near Uppatasanti Pagoda in Burma’s capital city of Naypyidaw on March 1, 2012.

Nandong, a 25-year-old elephant mother, watches closely as her 2-week-old baby explores at the Singapore Zoo’s Night Safari on December 10, 2010.

A herd of elephants confront a hippopotamus at a watering hole in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe on October 14, 2014.

An elephant is transported in a truck from Taungoo towards Bago, Burma, on March 20, 2012.

An Asian elephant dries off with sand in his enclosure at the zoo in Karlsruhe, Germany, on July 7, 2011.

Two elephants reach out to each other at the Sonepur Cattle Fair in the Saran district in the eastern Indian state of Bihar on November 28, 2012.

Kedar, a baby African elephant born on October 18, 2005, struggles to regain his footing while keeping close to his mother, Kubwa, a 29-year-old African elephant, at the Indianapolis Zoo on November 4, 2005.

Abey, a four-ton 18-year-old elephant, threw off his mahout and American rider and went on a rampage, destroying this vehicle, before being subdued.

Visitors watch bathing elephants in an indoor pool at the zoo in Leipzig, Germany, on September 16, 2008.

A seven-and-a-half-month-old orphaned elephant calf named Moses cuddles with his adoptive “mother” and foundation owner, Jenny Webb, at sunrise at their home in Lilongwe, Malawi, on October 9, 2012.

A male elephant charges towards unseen Indian villagers after they threw stones in an attempt to scare away the herd of wild elephants that strayed close to the village of Rakamjote, close to the India-Nepal border, on May 26, 2015.

Paulchen, a two-week-old African elephant, plays around in the Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen, Germany, on April 7, 2006. The young and exuberant baby elephant wore a protective bandage to avoid injuries during play.

A herd of elephants walk in the Tsavo East National Park, 280 kilometers (173 miles) east of Kenya’s capital of Nairobi on February 10, 2011.