Take action and help the San Diego Zoo protect nearly half of Africa’s elephants by supporting Project Elephant Footprint! Our annual goal of $250,000 will truly make a difference in the lives of these elephants. In the early 1970s, as many as 1.3 million elephants roamed the continent but numbers have dropped to less than 500,000 animals! Habitat loss and poaching are major threats to the species’ survival! With elephant populations continuing to shrink, it is crucial that we do all we can to save them!

The San Diego Zoo has teamed with Elephants Without Borders (EWB) to study and save 220,000 elephants that live southern Africa. Leading the effort is Dr. Mike Chase, one of the world’s top elephant ecologists and the founder of EWB. Dr. Chase is also the Henderson Endowed Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellow for our Institute For Conservation Research. Home base for the project is Botswana, but the 50,000-square-mile study area extends well beyond its borders into Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Angola.

Tracking the Herds

Of course elephants don’t understand political boundaries—but they innately remember the historical migration routes to find food and water that span the borders of many countries. Human settlements, fences, roads, farms, civil wars, and poaching are now blocking the travels of these elephant herds. Since 2001, Dr. Chase and his team have tracked more than 60 elephants fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) collars. Aerial surveys by plane also help track the movements through remote and rough terrain. Through his work, Dr. Chase has discovered Africa’s largest and longest elephant migration. By gaining insight into the migration patterns, we are able find solutions that will ultimately save elephant herds.

How Your Gift Helps the Elephants

Thanks to your gift to Project Elephant Footprint, Dr. Chase and his team will be able to do the following:

• Map and locate suitable habitats that might provide additional food and water sources for elephant herds.
• Teach local communities why protecting elephants should be important to them.
• Help reduce elephant and human conflicts by determining ways the local people can live harmoniously with elephant herds that trek through their region.
• Work with governments to create long-term wildlife conservation plans, which will include connecting fragmented habitats through wildlife corridors. The corridors and conservation efforts will benefit elephants as well as other rare species in Africa.