But in southern Africa, elephant populations rose at 42 percent of the surveyed sites. "We have seen real success in a number of places across Africa, but particularly in southern Africa, with strong growth in populations in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.

African elephants are Earth’s largest land animals, remarkable mammals that are very intelligent and highly social. They also are in peril. Fresh evidence

Savanna elephants have declined by about 70% and forest elephants by about 90% on average in the surveyed sites.

Habitat loss and poaching have driven dramatic declines in African elephants, but it is challenging to measure their numbers and monitor changes across the entire continent. A new study has analyzed 53 years of population survey data and found large-scale declines in most populations of both species of African elephants.