Today is World Elephant Day

A friend wrote on Facebook that today is World Elephant Day. She works for the San Diego Zoo, and she posted photos from her first visit to Africa in 1988. She and her group were canoeing on the Zambezi River, following bull elephants along the shore. They were with a guide and got too close, so one elephant charged them.

Her photos are fantastic.

I checked my photo library, hoping to find a photo I’d taken of an elephant at a zoo. I couldn’t locate one, but I did find the above photo of an “elephant” in the Procession of the Species parade.

It’s important to be informed about and take action on the tragic loss of elephants that’s occurring.

Over the last decade, the number of elephants has dropped by 62 percent, and they could be mostly extinct by the end of the next decade, according to the website National Today.

It’s estimated that 100 African elephants are killed by poachers every day. Elephants are killed for their ivory, which is sold in Asian markets.

World Elephant Day was created in 2012 by Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand along with more than 100 elephant conservation organizations.

Consider making a donation on World Elephant Day to the World Elephant Society or the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation.