- African Elephant News
- Posts
- 🐘 August 13 2026
🐘 August 13 2026
The Elephant News Service is provided by Save the Elephants for elephant lovers, scientists and conservationists who want to stay informed on the latest elephant news from reputable media sources worldwide. The stories are presented in no particular order.
David Brown, Mongabay (U.S), August 12, 2026
Throughout most of Central Africa, it’s difficult to spot herds of forest elephants all at once. They move through dense rainforest, remaining elusive, their lives obscured by thick vegetation and distance. For tourists and even researchers, direct encounters are largely a matter of chance. But Dzanga Bai is different. It often draws dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of critically endangered forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) out of the dense forest. In the open, they feed and interact, returning again and again, highlighting the importance of such habitats.
Zheng Mengyu/ Xie Jianfei, Xinhua (China), August 12, 2026
In August, wildlife migration across East Africa reaches one of its busiest periods, drawing visitors from around the world to Kenya's vast savannas. Across Amboseli, Maasai Mara and Tsavo, many visitors hope for an encounter with the world's largest land animal -- the African elephant. Safari has also become increasingly popular among young Chinese travelers, with phrases such as "saving up for a trip to Kenya" and "go on safari at least once in a lifetime" frequently appearing on Chinese social media.
Mongabay (U.S.), Augsut 12, 2026
A cocoa boom in southeast Liberia is wiping out native forests and encroaching into a proposed national park. The would-be Kwa National Park, a dense tropical rainforest, is home to chimpanzees, forest elephants, pygmy hippos and pangolins. Kwa is partly located in Grand Gedeh county, one of the most densely forested regions in southeast Liberia. Commercial agriculture is banned across the 1,720 square-kilometer (664 square-mile) area set aside for the national park, reports Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo.
Enkosi Selane, The Citizen (South Africa), August 11, 2026
Wildlife scientists clashed with a parliamentary committee this week over plans to cull and contracept elephants in the Madikwe and Pilanesberg game reserves. MPs demanded to know why non-lethal options had been left unused for years, while researchers defended the rationale for a combined management approach. Professor Sam Ferreira told the portfolio committee that the task team had modelled 34 management scenarios across the two reserves before recommending a mix of culling, contraception and translocation.
Mary Rice, Mongabay (U.S), August 11, 2026
In early March 2026, the Environmental Investigation Agency UK, Zambian authorities seized a consignment of more than 500 kg (over 1,100 pounds) of ivory and arrested a suspect with long-standing links to regional ivory trafficking operations. One of the suspects involved in the case was convicted in 2019 for possession of more than 200 kg (almost 441 lbs) of ivory and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2020. He was released after a matter of months and has continued trading ivory ever since.
Sakshi Prajapati, India Today (India), August 12, 2026
The population of African forest elephants is declining rapidly, with only around 1,35,000 believed to remain in the wild, according to estimates cited by the World Wildlife Fund. The greatest losses have occurred in the forests of Central and West Africa, where large-scale poaching has devastated elephant populations. Now, scientists are turning to an unlikely source to understand how many elephants are left and where they are moving: elephant dung.