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Elephants are highly intelligent animals whose continued existence is threatened.
Loss of habitat, human-elephant conflict, and poaching for ivory and bushmeat are great threats to elephant populations. As of 2013, the Asian elephant population had experienced a 90 percent decline in the past 100 years and some experts suggest 95 percent of their original habitat has been lost over the same period. Estimates vary, but most agree that there has been a 75 percent decline in the elephant population in Africa. Today there are thought to be between 300,000 and 500,000 wild elephants in Africa and less than 60,000 wild elephants in Asia. Asian elephants are recognized as critically endangered and African elephants are recognized as endangered.
Since the third millennium BC, elephants have been held in captivity. They have been used as beasts of burden, tools of war, and objects of interest and curiosity. In 1796, an American merchant imported a young female Asian elephant for exhibit, the first in North America. Throughout the 1800s, the demand for elephants in exhibits and circuses increased significantly. Young elephants were being captured from the wild at an early age, separated from their family herds, and sold to a life of performance, travel, confined spaces, and exhibition.
By the late 20th century, research and observation led many to conclude that elephants are highly intelligent and emotionally complex animals whose needs are difficult to meet in captivity. In 1995, The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee was founded as a refuge where captive elephants could safely live out their lives in a natural habitat setting in the company of other elephants.
Your support allows us to provide elephants home, herd, rest, refuge, and individualized care for life.