Celebrating World Elephant Day

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Another animal day of celebration paying tribute to the Elephant, this time with one of my toy paintings called 'A little Help' (oil on canvas 60 x 60 cm).

The painting itself was an allegorical play on ideas like 'the elephant in the room' and 'whistle-blowing' and I think it fitting to offer it up today as a way of asking the question:

How are elephants getting on in our world?

This is what I've discovered so far

🐘Elephant facts

They are the world's largest land animal, have a super thick skin (2.5cm in most places), a voracious appetite, an extraordinarily agile trunk, and are very keen walkers, so much so that they are up and walking within 20 minutes of being born.

🐘Problems

They are also under massive threat with an estimated 415,000 wild elephants left in the world (around 90% less in number than a century ago).

These dangers include poaching to supply ivory trade demand, loss of habitat and an increasing strain on human-elephant relations with migratory routes now shared with agricultural developments, human settlements and infrastructural constructions.

🐘Solutions

Building awareness, changing perceptions and reducing commercial demand for ivory, helping local rangers enforce measures to protect existing elephant populations and promoting local education whilst exploring the application of new technologies to improve human-elephant interactions.

Highly recommend checking out

WWF website for more info🤓