Weather & Science
Southern Africa Has More Elephants Than Previously Estimated, Survey Finds
- Aerial survey of five African nations found 227,900 elephants
- Botswana tops as nation with largest elephant population
Of the five nations where elephants live, the survey found that Botswana with 131,909 has the largest elephant population.
Photographer: Nadja Brandt/Bloomberg
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Southern Africa’s elephant population is estimated at 227,900, according to the results of the first-ever aerial survey, which spanned across five nations that together provide a home to more than half of the world’s savanna species.
The aerial survey done using seven fixed-wing aircraft covered Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe in an area known as the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, the world’s largest conservation area, which covers 520,000 square kilometers (200,770 square miles) and is nearly the size of France.