World Elephant Day🐘

About World Elephant Day

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Dates of World Elephant Day
2026 InternationalAug 12 International Wed, Aug 12Observances Holiday 2025 InternationalAug 12 International Tue, Aug 12Observances Holiday 2024 InternationalAug 12 International Mon, Aug 12Observances Holiday 2023 InternationalAug 12 International Sat, Aug 12Observances Holiday 2022 InternationalAug 12 International Fri, Aug 12Observances Holiday
Summary
Find out the dates, history and traditions of World Elephant Day.

World Elephant Day was first observed in 2012. It was due to the efforts of Canadian filmmaker Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand, that August 12th began to be observed as World Elephant Day.

On August 12th 2012, the inaugural World Elephant Day was launched to bring attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants. The elephant is loved, revered and respected by people and cultures around the world, yet we balance on the brink of seeing the last of this magnificent creature.

Did you know that …

There are two species of elephants, African and Asian, and while they are similar in physiology, they are too biologically different to interbreed.

In a further corroboration that African elephants are comprised of two different species (forest and savannah), a new scientific finding discloses that ancient giant elephants living 1.5 million to 100,000 years ago across Eurasia (before eventually becoming extinct) are more closely related to the African forest elephants of today than the forest elephants are related to African savannah elephants! Prior to this finding, most experts agreed that the ancient species of giant elephant was most closely linked to the Asian elephant.

Find out more All events on August 12th 2025