World Elephant Day 2023: Theme, Know How Many Species and Different Types of Elephants

World Elephant Day is celebrated every year on August 12th to raise awareness about the plight of elephants and to advocate for their protection. The day was founded in 2012 by Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand. 

World Elephant Day Org states: “World Elephant Day was co-founded on August 12, 2012, by Canadian Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand, an initiative of HM Queen Sirikit of Thailand. Since that time, Patricia Sims has continued to lead World Elephant Day. 

“Since its inception of global awareness building, it has partnerships with 100 elephant conservation organizations worldwide and reaches countless individuals across the globe. Millions of participants worldwide have shown their concern about the plight of elephants through acknowledgement of World Elephant Day, proving that people love elephants and want to do whatever they can to help,” it adds. 

Spoil a Reteti elephant with a milk bottle gift for World Elephant Day! 🍼

Every milk bottle sponsored this weekend will be ✨ matched ✨ – up to 12,500 bottles! You can help us reach our target to secure 25,000 milk bottles by Sunday evening. pic.twitter.com/GhgpINHtFu

— Reteti Elephant Sanctuary (@RetetiSanctuary) August 11, 2023

What Is the Theme of World Elephant Day 2023?

According to News 18, This year's theme is "Ending the Illegal Wildlife Trade." The illegal wildlife trade is a major threat to elephants. 

Every year, thousands of elephants are killed for their ivory tusks, which are then sold on the black market. This trade is driving elephants to extinction.

The theme for World Elephant Day 2023 is a call to action to end the illegal wildlife trade. We need to work together to stop the killing of elephants and to protect these majestic creatures.

What Are the Different Types of Elephants?

Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth. They are intelligent, social creatures that live in herds. There are two species of elephants: African elephants, and Asian elephants. 

The World Wildlife Org states: “The African savanna elephant is the largest elephant species, while the Asian forest elephant and the African forest elephant are of a comparable, smaller size.”

According to World Elephant Day website mentions that the giant elephants that went extinct were closely related to the African elephant. 

The website mentions: “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!”