August 12 is celebrated annually as World Elephant Day. Conceived by Canadian filmmakers Patricia Sims and Michael Clark alongside Secretary-General of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation in Thailand Sivaporn Dardarananda, the holiday was officially founded in 2012.
The purpose of the holiday is to draw public attention to the problem of elephant extinction. The decrease in the population of giants is primarily affected by the shrinking of their natural habitat (due to deforestation), as well as poaching for meat and ivory.
All elephant species are listed in the Red Book as endangered species.
On average, elephants, the closest relatives of the now-extinct mammoths, live about half a century, and the longest-living elephant is Lin Wang, who lived for 86 years.
The 82-year-old elephant called "Lin Wang" splashes water to cool itself while a group of children looks at Taipei's Mucha Zoo on April 19, 2000.
© AFP 2023 JAMES HUANG
Currently, there are three species of elephants: the African savanna (or bush) elephant, the Indian elephant and the Forest elephant.
Indian elephants are found in 13 states: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.
It is known that elephants can recognize themselves in a mirror image, which is considered a sign of self-awareness that has also been evidenced in some monkeys and dolphins.
In addition, elephants have an excellent memory. They can memorize the locations of food and water sources and migration routes over many years. They also recognize each other after many years of separation.