This day serves as a platform to highlight the challenges elephants encounter, including habitat loss, poaching for ivory, human-elephant conflicts, and the need for better conservation efforts.
On August 12, 2012, Patricia Sims, a Canadian, and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand, an initiative of Queen Sirikit of Thailand, co-founded World Elephant Day.
The theme for this day is "Safeguarding Elephant Habitats for a Sustainable Tomorrow".
Amongst all land mammals, elephants possess the largest brains.
African elephants are listed as "Vulnerable" and Asian elephants as "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.