Uganda’s elephant population is doing something that groups in other African nations are not – growing and flourishing.  This success story could provide a blueprint for reversing declines in other countries such as Mozambique, where the number of elephants has been cut in half because of poaching.

In the 1980s, Uganda had fewer than 800 elephants left, all in a single park – poachers had killed the rest.  But the latest survey as part of the Great Elephant Census shows Uganda now has more than 5,000 elephants, and the population is growing.  It's a 600 percent increase.

“It is very encouraging to see elephant numbers increasing in Uganda as a result of effective protection in several parks, despite the rampant poaching and ivory trafficking across much of Africa,” said Paul Elkan of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) told Monga Bay.  The group conducted Uganda’s survey along with the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).

The Great Elephant Census is funded in part by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen.  18 nations participate, and they come up with wildly varied results that show the effects of poaching.

For instance, Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park is home to more than 2,900 elephants.  But just across the border, poaching has cut the elephant population to only 50 animals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga Park – and the situation is barely safer for humans. 

Savannah elephants are doing well in northern Botswana, where the Great Elephant Census says an estimated 129,000 roam the grasslands.  Even better news, there’s no sign of poaching in that region.