Editing Elephant (section)

===Status===
{{see also|List of elephant species by population}}
[[File:Elefanti.jpg|thumb|A family of African forest elephants in the [[Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve]] wetlands. This species is considered to be critically endangered.]]
African bush elephants were listed as [[Endangered]] by the [[International Union for Conservation of Nature]] (IUCN) in 2021,<ref name="IUCN">{{cite iucn |title=''Loxodonta africana.'' |author1=Gobush, K. S. |author2=Edwards, C. T. T. |author3=Maisels, F. |author4=Wittemeyer, G. |author5=Balfour, D. |author6=Taylor, R. D. |date=2021 |page=e.T181008073A181022663 |access-date=25 March 2021 |url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/181008073/181022663}}</ref> and African forest elephants were listed as [[Critically Endangered]] in the same year.<ref>{{cite iucn |title=''Loxodonta cyclotis'' |author1=Gobush, K. S. |author2=Edwards, C. T. T. |author3=Maisels, F. |author4=Wittemeyer, G. |author5=Balfour, D. |author6=Taylor, R. D. |name-list-style=amp |date=2021 |page=e.T181007989A181019888 |access-date=25 March 2021}}</ref> In 1979, Africa had an estimated population of at least 1.3&nbsp;million elephants, possibly as high as 3.0&nbsp;million. A decade later, the population was estimated to be 609,000; with 277,000 in Central Africa, 110,000 in Eastern Africa, 204,000 in Southern Africa, and 19,000 in Western Africa. The population of rainforest elephants was lower than anticipated, at around 214,000 individuals. Between 1977 and 1989, elephant populations declined by 74% in East Africa. After 1987, losses in elephant numbers hastened, and savannah populations from Cameroon to Somalia experienced a decline of 80%. African forest elephants had a total loss of 43%. Population trends in southern Africa were various, with unconfirmed losses in Zambia, Mozambique and Angola while populations grew in Botswana and Zimbabwe and were stable in South Africa.<ref>Douglas-Hamilton, pp. 178–82.</ref> The IUCN estimated that total population in Africa is estimated at to 415,000 individuals for both species combined as of 2016.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Thouless, C. R.|author2= Dublin, H. T.|author3= Blanc, J. J.|author4= Skinner, D. P.|author5= Daniel, T. E.|author6= Taylor, R. D.|author7= Maisels, F.|author8= Frederick, H. L.|author9= Bouché, P.|year=2016|title=African Elephant Status Report 2016|publisher=IUCN African Elephant Database|access-date=2021-06-05|url=https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/SSC-OP-060_A.pdf|archive-date=27 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210627110047/https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/SSC-OP-060_A.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

African elephants receive at least some legal protection in every country where they are found. Successful conservation efforts in certain areas have led to high population densities while failures have led to declines as high as 70% or more of the course of ten years. As of 2008, local numbers were controlled by contraception or [[Species translocation|translocation]]. Large-scale [[culling]]s stopped in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1989, the African elephant was listed under Appendix I by the [[CITES|Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora]] (CITES), making trade illegal. Appendix II status (which allows restricted trade) was given to elephants in Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe in 1997 and South Africa in 2000. In some countries, [[Trophy hunting|sport hunting]] of the animals is legal; Botswana, Cameroon, Gabon, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have CITES export quotas for elephant trophies.<ref name=IUCN />

In 2020, the IUCN listed the Asian elephant as [[endangered]] due to the population declining by half over "the last three generations".<ref name="IUCN2">{{cite iucn |author1=Williams, C. |display-authors=etal |year=2020 |url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/7140/45818198 |title=''Elephas maximus'' |access-date=2020-06-03}}</ref> Asian elephants once ranged from [[Western Asia|Western]] to [[East Asia]] and south to [[Sumatra]].<ref name=Shoshani174>Daniel, p. 174.</ref> and Java. It is now extinct in these areas,<ref name=IUCN2 /> and the current range of Asian elephants is highly fragmented.<ref name=Shoshani174 /> The total population of Asian elephants is estimated to be around 40,000–50,000, although this may be a loose estimate. Around 60% of the population is in India. Although Asian elephants are declining in numbers overall, particularly in Southeast Asia, the population in the [[Western Ghats]] may have stabilised.<ref name=IUCN2 />