Elephant Conservation & Research Fund

06/14/2026

05/21/2026

Congratulations to Brooke and the BTEH team!

05/08/2026

A big congratulations to Brooke, who is also one of our board members. She's worked tirelessly on her PhD and we're so excited to see the fruits of her labor being published!

Bring The Elephant Home conducts research that can help to inform policy - an important aspect of conservation. It's this type of actionable work we're here to support!

04/22/2026

May we all enjoy nature's simple pleasures. Happy Earth Day! 🌍

04/16/2026

Today is Save the Elephants Day!

Elephants face growing threats from habitat loss and human-elephant conflict, and research provides vital insights into how we can create lasting solutions. By studying elephant movements, behavior, and interactions with people, researchers are helping to design landscapes where elephants and communities can coexist.

One perfect example is the Tom Yum Project, led by our partners at Bring The Elephant Home in Thailand. This initiative works with local farmers to grow crops that elephants avoid, reducing conflict and building more resilient ecosystems.

On Save the Elephant Day, we’re reminded that science and community collaboration are key to protecting these amazing animals.

If you'd like to support ongoing research aimed at safeguarding elephants and their habitats, please visit the link in our bio to donate or to browse our new store.

📷 1: Wild Asian elephants in Kui Buri National Park, Thailand (Credit: Bring The Elephant Home)
📷 2: Through the Tom Yum Project, farmers can diversify their livelihoods and create unique products such as Thai lemongrass massage oil, ginger turmeric tea, and coexistence candles. These products not only benefit the community economically but also socially, culturally, and ecologically. (Credit: Bring The Elephant Home)

03/04/2026

We love a good map!

𝗘𝗹𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗛𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗗𝗼𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗽 - 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮

This map illustrates elephant habitats across Africa using a dot-density representation. 🐘 Each dot corresponds to 10,000 elephants, highlighting their distribution across savannas, forests, and riverine environments. The spatial pattern reflects areas where elephant populations are most concentrated, particularly in major conservation landscapes across Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa. Learn more: https://ow.ly/mPPN50YlFuY

🗺️ Mohamed Alkamel, GIS Cartographer

03/03/2026

Elephant conservation is more than just about elephants. When elephant populations flourish, entire ecosystems benefit — underscoring the profound ecological significance of these remarkable animals.

Conservation scientists classify elephants as an umbrella species: a designation given to species whose protection inherently safeguards the broader community of plants and animals sharing their habitat. This principle is foundational to modern conservation strategy, and elephants — both African and Asian — exemplify it with remarkable clarity.

Across the savannas and forests of Africa, the African bush elephant and the African forest elephant actively engineer their landscapes. Bush elephants uproot trees and shrubs, sustaining open grasslands that support extraordinary concentrations of megafauna. Forest elephants, often called the "architects of the rainforest," create canopy gaps and disperse seeds across vast distances, maintaining the structural diversity that hundreds of species depend upon. The wallows and pathways they create become critical resources for birds, reptiles, and smaller mammals throughout the ecosystem.

In the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia, the Asian elephant performs an equally indispensable role. As one of the most significant seed dispersers in its range, it facilitates the regeneration of large-fruited tree species that cannot reproduce without it. Its forest trails serve as vital movement corridors for co-existing species, including tigers, tapirs, and clouded leopards — animals that are themselves of significant conservation concern.

Protecting elephants, therefore, is an investment in the health and resilience of entire ecosystems. Every habitat conserved for elephant populations simultaneously provides refuge for hundreds of species, many of which face their own serious threats to survival.

On this World Wildlife Day, we recognize that nature functions as an interconnected system — and that elephants are among its most essential and irreplaceable stewards.

📷 Credit: ECRF

02/13/2026

This June (5–15, 2026), join us at our BTEH Field Station in Kuiburi National Park, Thailand, for an immersive elephant research experience. Track and identify wild Asian elephants, decode their behaviour, analyse camera traps, and contribute to our pioneering elephant ID system. Work alongside researchers and local communities to turn human–elephant conflict into coexistence.

From jungle tracking to community-led conservation and sustainable livelihoods, you’ll be part of real impact.

Don’t just watch documentaries. Live one!
💚 Limited spots available. For more information and to book your spot, visit: https://bteh.org/asia/elephant-research-experience-thailand/

01/31/2026

Happy World Zebra Day! 🦓

Why is an elephant conservation organization celebrating zebras? Because elephants are actually incredible neighbors to zebras!

Elephants are ecosystem engineers. When they move through the savanna, they knock down trees, clear thick brush, and create open grasslands—exactly the kind of habitat zebras love to graze in. Without elephants doing this work, many areas would become too overgrown for zebras to thrive.

Elephants also dig for water during dry seasons, creating waterholes that zebras (and many other animals) depend on when natural sources dry up.

Elephants improve predator visibility for zebras by breaking up thick, woody vegetation.

It's a great reminder that conservation isn't just about saving one species; it's about protecting entire ecosystems. When we protect elephants, we're helping zebras, too!

📷 1 & 2: Elephants and zebras at Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa (Credit: ECRF)

01/16/2026

Congratulations to ECRF VP Brooke and Bring The Elephant Home on another important publication! 👏🔥