Elephants at zoo locations in South Africa

9 zoo locations has kept elephants in South Africa
There is presently 10 (2,8) living elephants in zoo locations in South Africa (in this database)

Region:

South Africa is in this database included in africa

Wild elephants:

South Africa has about over 20 000 (2006)wild elephants. Source:

Location holdings:

9 zoo locations has kept 34 elephants in South Africa

(Database tables with collection of elephants further down on the page)

Elephants in zoo locations

10 (2,8) living

24 (6,18) dead

Sex ratio and
Management:

Male

2 / 10

20%

Female

8 / 10

80%

Free contact

9 / 10

90%

Protected contact

1 / 10

10%

No contact

0 / 10

Unknown contact

0 / 10

wild

0 / 10

Before 1981 South Africa had only elephants in KNP, Addo elephant park, Tembe elephant reserve in KwaZulu Natal and some migrating animals from Botswana and Zimbabwe.

The present (2006) wild elephant population is maybe more than 20 000 elephants;
* KNP had in 2005 abt 17 000 elephants (Outside KNP Limpopo area has 831 elephants)
* Swaziland 38
* KwaZulu Natal abt 1 000
* Eastern Cape abt 540
* Northwest 622
* Eastern Cape 6 elephants
* Addo elephant park more than 400 elephants.

South Africa has a legal export of 60 elephant trophies a year. The cost of shooting an elephant is about 20 000 US$, money which partly is financing protection against poaching.

The first elephant back safaris in SA was offered in 2002 by Randall Moore.

Recommended Citation

Koehl, Dan, Facts about elephants in South Africa. Elephant Encyclopedia, (2020) available online retrieved at https://www.elephant.se/country.php?name=South Africa.
(archived at the Wayback machine)