Introducing the New Big 5

1 ELEPHANTS

Global population: 447,500 (in the wild). Endangered

The largest living land mammals on Earth, elephants are intelligent and emotional, often working together to help teach and look after their young. There are an estimated 447,500 elephants left on the planet, including 415,000 African elephants (down from 1.2 million in the 1970s) and 30,000-35,000 Asian elephants.

For the first time, IUCN recently listed the African forest elephant as Critically Endangered and the African bush elephant as Endangered, following dramatic population declines over several decades. An estimated 55 African elephants per day are still being killed by poachers – one every 26 minutes – with habitat loss the other