A group of elephants, Amboseli National Park, Kenya

Giants worth protecting. World Elephant Day

On 12 August, World Elephant Day shines a spotlight on the world's African and Asian elephants and the urgent need to protect them. In places like Amboseli National Park in Kenya, captured in this image, a herd doesn't simply pass through the landscape—it remembers it. Matriarchs guide their families between water sources, following routes shaped as much by memory as by terrain.

Elephants are often described as intelligent, but that barely captures their remarkable abilities. Their trunks contain up to 150,000 muscles, allowing movements delicate enough to comfort a calf yet powerful enough to uproot trees. With a 22-month gestation period—the longest of any land mammal—and a vital role in dispersing seeds across vast landscapes, elephants help shape the ecosystems they inhabit.

Since its launch in 2012, this day has highlighted how poaching, habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict threaten these gentle giants. Protecting elephants also means protecting the landscapes they have helped sustain for generations.