Heiko Kruusi Photo Exhibition “Too Many Elephants?”

25.09.2025 - 28.09.2025

The largest populations of the endangered African savanna elephant are found in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. The photographs in this exhibition were taken in these three countries.

Heiko Kruusi (b. 1968) graduated from the University of Tartu with a degree in biology and wildlife conservation. He currently works at Tallinn Zoo as a nature education specialist, leads a photography club there, and is pursuing a master’s degree in nature tourism at the Estonian University of Life Sciences. He has been photographing nature since the mid-1980s. Kruusi has led the photo programme of the Matsalu Nature Film Festival, organized photo contests, and served on the jury of several competitions. Over the past three years, he has travelled with his camera through the national parks of three African countries.

About a hundred years ago, in the 1930s, the population of African elephants was estimated by WWF to be around 10 million individuals. Current estimates suggest that only about 415 000 of these intelligent four-legged animals remain in Africa. The largest populations of the endangered African savanna elephant inhabit Botswana (130 000 animals), Zimbabwe (100 000), and Tanzania (60 000).

Conservation efforts in national parks and protected areas have borne some fruit, and elephant numbers are slowly recovering from their lowest point. However, the human population surrounding these parks has grown much faster, intensifying conflicts between people and elephants. Increasingly, there are calls to regulate elephant numbers — which in practice means resuming elephant hunting.

The problem has been worsened by several consecutive years of drought. Recently, Zimbabwe granted permission for the hunting of 200 elephants, to provide meat for communities suffering from drought. The last time elephant hunting was allowed in the country was in 1988. Namibia’s government has approved the hunting of 723 wild animals, including 83 elephants. The remainder consists of 300 zebras, 100 wildebeests, 100 kudus, 60 buffalo, 50 impalas, and 30 hippos.

In spring 2024, when Germany moved to ban the import of certain hunting trophies, including elephant body parts, Botswana’s president Mokgweetsi Masisi threatened to send Berlin 20 000 “excess” elephants that “damage property, destroy crops, and trample local people to death.”

With humanity’s rapid population growth, has the space available for other animals inevitably shrunk? Are there, in fact, too many elephants in Africa?