Elephant Database
African Elephant Specialist Group

2007 Regional Totals for Southern Africa

All Years for Southern Africa: 201620132007200219981995

2007 Summary Totals for Southern Africa

Data Category Definite Probable Possible Speculative
Aerial or Ground Total Counts18,431000
Direct Sample Counts and Reliable Dung Counts278,28323,13723,1370
Other Dung Counts274990
Informed Guesses97701,588201
Other Guesses0009,552
Totals 2006297,71823,18624,7349,753

Interpretation of Changes in Estimates from Previous Report

Cause of Change Definite Probable Possible Speculative
Repeat Survey+47,727+105-1410
New Population+387-48+1870
Different Technique+447+167-688-44
Different Area+2,692-951-970
New Guess-730+88+1,442
New Analysis+26-9-11-67
Population Lost00-290
Data Degraded-79+201-673+914
Totals+51,126-536-1,364+2,245

Area of Range Covered by Each Data Category (km²)

Data CategoryKnown RangePossible RangeTotal Range
Aerial or Ground Total Counts43,478043,478
Direct Sample Counts and Reliable Dung Counts397,26123,300420,561
Other Dung Counts4820482
Informed Guesses14,80110,98825,789
Other Guesses134,78869,029203,817
Unassessed Range102,833508,179611,012
Totals693,643611,4971,305,140

Elephant Estimates

CountryDefiniteProbablePossibleSpeculativeRange Area (km²)% of Regional Range% of Range AssessedIQI1PFS2
Angola81880185160406,946315 .031
Botswana133,82920,82920,8290100,265899 .872
Malawi1853236321,5877,538189 .173
Mozambique14,0792,3962,6336,980334,7862677 .481
Namibia12,5313,2763,2960146,9211155 .462
South Africa17,84706382230,4552100 .962
Swaziland31000500100 1.005
Zambia16,5625,9485,908813201,2471561 .471
Zimbabwe84,4167,0337,36729176,931699 .912
Totals297,71823,18624,7349,7531,305,1403953 .481

1IQI: Information Quality Index: This index quantifies overall data quality at the regional level based on the precision of estimates and the proportion of assessed elephant range (i.e. range for which estimates are available). The IQI ranges from zero (no reliable information) to one (perfect information).

2PFS: Priority for Future Surveys, ranked from 1 to 5 (highest to lowest). Based on the precision of estimates and the proportion of national range accounted for by the site in question, PFS is a measure of the importance and urgency for future population surveys. All areas of unassessed range have a priority of 1. See Introduction for details on how the PFS is derived.

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