Suddenly hundreds of elephants have appeared across London! Well, not real elephants, obviously, but statues. And they’re literally all over the place -- from Green Park to Selfridges, from Bank to Notting Hill, and almost everywhere you can think of!

You can’t walk around for long without seeing one!

The best part is that each elephant is decorated in a different way and there are so many interesting and clever designs. One is painted to look like a panda bear. Another is camouflaged due to being by being decorated with trees and foliage. And one is even made entirely of metal spacers! They’re all decorated by a different artist or celebrity, so there’s a lot of variety. It seems like everyone’s talking about them, they must really be getting noticed.

But what’s it all about? The Elephant Parade is bringing attention to the endangered Asian Elephant. Over the last 100 years the Asian elephant population has declined by 90%. The places the elephant lives (its habitat) are being taken away, and if it continues at this rate it could be extinct in another 30 years. It is expected that 25 million people will see the elephant parade in London and it will raise £2 million for charities.

Look out soon for British Study Centres’ elephant competition! We think it would be a great way for students to get to know London as well as bringing attention to the situation. In the meantime, how many can you photograph? There are 258 elephants in total, and you can download the map here: click me. Check our pictures of the elephants in the box above, taken by our marketing manager and big fan of the Elephant Parade, Adrian Liley.

http://www.elephantparadelondon.org
http://www.elephantfamily.org