National Park · Chad · 304,900 hectares
Zakouma National Park
Poaching took nine in ten. The herd walks its old range again.
Zakouma National Park: the numbers, sourced
As of July 2026.
- ~4,000 → 450 elephants — the poaching collapse, driven by ivory raids. African Parks; National Geographic, 2002–2010.
- 559 elephants — confirmed by aerial survey, the herd growing again. African Parks aerial survey, 2024.
- 1 → 127 calves under five — calf counts, collapse to record recovery. African Parks, 2011–2018.
- 0 elephants poached — inside the park, sustained near-zero since 2016. African Parks, 2012–2014 and since 2016.
- ~50% — of the world's Kordofan giraffe live in Zakouma. African Parks, current.
What was lost at Zakouma National Park?
Zakouma held roughly 4,000 elephants in the early 2000s. Between 2002 and 2010, armed raiders crossing from Darfur for ivory killed around ninety percent of them — at the worst, hundreds in a single year. By 2010 fewer than 450 remained, and almost no calves survived to join the herd.
What brought it back?
In October 2010 the Government of Chad handed management of Zakouma to African Parks under a long-term agreement. Aircraft, radios, trained ranger teams and a park-wide intelligence network followed. Poaching collapsed: between 2012 and 2014 not a single elephant was poached inside the park, and the record has held at or near zero since 2016.
The calves came back with the quiet. One calf under five was counted in 2011. In 2018 the count was 127 — a record for the park (African Parks).
What is it like now?
The 2024 aerial survey confirmed 559 elephants, and the herd is growing for the first time in over a decade. Zakouma also holds roughly half of the world's Kordofan giraffe (African Parks). With the killing stopped, the elephants have begun leaving the park in the wet season again, re-using the wider Salamat range they abandoned during the poaching years. Holding that range open is the ongoing work.
Who does the work?
Zakouma is the largest employer in its region. Its ranger corps — including the Mamba rapid-response teams — patrols year-round, funded in real part by park visitors. The park is Chad's first (established 1963), and its recovery is a Chadian story: the rangers, pilots and trackers who held the line are overwhelmingly local.
How do you visit Zakouma National Park?
Zakouma runs two camps of its own — Tinga Camp and the seasonal Camp Nomade — and the fees are not a donation on the side: visitor revenue funds the ranger teams and aircraft that keep the range open. Dry season (roughly December to April) is when the park concentrates around its last water and the herds are easiest to find.
Or have the whole journey designed for you — Cape to Nile designs custom African safaris.
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