Country Area - 619,745 km²
Range Area - 309,811 km² (50%)
Protected Range - 26%
Information Quality Index (IQI) - 0.23
CITES Appendix - N/A
Listing Year - -
South Sudan acquired its independence from Sudan in 2011, after a long running civil war which ended in 2005. Efforts were made by the new country to develop a conservation programme and to support protected areas, but these were suspended when a new civil war broke out in 2013. A series of surveys, which took place from 2007-2010, gave hope that more elephants had survived than was previously thought, but there may have been a reduction in numbers thereafter. A third of the 60 elephants collared by the Wildlife Conservation Society from 2010 were believed to have been poached (Russo, 2014).
An elephant conservation plan was developed for Sudan in 1991 (Winter, 1991), but this has not been updated or replaced and there is no current plan for South Sudan.
The estimated number of elephants in areas surveyed in the last ten years in South Sudan is 7,103 ± 5,911 at the time of the last survey for each area. This estimate applies to 129,362 km², which is 42% of the estimated known and possible elephant range. There remains an additional 58% of the estimated range for which no elephant population estimates are available.
In the AESR 2007, no survey results were reported for Sudan except for a guess for Nimule National Park, so there is no information on change in numbers. Results from the 2007-2010 aerial surveys have allowed a more accurate delineation of range in the eastern part of the country. There is less certainty about range in the west since the surveys were less extensive in this area. With the outbreak of civil war in late 2013, further survey work was no longer possible, and the planned surveys supported by the Great Elephant Census could not be carried out.
The largest surviving elephant population is in the Jonglei ecosystem, covering the Sudd swamplands of the White Nile. A low-intensity aerial sample count in 2007 gave an estimate of 5,462 ± 5,644 elephants (Fay et al., 2007). A sample count was carried out in 2010 of Shambe, a previously unsurveyed area to the south-east of the Sudd. Only five elephants were seen in transects so no estimate was given, but a total of 135 elephants was observed and entered as an informed guess (Grossman et al., 2011).
Boma National Park is in the south-east of the country, close to the Ethiopian border. An aerial sample count in 2007 gave an estimate of 606 ± 836 elephants (Fay et al., 2007). Radio-collared elephants have moved between Gambella National Park in Ethiopia and the area immediately north of Boma (Rolkier, 2015) and it is possible that elephants have been double-counted on both sides of the border. No elephants were observed in the Badingilo ecosystem to the west during the 2009 survey, but there were many tracks, suggesting that elephants use this area in the wet season (Grossman et al., 2011)
A few elephant signs were seen in 2008 in the Kidepo Game Reserve on the Ugandan border, suggesting that the elephants from this principally Ugandan population occasionally cross the border (Grossmann et al., 2008).
Nimule National Park is a small park on the White Nile, contiguous with the Ugandan border. A total aerial count in 2008 gave a minimum of 69 elephants (Grossmann et al., 2008), and a dung count from 2010-2012 indicated a population of 118 (47 to 297) (Tomor, 2015). This dung count replaces the 300 estimated in 2002 (Ojok, pers. comm., 2002) for the AESR 2007. Elephants move from here to the Otze Forest in Uganda (Tomor, 2015).
Southern National Park is in the south-west of the country. An aerial sample count in 2007 gave an estimate of 782 ± 1,425 elephants (Fay et al., 2007). This shows a significant reduction from the estimated 15,000 elephants in the area in the late 1970s (Boitani, 1981).
There have been recent camera trap photographs of what appear to be forest elephants in Western Equatoria (Flora & Fauna International, 2015). This is shown on the range map as a point record, with an approximate location.