WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 20: A spectacular ensemble of 78,564 colourful origami elephants made by participants from all over the world has set a new Guinness World Record in the US.
The astonishing presentation of paper animals were put together by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) at the Bronx Zoo in the US to achieve the title for the largest display of origami elephants in order to honour 35,000 elephants lost each year to poaching.
In total, an impressive 78,564 origami elephants were sent to the Bronx Zoo from all 50 states in the US, along with 40 other countries around the world.
For the big day, each and every one of them were mounted and included in the record-setting display, Guinness said.
The exhibition was put together as a part of WCS’s 96 Elephants campaign, which correlates to the statistics that 96 elephants are killed each day for their ivory.
The paper elephants of all shapes and sizes, came from an incredibly diverse array of participants - including a 109-year-old woman, students from a school of the deaf, as well as participants from Iran, Kazakhstan and Egypt.
“96 Elephants and its partners have broken the Guinness World Records title for largest display of origami elephants to honor the 35,000 elephants that are lost each year to poaching,” said John Calvelli, WCS Executive Vice President for Public Affairs and Director of the 96 Elephants Campaign.
“WCS’s Bronx Zoo received these gems of folded paper from all over the world and assembled them into this gorgeous display as a simple gesture that sends a powerful message to the world that we are standing together to save these majestic animals,” said Calvelli.
The previous record was set in 2014 by the Zoological Society of London and Whipsnade Zoo in Great Britain, which displayed 33,764 origami elephants.
