A year-long aerial survey conducted within the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) — made up of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe — found that the area has a total of 227,900 elephants.

“Botswana is the elephants’ place of refuge from marauding poachers,” Philda Kereng, Botswanan minister of environment and tourism, told Xinhua in a telephone interview on Thursday in reaction to the 2022 Elephant Survey.

“Some of Botswana’s neighboring countries are finding it difficult to deal with poaching,” Kereng said poachers are already breaching Botswana’s vast borders and those of neighboring countries in their pursuit of ivory.

Kereng said elephants are everywhere in Botswana because the southern African country “has excellent conservation strategies,” which make the giant animals feel free. “Elephants can be seen under the shade of trees, drinking by the river or playing at the few remaining waterholes in the drought-parched landscape of Botswana.”