Harry and Meghan release unseen safari pictures to mark World Elephant Day

Prince Harry walking towards an elephant in a picture posted on Instagram. (Picture: Sussex Royal/Instagram)

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have released unseen photos of their safari trip to mark World Elephant Day.

In a post shared on Instagram, Meghan and Harry shared a series of photos to raise awareness of the challenges facing elephants, particularly in Africa.

One shot showed Prince Harry carrying equipment and walking towards an elephant,.

Meghan can been seen holding the end of an elephant’s trunk in another image.

View this post on Instagram

🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘 Today is #WorldElephantDay and we are pleased to announce that since we followed our friends at @ElephantswithoutBorders (EWB) on Instagram in July, when we were celebrating the environment, you and our friend @TheEllenFund (@TheEllenShow) have spread the word and EWB have been able to help protect 25 elephants by fitting them with satellite navigation collars! These collars allow the team at EWB to track the elephants, as well as to learn their essential migratory patterns to keep their corridors safe and open so future generations of elephants can roam freely. In honour of this amazing support, EWB have named their most recently collared Elephant...ELLEN! We can’t wait to see where she will go! 🐘 Two years ago on World Elephant Day, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex joined Dr Chase to help in this conservation effort. Below, a few words from Mike and his partner Kelly at EWB: • ‘Today is a day to honor and celebrate the majestic elephant and to make a strong stand for conserving and protecting one of the world’s most beloved animals. elephants are intelligent, sentient beings capable of emotions from joy to grief. They are ‘environmental engineers,’ a key-stone umbrella species, and the fight to save them is in effect, a fight to save entire ecosystems and all wildlife. Today elephants are facing many challenges; habitat loss and competition for resources creates conflict with humans, climate change and fires destroy much needed resources and poaching for the demand of ivory makes elephants bigger targets than ever. African elephants are especially prone to human-wildlife conflict because of their large home ranges. Finding, preserving and creating elephant corridors is therefore of great importance in helping to maintain habitats suitable for movement and minimising human-elephant conflict. Corridors are a mitigation technique to better the livelihoods of local communities and the elephants themselves, by providing environment and ample space for wildlife to navigate from one habitat patch to another, without affecting the livelihoods of communities.’ • EWB - Dr Mike Chase, Ms Kelly Landen . 📸 by DOS © SussexRoyal Additional photos: EWB

A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal) on Aug 12, 2019 at 6:00am PDT

In the caption the Duke and Duchess referenced the conservation work by Elephants Without Borders and The Ellen Fund.

They wrote: “Today is #WorldElephantDay and we are pleased to announce that since we followed our friends at @ElphantswithoutBorders (EWB) on Instagram in July, when we were celebrating the environment, you and our friend @TheEllenFund (@TheEllenShow) have spread the word and EWB have been able to help protect 25 elephants by fitting them with satellite navigation collars!

“Two years ago on World Elephant Day, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex joined Dr Chase to help in this conservation effort,“ they continued, before quoting Dr Mike Chase and his partner Kelly Landen from the EWB.

It comes two days after they posted photos for World Lion Day, highlighting the conservation organisation Lion Guardians.

Each month the royal couple follows a new set of accounts to bring attention to causes close to their hearts.

In 2017, the couple went to Botswana for a safari trip.