Whipsnade Zoo welcomed to the world record fold!

At the final count, 33,764 origami elephants had been made and displayed by zoo visitors, staff and supporters from across the globe.

Although the previous record stood at only 1,500 origami elephants, the zoo had wanted to display 30,000 – one to represent every Asian elephant left in the wild.

It took four experts from the British Origami Society six hours to count all the paper elephants, some of which had been sent in from as far afield as Japan, Australia and the USA.

Sam Tsang, Mark Bolitho, Sharon Turvey and Nancy Chan returned to Whipsnade for a recount on Sunday, October 12 after they had run out of time judging the world record attempt at the zoo’s Elephantastic weekend.

Jordan Christmas, the zoo’s project co-ordinator, said: “It is so brilliant that we hit our target and managed to make over 30,000 origami elephants, with some to spare!

“We hoped this would draw people’s attention to the plight of endangered species like Asian elephants and the vital need for conservation work that helps protect them.

“We were overwhelmed by the response, not only by our amazing Whipsnade Zoo visitors and staff, but also by people all over the world who cared enough about the cause to join in and send us their paper elephants.

“Hopefully this has raised awareness and shown people that conservation is something everyone can get involved with.”

Guinness World Records are reviewing the video of the experts counting the elephants and the zoo looks forward to officially owning the new world record soon.