The life-sized elephant appeared at St Paul’s this morning (8 October) to highlight how, every year, more elephants are poached than born. It will also be roaming around the Houses of Parliament in the afternoon, at Abbey Road on 9 October and at the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch on 10 October.
The activation is supporting WWF's call for world leaders to commit to ending the illegal wildlife trade, ahead of the 11-12 October London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade. A petition from the conservation organisation is demanding stronger efforts to tackle the corruption that enables the trade, better support for rangers and the closing of all ivory markets.
In addition to the hologram, WWF is also educating the public with a series of pedestrian crossings redesigned with the prints of some of the world’s species affected by the illegal wildlife trade. These include tigers, marine turtles, snow leopards and macaws, aimed at encouraging the public to sign the petition.
The 'animal' crossings are located in Battersea and Shoreditch as well as in the centre of Edinburgh, with more regional locations to be announced in the coming week. Each of the animal crossings will include a shocking statistic relevant to the featured endangered animal, to educate the public on the plight of the particular species.
The activation has been devised with agency Manifest.