OrigamiUSA is excited to announce our partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its official attempt to break the Guinness World Records™ title for the largest display of origami elephants. The goal is to reach 35,000 origami elephants to bring attention to the 35,000 elephants that are killed each year for their ivory. This is a great opportunity to put your origami skills to work for a good cause!

The deadline for sending in elephants is Sept 16, 2016.

Elephants should be sent to:

Wildlife Conservation Society

c/o Rachel Libretti

2300 Southern Boulevard

Bronx, NY 10460

To help everyone participate, folding diagrams and videos can be found here, although you may fold any elephant model from any source, in any paper, color or size. Please note, in all cases, your models will not be returned.

Additional Information

If you would like to make an artistic statement, you may send your origami elephants in a displayed format. Some ideas could include: stringing elephants; creating a picture with your elephants in a herd or family grouping; creating a small mural arranging the elephants by color. The WCS welcomes your creativity, as long as the elephants are displayed in a way that they can be counted for the World Record.

The WCS will be keeping track of who sends elephants, so if you would like recognition please include your name or the name of your group.

The WCS will also be partnering with many participating zoos around the country. We will do our best to contact Community Origami Groups so they can work with zoos in their area on this effort.

Thank you to Marc Kirschenbaum, creator and diagrammer for two of the elephant models available for this project. Thank you to Patty Grodner for creating YouTube video instructions for these models.

Here are videos and diagrams.

Elephant Head



» Downloadable diagrams

Two-Piece Elephant



» Downloadable diagrams

Thanks also to Michael G. LaFosse and Richard L. Alexander at the Origamido Studio who have also designed elephant models for this effort. Their diagrams and videos are available here.