In case you haven’t heard about the #ElephantOrigamiChallenge what you need to know is OrigamiUSA has partnered with 96 Elephants to raise awareness for the 35,000 elephants that are killed every year.

They’re trying to collect over 35,000 origami elephants to beat the current world record for largest display of origami elephants.

If you’d like more details check out this post:

How You Can Help Save African Elephants by Folding Origami

If you need some inspiration for your own elephant folding then check out this collection of some of my favourite origami elephants.

First up is this simple but very well designed and elegant looking 3D elephant.

Little Elephant, Designed by Li Jun and Folded by Nyanko Sensei

Video instructions available from Jo Nakashima’s YouTube channel

Shuki Kato has designed a couple of fantastic origami elephants, here’s his Asian elephant design.

Asian Elephant, Designed and Folded by Shuki Kato

Crease pattern available from Shuki Kato’s Flickr

Here’s an adorable little elephant family designed by Nguyen Ngoc Vu.

Elephant Family, Designed and Folded by Nguyen Ngoc Vu

Instructions not available

Here’s another pretty simple but quite cute elephant design.

Elephant, Designed by Stephan Weber and Folded by Rui Roda

Video instructions available from Stephan Weber’s YouTube channel

This is a beautiful elephant design by Fabian Correa. Lots of elephants like this use double sided paper with white on one side to make white tusks.

African Elephant, Designed and Folded by Fabian Correa

Instructions not available

Here’s a great and quite realistic looking elephant design by Artur Biernacki.

Elephant, Designed and Folded by Artur Biernacki

Crease pattern available from Artur Biernacki’s Flickr

This is Shuki Kato’s excellent African elephant design folded by Philippe Landrein.

African Elephant, Designed by Shuki Kato and Folded by Philippe Landrein

Crease pattern available from Shuki Kato’s Flickr

Here’s a very cute little African elephant.

African Elephant, Designed by Gerard Ty Sovann and Folded by Luc MARNAT

Diagrams available in Pure Origami

This little baby elephant is a very cute design.

Baby Elephant, Designed by Enrique Martínez and Folded by Pierre-andré

Instructions not available

Gen Hagiwara has designed an origami elephant that looks relatively simple but still is full of detail.

Elephant, Designed and Folded by Gen Hagiwara

Diagrams available in Spirits of Origami

Here’s another great elephant design with different coloured tusks.

Elephant, Designed by John Montroll and Folded by Nicolas TERRY

Diagrams available in Origami and Math Simple to Complex

Seth Friedman also has an awesome elephant design that was inspired by Shuki Kato’s Asian elephant.

Asian Elephant, Designed and Folded by Seth Friedman

Crease pattern available from Seth Friedman’s website

This next elephant Danielle Verbeeten folded specifically for the #ElephantOrigamiChallenge.

Elephant, Designed by Sipho Mabona and Folded by Danielle Verbeeten

Instructions not available

Here’s a beautiful elephant design from Quentin Trollip that looks fantastic standing on that wood stand.

African Elephant, Designed by Quentin Trollip and Folded by Eyal

Diagrams available in Origami Sequence

Hiroaki Kobayashi has also designed a fantastic looking origami elephant.

African Elephant, Designed and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi

Instructions not available

Here’s a beautiful pair of elephants folded by Eyal using “elephant hide” paper which is probably the best kind of paper to fold an origami elephant out of.

Elephants, Designed by Artur Biernacki and Folded by Eyal

Instructions not available

Beth Johnson designed this simple but very cute elephant.

Elephant, Designed and Folded by Beth Johnson

Instructions not available

This is another excellent 3D origami elephant.

Elephant, Designed and Folded by Mauricio Flórez

Instructions not available

Here’s Shuki Kato’s other elephant design, this time it’s an African elephant.

African Elephant, Designed and Folded by Shuki Kato

Crease pattern available from Shuki Kato’s Flickr

This is Quentin Trollip’s elephant design that he folded himself and you can see that it has a bit of a different feel then when Eyal folded it earlier in this post.

African Elephant, Designed and Folded by Quentin Trollip

Diagrams available in Origami Sequence

This next origami elephant is made 100 times more awesome by the paper that was used to fold it.

Elephant, Designed by Román Díaz and Folded by Origami Wind

Diagrams available in Origami for Interpreters

Here’s another simpler but still quite expressive origami elephant. It’s also quite cute.

Elephant, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Folded by Rui Roda

Video instructions available on Leyla Torres’s YouTube channel

Artur Biernacki really does have a nice and realistic looking elephant design.

Elephant, Designed and Folded by Artur Biernacki

Instructions not available

This next model is a very unique kind of elephant with wings. It’s definitely a beautiful photo and probably one of my all time favourite origami photos.

Winged Elephant, Designed and Folded by Daniel Chang

Instructions not available

Here’s another very cute little elephant.

Elephant, Designed by Marc Kirschenbaum and Folded by Rui Roda

Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 12th Convention Book

Tetsuya Gotani has another great 3D elephant design.

Elephant, Designed and Folded by Tetsuya Gotani (Photo by Evan Zodl)

Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 19th Convention Book

Here’s Roman Diaz’s origami elephant folded by a different origami artist.

Elephant, Designed by Roman Diaz and Folded by Luc MARNAT

Diagrams available in Origami for Interpreters

And here it is again really demonstrating how each origami folder gives their own sort of variation to the design.

Elephant, Designed by Roman Diaz and Folded by Agnieska (Agne) Mackonyte

Diagrams available in Origami for Interpreters

Here’s P. Colman’s interpretation of Shuki Kato’s African elephant.

African Elephant, Designed by Shuki Kato and Folded by P. Colman

Crease pattern available from Shuki Kato’s Flickr

Here’s another absolutely adorable origami elephant family.

Elephants, Designed by Akiko Yamanashi and Folded by Agnieska (Agne) Mackonyte

Diagrams available in NOA Magazine #441

Our final elephant design for this post comes from Mariano Zavala B. who’s been folding incredible animal/human hybrid models. Recently he uploaded this amazing Mr. Elephant design.

Mr. Elephant, Designed and Folded by Mariano Zavala B.

Instructions not available

Now it’s your turn to go out and fold some origami elephants for the #ElephantOrigamiChallenge. The deadline is September 16, 2016 and they need lots, and lots of elephants.

You can get all the details about the #ElephantOrigami Challenge from this post:

How You Can Help Save African Elephants by Folding Origami

If you do fold any origami elephants post a photo in the comments because we’d love to see them.