Elephants young and old race across the wetlands of the Sudd, the vast swampy area where the Nile River divides and empties out before forming up again on its course to the Mediterranean Sea.

New aerial surveys of the region found that at least 8,000 elephants now inhabit Southern Sudan.

That data fills in a crucial gap in the world's knowledge about elephants, which were feared extinct in the region.

But scientists did not find evidence of another 10,000 elephants believed to have lived farther west. The scientists suspect poachers killed the elephants.

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