Most methods of counting elephants sample the population in order to estimate population size, whereas individual registration is a process that attempts to document every individual in a population. Elephants can be individually identified through unique features such as the size and shape of their tusks, notches and holes in their ears, and markings on their face or body. Dr. Joyce Poole is a co-founder of ElephantVoices, a nonprofit organization engaged in elephant conservation as well as in long-term research on social behavior, communication, and cognition. Poole and her husband, Petter Granli, have registered individual elephants in Amboseli National Park and the Maasai Mara ecosystem in Kenya and in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique.

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