Meghan Markle and Prince Harry just shared new photos from their elephant conservation trip, and they're so beautiful

Anna Sheffer

Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in May 2018, the couple has been using their royal platform to bring awareness to many worthy causes. On their @SussexRoyal Instagram account, for instance, they promote a different group of charities each month. Recently, Meghan and Harry shared an update about one of the causes they support—and they even threw in some never-before-seen pictures from a previous elephant conservation trip.

In honor of World Elephant Day on August 12th, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared new photos on Instagram from a 2017 elephant conservation trip they took to Botswana. Along with many, many gorgeous snapshots of elephants, they also shared a couple of pictures of themselves working with the majestic creatures. They even added a few photos taken by Elephants Without Borders, the conservation group they worked with during the trip.

The royals wrote in their caption that Elephants Without Borders has been able to fit 25 elephants with navigation collars, thanks to awareness efforts from the Ellen Fund and their own followers.

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🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘 Today is #WorldElephantDay and we are pleased to announce that since we followed our friends at @ElephantswithoutBorders (EWB) on Instagram in July, when we were celebrating the environment, you and our friend @TheEllenFund (@TheEllenShow) have spread the word and EWB have been able to help protect 25 elephants by fitting them with satellite navigation collars! These collars allow the team at EWB to track the elephants, as well as to learn their essential migratory patterns to keep their corridors safe and open so future generations of elephants can roam freely. In honour of this amazing support, EWB have named their most recently collared Elephant...ELLEN! We can’t wait to see where she will go! 🐘 Two years ago on World Elephant Day, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex joined Dr Chase to help in this conservation effort. Below, a few words from Mike and his partner Kelly at EWB: • ‘Today is a day to honor and celebrate the majestic elephant and to make a strong stand for conserving and protecting one of the world’s most beloved animals. elephants are intelligent, sentient beings capable of emotions from joy to grief. They are ‘environmental engineers,’ a key-stone umbrella species, and the fight to save them is in effect, a fight to save entire ecosystems and all wildlife. Today elephants are facing many challenges; habitat loss and competition for resources creates conflict with humans, climate change and fires destroy much needed resources and poaching for the demand of ivory makes elephants bigger targets than ever. African elephants are especially prone to human-wildlife conflict because of their large home ranges. Finding, preserving and creating elephant corridors is therefore of great importance in helping to maintain habitats suitable for movement and minimising human-elephant conflict. Corridors are a mitigation technique to better the livelihoods of local communities and the elephants themselves, by providing environment and ample space for wildlife to navigate from one habitat patch to another, without affecting the livelihoods of communities.’ • EWB - Dr Mike Chase, Ms Kelly Landen . 📸 by DOS © SussexRoyal Additional photos: EWB

A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal) on Aug 12, 2019 at 6:00am PDT

Meghan and Harry also shared a statement from Mike Chase and Kelly Landen, the directors of Elephants Without Borders.

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"The noble minded are calm and steady..." ~Confucius An elephant family herd grazes quietly under the setting sun on the Chobe river floodplains, Botswana. #elephant #elephantswithoutborders #confucius #sunset #thisischobe #lovenature #serenity #lovewildlife #wildlifelovers #peaceofmind #botswana

A post shared by Elephants Without Borders (@elephantswithoutborders) on Jul 21, 2019 at 11:46am PDT

Even aside from Harry and Meghan’s work with Elephants Without Borders, Botswana has a special significance for the couple. Harry told People in 2017 that Meghan joined him in the country for five days “about three, maybe four weeks” after they started dating. He described the trip as “crucial” when they were getting to know each other.

We love to see Meghan and Harry using their platform for good. And as for their amazing throwback photos, we can’t think of a better way to celebrate World Elephant Day.