The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, Princes Charles and Camilla, attended a special event at Lancaster House Tuesday night, hosting a poignant reception to support the charity Elephant Family where they serve as joint presidents.
The Duchess of Cornwall’s late brother Mark Shand was the driving force and founder of the charity that seeks to raise awareness for the Asian elephant, which is endangered. Ninety percent of the population has been lost to poaching and modernization that has destroyed the Asian elephant’s habitat.
Shand died in April 2014 in New York City when he slipped and fell outside a hotel near Gramercy Park.
They were accompanied by Princess Eugenie, who is the younger daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, who has also been an outspoken proponent for the endangered Asian elephant.
“This evening’s events are designed to highlight the quest to save Asia’s endangered elephants from a frighteningly precipitous decline. There may be no more than fifty thousand left in total in the wild across the thirteen countries where they are literally clinging to survival,” Prince Charles told supporters before an auction of rickshaws was opened to raise funds for the Elephant Family charity.