Thousands of origami elephants at the Bronx Zoo

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Over the summer Wildlife Conservation Society Executive Vice President John Calvelli decided he wanted the world record for most origami elephants displayed at one time in one location.

As director of the 96 Elephants Campaign, Calvelli seeks to educate Americans about the 96 elephants illegally killed for their ivory tusks every day. So the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the Bronx Zoo, started soliciting origami elephant submissions in august before deciding to stop in October. They got 204,000.

Because of the time required to display all of these delicate foldings of paper as Guinness requires, Calvelli and his team displayed less than half of all the origami elephants they received and still destroyed the world record.

Paper-folders in all 50 states and 40 different countries mailed elephants in a variety of shapes and sizes and colors and patterns many in shades of neon recalling Winnie the Pooh's heffalumps and the best of which the Bronx Zoo plans to display through the holidays.