Because September 22 is World Elephant Appreciation Day, I thought it fitting to post this blog about the elephant rescue and rehabilitation projects in Africa.
ELEPHANT FACTS
African Elephants, the noblest of pachyderms, are the largest land mammal on earth today. We've all seen them in zoos and perhaps at the circus, but up close and personal, they are really big.
ELEPHANT FACTS
African Elephants, the noblest of pachyderms, are the largest land mammal on earth today. We've all seen them in zoos and perhaps at the circus, but up close and personal, they are really big.
Their average life span in the wild is 70 years. Their height at the shoulder is from 8.2 to 13 feet, and can weight from 2.5 to 7 tons. They are slightly larger than their Asian cousins and can be identified by the larger ears. Asian elephants have smaller, rounded ears. Height comparison between elephant and man ►
Image Source: letstalksport.co.uk
Elephant ears radiate heat to help keep these large animals cool, but sometimes the African heat is too much. Elephants are fond of water and enjoy showering by sucking water into their trunks and spraying it all over themselves. Afterwards, they often spray their skin with a protective coating of dust. An elephant's trunk is actually a long nose used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things—especially a potential meal. The trunk alone contains about 100,000 different muscles.
▼ Image Credit: R. Ann Siracusa (2008)
Image Source: letstalksport.co.uk
Elephant ears radiate heat to help keep these large animals cool, but sometimes the African heat is too much. Elephants are fond of water and enjoy showering by sucking water into their trunks and spraying it all over themselves. Afterwards, they often spray their skin with a protective coating of dust. An elephant's trunk is actually a long nose used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things—especially a potential meal. The trunk alone contains about 100,000 different muscles.
▼ Image Credit: R. Ann Siracusa (2008)
Elephants are social animals and travel in herds of 6 to 12 (but can expand to about 20). The family consists of the matriarchal head, her daughters, and their calves. The matriarch dictates where the herd goes and helps to teach the younger elephants proper behavior. Female elephants, or cows, live in multigenerational family groups with other females, and they remain with their natal group for life, sharing responsibility for calves. The females assist each other with the birth and care of their young.
Males stay with the family until they reach 12 to 15 years of age, when they leave the herd to live alone or join up with other bulls. Male and female elephants live separately with bulls only visiting when some of the females are in their mating season, known as estrus.
Elephants are a keystone species and dramatically affect their landscape. They are seed dispersers and influence forest composition, creating clearings to boost tree regrowth and reducing cover to create suitable habitat for browsing and grazing animals.
AN ELEPHANT RIDE
In 2008, I traveled in Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, and Namibia. There, we not only observed and photographed elephants in the wild...but we rode them. To be truthful, we rode elephants that are part on an elephant rescue project and not in the wild.
Males stay with the family until they reach 12 to 15 years of age, when they leave the herd to live alone or join up with other bulls. Male and female elephants live separately with bulls only visiting when some of the females are in their mating season, known as estrus.
Elephants are a keystone species and dramatically affect their landscape. They are seed dispersers and influence forest composition, creating clearings to boost tree regrowth and reducing cover to create suitable habitat for browsing and grazing animals.
AN ELEPHANT RIDE
In 2008, I traveled in Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, and Namibia. There, we not only observed and photographed elephants in the wild...but we rode them. To be truthful, we rode elephants that are part on an elephant rescue project and not in the wild.
Poaching is a major issue throughout Africa, as well as loss of habitat. The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust plays a role in the rescue of injured or trapped animals and their rehabilitation. This is one of the many elephant rescuse/ rehabilitation projects in Africa.
Image Credits: R. Ann Siracusa
Ann, her friend Shirley Wilder, and Donald (the keeper), riding Tatu.►
▼Members of tour group mounting their elephant.
Image Credits: R. Ann Siracusa
Ann, her friend Shirley Wilder, and Donald (the keeper), riding Tatu.►
▼Members of tour group mounting their elephant.
Mounting the elephant in this fashion proved to be hazardous. When the elephant stood, the passengers tipped back and nearly fell off. The rest of us made the smart choice and climbed steps to a wooden platform more or less level with the elephant's back. Still, the animals are so big that it wasn't easy getting into the saddle.
The elephants we rode are part of a program which rescues injured and "homeless" elephants. Usually, these are babies who have lost their mothers or sick elephants left behind by the herd. After they are brought back to health, and when they are old enough, some of them provide tourists with a half-hour to forty five minute thrill. This helps finance the rescue program.
The older elephants are not released back into the wild even though elephants are social animals and one of the few species that will take outsiders into the herd. However, they accept the outsides on a trial basis, but if the visitor misbehaves, it may be thrown out.
Donald told us he had taken care of Tatú for fifteen years.
THE ELEPHANT ORPHAN PROJECT
The African elephant is endangered due to poaching (for ivory) and loss of range through deforestation. In the early 1900s, there were about 10 million elephants in Africa. By 1970 there were 1.3 million; by 2007, somewhere between 500,000 and 700,000; by 2016, only an estimated 352,000 survived. According to ourworldindata.org/, in 2024 the estimated African elephant population in the wild was 415,000. Asian elephants number 40,000 to 50,000. As of 2021, the African elephant species is on the IUCN Red List of Endangered and Critically Endangered Species.
▼Image Source:www.foxnews.com/ivory-poaching
The elephants we rode are part of a program which rescues injured and "homeless" elephants. Usually, these are babies who have lost their mothers or sick elephants left behind by the herd. After they are brought back to health, and when they are old enough, some of them provide tourists with a half-hour to forty five minute thrill. This helps finance the rescue program.
The older elephants are not released back into the wild even though elephants are social animals and one of the few species that will take outsiders into the herd. However, they accept the outsides on a trial basis, but if the visitor misbehaves, it may be thrown out.
Donald told us he had taken care of Tatú for fifteen years.
THE ELEPHANT ORPHAN PROJECT
The African elephant is endangered due to poaching (for ivory) and loss of range through deforestation. In the early 1900s, there were about 10 million elephants in Africa. By 1970 there were 1.3 million; by 2007, somewhere between 500,000 and 700,000; by 2016, only an estimated 352,000 survived. According to ourworldindata.org/, in 2024 the estimated African elephant population in the wild was 415,000. Asian elephants number 40,000 to 50,000. As of 2021, the African elephant species is on the IUCN Red List of Endangered and Critically Endangered Species.
▼Image Source:www.foxnews.com/ivory-poaching
Elephant Orphanages exist in several locations in Africa, but the most significant is in Kenya. It exists within the Nairobi National Park under the auspices of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The project was previously overseen by Dr. Daphne Sheldrick, who died in 2018 at the age of 83. The mantle of matriarch passed to her daughter Angela, who had run the program for over 17 years, supported by her husband Robert Carr-Hartley, and sons Taru and Roan.
Dr. Sheldrick and daughters, Angela Sheldrick & Jill Woodley.►
Image Credit:The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust/A.F.P.,Getty Images
Image Source: www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/obituaries
At the heart of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's conservation activities is the Orphan’s Project, which has achieved world-wide acclaim through its successful elephant and rhino rescue and rehabilitation program. According to 2018 data, they had successfully raised 247 orphan elephants and hand raised 140 infants. In addition, 31 babies had been born in the wild, off spring of orphans raised and released back into the wild.
After each orphan rescue, the long and complex rehabilitation process begins at the DSWT’s Nursery, nestled within the Nairobi National Park. During this crucial phase, milk-dependent elephant calves are cared for and healed both emotionally and physically by the Trust’s dedicated team of elephant Keepers. Each elephant remains at the Nursery until they are ready to journey to one of two rehabilitation stockades in Tsavo East National Park, over one hundred miles southeast of Nairobi. This second phase of rehabilitation sees each orphan gradually transition back into the wild herds of Tsavo, taking up to ten years before the orphans can finally return to the wild.
YOU CAN "ADOPT" AN ELEPHANT
As with most mammals, the baby elephant's world is its mother, then the extended family. Elephants are particularly vulnerable to psychological despair if it loses its natural family. Even bulls, which separate from pod, never forget their female family.
In the orphanages, the elephants need a replacement human family i.e. enough keepers to represent a “family”. The orphan needs physical and mental care to grow up psychologically stable. If they are psychologically unstable and neurotic they will not be welcomed into the wild herds and risk rejection.
The keepers are with the young elephants 24 hours a day, traveling with them as a group during the day, sleeping with them at night. Babies need contact at all times. Keepers rotate so that a different keeper sleeps with a different elephant each night, to avoid strong attachments to just one person.
Source of Images:
www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/obituaries/daphne-sheldrick-who-saved-orphaned-elephants-has-died-at-83.html
Image Credit:The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust/A.F.P.,Getty Images
Image Source: www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/obituaries
At the heart of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's conservation activities is the Orphan’s Project, which has achieved world-wide acclaim through its successful elephant and rhino rescue and rehabilitation program. According to 2018 data, they had successfully raised 247 orphan elephants and hand raised 140 infants. In addition, 31 babies had been born in the wild, off spring of orphans raised and released back into the wild.
After each orphan rescue, the long and complex rehabilitation process begins at the DSWT’s Nursery, nestled within the Nairobi National Park. During this crucial phase, milk-dependent elephant calves are cared for and healed both emotionally and physically by the Trust’s dedicated team of elephant Keepers. Each elephant remains at the Nursery until they are ready to journey to one of two rehabilitation stockades in Tsavo East National Park, over one hundred miles southeast of Nairobi. This second phase of rehabilitation sees each orphan gradually transition back into the wild herds of Tsavo, taking up to ten years before the orphans can finally return to the wild.
YOU CAN "ADOPT" AN ELEPHANT
As with most mammals, the baby elephant's world is its mother, then the extended family. Elephants are particularly vulnerable to psychological despair if it loses its natural family. Even bulls, which separate from pod, never forget their female family.
In the orphanages, the elephants need a replacement human family i.e. enough keepers to represent a “family”. The orphan needs physical and mental care to grow up psychologically stable. If they are psychologically unstable and neurotic they will not be welcomed into the wild herds and risk rejection.
The keepers are with the young elephants 24 hours a day, traveling with them as a group during the day, sleeping with them at night. Babies need contact at all times. Keepers rotate so that a different keeper sleeps with a different elephant each night, to avoid strong attachments to just one person.
Source of Images:
www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/obituaries/daphne-sheldrick-who-saved-orphaned-elephants-has-died-at-83.html
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As you can imagine, the orphanage costs a lot, in part because they are labor intensive, in part because elephants eat a lot. As part of the funding raising, you can adopt a particular elephant for fifty dollars and contribute to their upbringing, while receiving information about the rescue and ongoing progress report and photos. There are pages of elephants waiting for adoption. Contact https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/orphans
JUST SAYIN’
Current Sources:
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/elephant-appreciation-day-september-22
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/24/dame-daphne-sheldrick-obituary
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/424534702347703553/?lp=true
https://www.elephantand.co/blogs/blog/world-wide-elephant-charities
https://gifts.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/gifts/species-adoptions/african-elephant.aspx
https://www.foxnews.com/science/queen-of-ivory-africas-infamous-poaching-mastermind-nabbed
https://sciencing.com/elephants-mate-4574022.html
https://secure.awf.org/page/161332/donate/1?utm_campaign=fy26_brand&supporter.appealCode=b26qa5e01w&utm_source=bing&utm_term=cpc&utm_content=null&msclkid=eb75579d593a13bb5ef63febf2f6e288&utm_medium=cpc
https://ourworldindata.org/elephant-populations
https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/nursery-visit
https://www.ourendangeredworld.com/david-sheldrick-wildlife-trust/
https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/orphans
Prior Sources:
http://vicfallswildlifetrust.org/VFWT%20Website/Wildlife%20Rescue.html
https://www.safarious.com/en/posts/4555-elephant-rescue-at-camp-hwange
http://www.rescue.org/program/programs-zimbabwe
http://www.amanzitravel.co.uk/rhino-and-elephant-sanctuary
http://www.afrizim.com/Activities/Victoria_Falls/Elephant_Rides.asp
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/a/african-elephant/
http://www.elephantsforever.co.za/family-structure.html
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/africa/great-elephant-census/index.html
http://mentalfloss.com/article/82974/10-royal-facts-about-babar-elephant
JUST SAYIN’
Current Sources:
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/elephant-appreciation-day-september-22
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/24/dame-daphne-sheldrick-obituary
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/424534702347703553/?lp=true
https://www.elephantand.co/blogs/blog/world-wide-elephant-charities
https://gifts.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/gifts/species-adoptions/african-elephant.aspx
https://www.foxnews.com/science/queen-of-ivory-africas-infamous-poaching-mastermind-nabbed
https://sciencing.com/elephants-mate-4574022.html
https://secure.awf.org/page/161332/donate/1?utm_campaign=fy26_brand&supporter.appealCode=b26qa5e01w&utm_source=bing&utm_term=cpc&utm_content=null&msclkid=eb75579d593a13bb5ef63febf2f6e288&utm_medium=cpc
https://ourworldindata.org/elephant-populations
https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/nursery-visit
https://www.ourendangeredworld.com/david-sheldrick-wildlife-trust/
https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/orphans
Prior Sources:
http://vicfallswildlifetrust.org/VFWT%20Website/Wildlife%20Rescue.html
https://www.safarious.com/en/posts/4555-elephant-rescue-at-camp-hwange
http://www.rescue.org/program/programs-zimbabwe
http://www.amanzitravel.co.uk/rhino-and-elephant-sanctuary
http://www.afrizim.com/Activities/Victoria_Falls/Elephant_Rides.asp
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/a/african-elephant/
http://www.elephantsforever.co.za/family-structure.html
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/africa/great-elephant-census/index.html
http://mentalfloss.com/article/82974/10-royal-facts-about-babar-elephant
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