End the abuse: Elephant rides, circus tricks or religious festivals mean immense suffering for the gray giants.
Many people still marvel at elephants in the circus, pose with a baby elephant on their Asian vacation, or let a pachyderm carry them through the countryside - without knowing what the animals have had to suffer for it.
A fisherman on the banks of the Zambezi River became aware of the lonely little Sally. Apparently, she had a serious injury on her ear, which she tried to clean in the crocodile-infested river. Immediately, a report including a photo was sent to the relevant authorities. Zimparks immediately gave permission for a relief operation. However, the area where little Sally was staying was of great concern to the ZEN team. The proximity to water, deep sand and marshland could make rescue difficult.
With your help, we were able to make a significant contribution to funding Conservation South Luangwa's work in 2021. This support was particularly appreciated by our partners, as tourism in the South Luangwa has also come to a standstill due to COVID, resulting in the loss of valuable funding from this sector.
South Luangwa is currently home to about 3,000 elephants. Here, too, pressure on the population is steadily increasing due to the rapidly growing population and the expansion of human activities.
Our partners of the Nature Education Center of Chipembele in the South Luangwa area in Zambia received a call in September that deep in the national park an elephant cow with her baby had been found severely injured by gunshots. Unfortunately, the mother elephant's injuries were so severe that the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) had to put her out of her misery and euthanize her.
Around 16,000 elephants live in the Ruaha area in southern Tanzania, which STEP monitors. This is the largest elephant population in East Africa! The region is home to 35% of East African elephants and 7% of African elephants.
The Ruaha elephant monitoring team has been working hard over the past few months to sight and identify as many elephants as possible using the elephant ID database.
Last year 2 forest elephant bulls, presumably brothers, migrated the long way from Guinea to Liberia to Ivory Coast. Now the bulls are on the move again and have decided to migrate back to Liberia. Much to the astonishment of the local population, as there is no natural elephant population in this area.
The forest elephant, Loxodonta cyclotis, lives in the tropical areas of Central Africa and West Africa. It is only found in larger numbers in Gabon, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and Liberia. Protecting these populations is not only critical to the future of the species in Central and West Africa, but it is also important for the climate.
The African forest elephant is less well known than the savanna elephant in East or South Africa. Ecological and political obstacles and its sometimes inaccessible habitat make it difficult to study and protect. For a long time, forest elephants were not considered a distinct species. But genetic studies show that the forest elephant is distinctly different from its savannah cousin.
Kerstin Bucher from Future for Elephants has been involved with Elephant Aware Masai Mara for many years and visits this project regularly. Over the years a deep friendship has developed with the Cowell family, the founders of the organization and the rangers.
After I could not travel to Kenya in 2020 due to the corona pandemic, I was even more happy to visit Elephant Aware Masai Mara in Siana/Kenya this year, even if unfortunately only for a very short time due to corona.
