Elephants are facing their biggest threat to survival since they began roaming the earth, 15 million years ago.
UN Messenger of Peace, Dr. Jane Goodall once wrote: "I wake on this World Elephant Day, thinking of all the elephants I have watched in Africa in many places like Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. There is a memory – the time when I heard elephants outside the cabin where I was staying and went out to see if I could see them. It was a wooded area, and as I stood, listening, I could hear sticks cracking under elephant feet. Otherwise they made no sound. I bent to peer through the trees, and was just about to put my hand on a grey tree trunk when – just in time – I saw that it was an elephant leg!! Fortunately the wind was blowing my scent away from him – or her. I retreated silently back to the cabin, my heart pounding. I can never forgive the people involved in this wholesale slaughter of these incredible beings. Trunks hacked off and thrown aside. Tusks hacked off. Even really young elephants are killed for the sake of their tiny tusks. I wonder how many will be killed, how many tiny calves will lose their mothers. I cannot write any more because my eyes are blurred with tears."
With the overall pachyderm population decreasing at alarming rates, if we fail to act now it is apparent that these beautiful creatures will be extinct in our lifetime. In many countries, ivory continues to be a symbol of status and power. And, sadly, China’s ivory industry is poised for growth. As one of Africa’s oldest wildlife conservation organizations, best known for its work to protect elephants, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT)in Nairobi, Kenya operates the most successful orphan elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in the world working diligently secure safe havens for Elephant, Rhino and other wildlife. Guided Safaris® offer a completely private donor experience for your family to visit the Sheldrick trust in Kenya and contribute to an extremely worthy cause that provides immediate relief and support for the orphaned Elephants suffering the effects of poaching. You can meet the baby elephants and visit with the herd in person, garnering the most treasured memories on this special stop on your African journey. Inquire with us for details on how to plan a tailor-made visit to support the future of our Elephants.
How to help Elephants
Why is it that most people feel such empathy for elephants, even if they have never had close contact with them? Is it because of their size, their quaint characteristics, or the fact that they are so incredibly endearing as babies, tripping over little wobbly trunks that seem to serve no useful purpose other than get in the way? Or is it, perhaps, because elephants are “human” animals in terms of emotion, and in many other ways as well, encompassed by an invisible and mystical aura that reaches deep into the human soul in a mysterious way that defies human logic.
- Dame Daphne Sheldrick
