#elephantpoaching

One bright, crisp morning in November, the lovely people of Highgate in London, gathered to celebrate the beginning of the festive season and we were lucky enough to be involved thanks to our friends at the Not So Big Shop and the Highgate Dental Practice.

It was an absolutely fantastic afternoon made even more exciting with the appearance of famous actor Damian Lewis, his wife Helen McCrory and their lovely family who turned on the Christmas lights.

A very Christmas-sy Tooth Fairy popped by to grant Christmas wishes to children, sprinkling fairy dust into the palms of very happy girls and boys.

We had given her lots of our little Care for the Wild Tooth Fairy pouches to present to special children with wobbly teeth, so fingers crossed the children of Highgate will become Tooth Fairy Heroes and help us to save elephants from the nasty poachers killing them for their ivory tusks.

Transforming the village square into a Winter Wonderland, visitors were treated to a spectacular ballet performance which saw ballerinas dazzle the crowd from within a snow globe - the winter sunshine adding to the atmosphere to create a magical experience.

To the delight of everyone - young and old - Santa and his elves were also there to listen very carefully as we told them about what we might like to receive in our stockings on Christmas morning - let’s hope he remembers! 

Were you there? If so, what was your favourite part of the afternoon? We’d love to hear from you, so please do get in touch on Twitter @careforthewild or on our Facebook page.

Today's iWorry march is a very important one for all of us, but especially those of us who have become Tooth Fairy Heroes by supporting our Tooth Fairy campaign. (For those of you who haven't already, pop over to our website to find out more) 

Last year, around 40,000 elephants were killed in Africa – that is one every 15 minutes. With the increasing global demand for ivory, both the Asian and African elephant are officially classified as endangered, with the African population plummeting from 1.3 million to 625,000 between 1979 and 1989. It’s a really worrying situation.

Care for the Wild believes that this is a spectacular species, but why?

There are a variety of things that make the elephant a fascinating and endearing animal. Here are just a few facts that show its uniqueness and why it is as important to the world’s wildlife as it has always been:

The elephant is the biggest of all land mammals and they have the largest brains of all animal kingdom.

There are two types; the Asian and the African elephants.  

The African elephant is bigger and taller with much larger tusks than its Asian friend which has smaller ears and shorter tusks.

Elephants can live for as long as 70 years – its energy levels are kept up by the fact that it can eat a massive 500 pounds of hay and drink 60 gallons of water in a single day.

It can carry up to two gallons of water in its trunk – a trunk that has more than 50,000 muscles.

It is not only humans that can talk – elephants ‘talk’ and communicate with each other by making sounds that are known as ‘tummy rumbles.’

They get around in a not too dissimilar way to the ways in which people do, normally walking about 4mph and also swimming for long distances.