WHEN ELEPHANTS WERE YOUNG

Photo:  Melanie Hittrich                                                              

Elephants are critical players in the fight against the climate crisis. We need them. But because of that *other* global crisis, they’re more vulnerable than ever. They need us, too.

By Lance Gould

World Elephant Day is, of course, a global celebration of the planet’s largest land mammal. But while humans on the planet are battling two existential emergencies — the pandemic and the climate crisis — it’s worth noting that elephants can play a critical role in preventing both.

With global attention understandably focused on the more immediate dangers of the COVID-19 crisis, the climate crisis has gotten short shrift. But if you think the novel coronavirus has disrupted life as we know it, just wait to see what cataclysmic consequences await us when global temperatures rise just 2 degrees Celsius. That path is virtually assured unless we drastically change course on greenhouse gas emissions and a number of other environment-destroying policies that are threatening life on the planet.

We are going to need all the help we can get to fight the climate crisis, which, to be clear, will be considerably harder to navigate than COVID. To fight rising global temperatures, we’ll need assistance from key allies — like elephants.

Elephants and other megaherbivores (rhinos and hippos) are undercover climate change superheroes, which play a key role in keeping the planet cooler. The three recognized species of elephants (bush and forest elephants in Africa, and the Asian elephant) mitigate temperature rise in two types of essential ecosystems: grasslands and forests:

Grasslands reflect sunlight away from the planet’s surface, reducing solar radiation and keeping temperatures cooler.

Forests — particularly hardwood forests — are essential storers of carbon.

Guardians of both, elephants help maintain balance between the two habitats. Without elephants, notes professor Graham Kerley, director of the Centre for African Conservation Ecology at South Africa’s Nelson Mandela University, “trees and bushes would take over the grasslands … and grasslands would take over the tree and forest areas.”

Elephants “contribute to the dispersal of the seeds for hardwood trees and are therefore essential to the growth of hardwoods that grow slowly and hold their carbon for long periods.”

A keystone species, elephants also play critical roles in keeping soil healthy and nutrient rich. Healthy soil is essential to carbon sequestration (drawing carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in the ground), considered one of the most important solutions to fighting climate change.

So humans don’t even realize how much we need elephants.

Of course, ever since COVID hit, elephants need us more than ever, too. It’s a symbiotic, existential relationship that is imperiled by the twin crises of the moment.

Avoiding ‘Hundreds of Thousands of Novel Viruses’

Photo: Bruere Kloppers

Elephants were already in deep trouble before the COVID-19 crisis hit. Between poachers slaying at least 20,000 African elephants a year, the ever-dwindling numbers of Asian elephants in the wild, and humans encroaching ever further into elephant ecosystems, elephant numbers globally are at a flashpoint.

The organization that monitors the planet’s fauna and flora health — the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — listed the two African species as “vulnerable” and the Asian elephants as “endangered” on it’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Now that the pandemic has hit, elephants will be subject to even greater dangers, and that is primarily because of the shutdown of global tourism.

The tourism shutdown has crippled the artificial elephant ecosystems in much of Asia, where in most countries with elephant populations (exception: India), the numbers of captive elephants outweigh the wild populations. Since global travel has cutoff tourists from elephant sanctuaries in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Sri Lanka, elephant keepers (known as mahouts) have been challenged to come up with the funds to feed their quarry. Elephants consume huge amounts of food and without guest-admission revenue, there is no income to feed the elephants. Returning them to the wild is near impossible, because there really is no “wild” where human incursion has not yet reached.

In Africa, the greatest threat to elephants are poachers, driven by international criminal cartels that receive astronomical sums for elephant tusks. Just as it has their Asian cousins, the tourism shutdown has impacted African elephants, but in Africa it has manifest in reducing the two biggest obstacles for poachers: 1) tourists, highly visible, whose presence deters poachers, and 2) rangers, who actively serve to protect wildlife.

The sudden vanishing of tourists has led to an increase in poaching, as well as to a revenue drought to support rangers. Tourism and travel contribute $169 billion to the continent’s combined economy, representing more than 7% of combined GDP. But the shutdown of tourism has devastated economies in Africa, and rangers are fighting off emboldened poachers, more desperate for the economic riches the illegal contraband of elephant tusks, rhino horn, and other animal prizes will bring. Twelve rangers in Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were killed in April, attacked by armed militias.

Arguably worse for the planet, the tourism shutdown’s negative impacts on global and local economies has also led to an increase in another, non-commercial kind of poaching: subsistence poaching, for food.

Considering the circumstances that have given rise to our current pandemic, the more interaction that humans have with wildlife species, the more vulnerable both species are to zoonotic diseases, which jump from one species to another.

When poaching goes from commercial to subsistence, that raises an alarm with epidemiologists, because that’s where novel coronaviruses come from. The renowned epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant — who helped eradicate smallpox — cited as much in a Ted Talk in 2007, in which he laid out the case for a causal link between climate change and pandemic threats. Megatrends, such as climate change, he noted, had set off a domino sequence of unexpected effects, from desertification to urban migration to soil depletion, which “disproportionately harm the poorest and the most vulnerable.” This confluence of circumstances has led to “humans turning more towards animal consumption,” and, in 2006, the consumption, for example, by Africans of 600 million wild animals and consumed 2 billion kilograms of bushmeat.”

“Every kilogram of bushmeat,” he noted presciently more than a decade ago, “contained hundreds of thousands of novel viruses that have never been charted, the genomic sequences of which we don’t know, their fitness for creating pandemics we are unaware of, but we are ripe for zoonotic-born emerging communicable diseases.”

Navigating the current pandemic has challenged every nation on the planet — some much more than others. The idea that there are hundreds of thousands more novel viruses out there — and that they are a hungry person’s meal away from impacting huge swaths of the world’s population — should give us all pause, and focus a global effort on saving elephants and other wild creatures. Likewise, if we imagine how much worse the challenges of the climate crisis will be than the pandemic — a scenario in which no looming vaccine will alleviate the crisis — it is clear that we need to stand up for and protect elephants and other megaherbivores.

Photo:  Melanie Hittrich

How a human pandemic is disrupting the lives of elephants

Written by Marguerite du Plessis

When the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in early 2020, industries slowed,  livelihoods changed, and humans around the world became housebound.  In  doing so, we largely retreated from a century’s long expansion into  natural habitats around the world, and this sudden shift in activity has  led to unexpected consequences, including disruptions to the lives of  several elephant populations.

As humans stepped inwards, some elephants stepped outwards.  Asian  and African elephants who previously had their movements restricted to  sanctuaries and wildlife reserves suddenly found themselves with fewer  human conservation officers maintaining a watchful eye.  This has led to  several examples of elephants modestly expanding their ranges in recent  months.  In Asia, it also meant that elephants working in the logging  or tourism industries no longer had to be subjected to daily labor.   Sadly, these two examples appear to be relatively minor benefits, and  they pale in comparison to the negative externalities that the human  pandemic is having on pachyderms.

Photo:  Melanie Hittrich

For African elephants living in parks and sanctuaries, their safety  is typically safeguarded by crews of rangers and caretakers, but with  international tourism coming to a halt, important sources of revenue  that would normally be invested into elephants are no longer coming in.   Charities also play a vital role in supporting elephant conservation,  but the economic conditions created by the pandemic are leading to fewer  dollars being donated to these worthy causes.  With fewer resources  available to invest in elephant protection, it seems inevitable that  poachers will be emboldened in their actions and that the ivory trade  will likely proliferate under these conditions.  Beyond poaching, for  their tusks, there has also been an increase in hunting elephants for  bushmeat.  Elephant meat presents an option for hungry locals who find  themselves in economic hardship and facing their starvation.

In Asia, before the pandemic, the most significant threat to elephant  populations was habitat loss due to expanding human settlement.  This  has taken the form of agricultural expansion plus the construction of  roads, canals, and fences that fragment elephant territory.  The result  has been rising instances of human-elephant conflict, with elephants  attempting to follow their ancient migratory routes then encountering  crops and property along the way.  This has led to animosities, as well  as human and elephant deaths.  During the pandemic, these major issues  have not dissipated.  In fact, COVID 19 has indirectly led to increased  elephant mobility.  This surge boosted instances where elephants are  encroaching on farmland and the resultant elephant deaths follow come  whenever farmers feel their livelihoods are at risk.

Photo:  canazwest pictures

In Thailand, where the majority of the elephant population has been  domesticated, the pandemic is having a notable impact.  The  approximately 3,800 domesticated elephants in Thailand generally help  earn their keep as entertainment attractions but the arrangement has  created a dependency to be fed.  In their natural habit, their diet  consists of grasses, leaves, roots, the bark of trees, bushes, and some  cultivate food such as bananas, rice, and sugarcane. However, in camps,  lots of this food needs to be purchased.  In Thailand it costs  approximately $40 a day to feed an elephant; however, that is  substantially more than the daily minimum wage. Before the pandemic  tourism contributed 20 percent of Thailand’s gross domestic product, a  large part of which were drawn from Chinese visitors.  Now many of the  elephant camps have had to close down or reduce operations.  Operators  are faced with the choice of continuing to feed and house the elephants  until the tourists return, or simply releasing the elephants into the  wild. However, their natural habitat has become more infiltrated with  human presence making the ideal opportunity to release domesticated  elephants into the wild a tricky to come by.

Photo:  canazwest pictures

“Once an elephant is captured and trained the elephants develop a  bond with the handler,” says Dr. Kushal Konwar Sarma, a veterinarian,  and member of Project Elephant, a government-sponsored wildlife  conservation program.  “If you release captive elephants into the wild  there is a familiarity problem.  These animals, which are trained, have  no fear of fire, have no fear of the gunshot wounds or firecrackers.”

However, research has shown that domesticated elephants can thrive in  the wild, but the right terrain and assistance is required.  The goal  is to reduce human-elephant conflict and that requires breaking the  habit of human dependence.  The Elephant Reintroduction Foundation has  demonstrated that this is possible with the reintroduction of over a  hundred domesticated elephants into Doi Pha Muang Wildlife Sanctuary,  Sublangka Wildlife Sanctuary, and Mae Wa-Mae Wok National Park in  Thailand.  For some elephants reintroduction is easier than others,  interestingly it turns out a key factor in their reintroduction success  is associated with human perception of elephants.

Elephant Reintroduction Foundation, Sublangka Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand Photo:  canazwest pictures

In India, where Dr. Sarma is based, the human population continues to  suffer under pandemic conditions, but here elephants have fared  somewhat better than other countries.  The value placed on elephants by  Hindus, which make up 80% of the population, is underscored by a belief  that elephants are sacred.  “As a matter of principle, people revere  elephants and feel very bad when elephants suffer from starvation or  diseases, so they try to help because they are helping their god,”  explained Dr. Sarma.

As most working elephants return to their handlers’ home villages  they are welcomed into mostly forested territories where there is a rich  supply of greenery and even some fruit like bananas and jackfruit.  In  Indian, the majority of elephants are wild, which means there is less  unexpected human-elephant interaction than in other Asian countries and  perhaps more opportunity for newly released elephants to successfully  locate safe territories.  The challenge becomes whether or not the  elephants choose to remain near human settlements.  It is when the  human-elephant interactions become unmanageable that elephant deaths  really start to rise, and the recent economic stress placed on farmers  by the pandemic has only escalated the human-elephant tension.

If adapting to the human pandemic wasn’t enough of a challenge for  elephants, one group of them may be facing a crisis of their own.  In  July, Botswana’s ministry of environment, natural resources  conservation, and tourism advised that 356 elephants [1]have  died since March 2020 of an unknown cause.  Neither the tusks nor meat  had been removed from the animal carcasses, which meant that poaching or  hunting were unlikely causes of death.  There does remain a chance that  elephants were poisoned, but thus far biological samples sent to 3  international labs have not been able to identify anything.  Scavengers  of these carcasses, like vultures and hyenas, have equally shown no  signs of poisoning or disease.  These deaths may not be related to COVID  19; moreover, it could not be pathogenic at all.  There are simply not  enough clues available to identify a cause yet.  What can be said is  that COVID19 has impeded the investigation, as shipments of these  biological samples are hindered by the current pandemic restrictions in  place.

While it is well known that humans and elephants have a long history  together, it has come rather as a surprise to see that it is the absence  of humans that have had the most pressing impact on elephants’  welfare.  It appears even in times of crises human and elephant behavior  is closely intertwined.

Photo:  Michael Clark

Marguerite du Plessis is a biologist and science journalist with a  passion for nature. Her writing has covered developing science as it  impacts communities and opinion editorials for the outdoor enthusiast.

Written by Patricia Sims, Co-Founder, World Elephant Day

One hundred and one elephants.

That’s how many of these magnificent creatures have been translocated 1,700 kilometers from South Africa to Mozambique to date by the Moving Giants elephant conservation initiative, the longest such translocation by road ever attempted.

On World Elephant Day last year we reported about the first Moving Giants translocation. It saw 48 elephants translocated in a herculean conservation effort that aims to move 200 elephants in three phases over three years from the Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (VLNR) in South Africa to Zinave National Park in Mozambique.

The second phase, with 53 more elephants translocated, was completed on June 27, 2019.

The vision, companies and organizations behind Moving Giants are huge. Indeed, they should be since moving 200 wild African elephants is no mean feat. The operation is funded entirely by De Beers Group, the international diamond company that owns the VLNR.

June/July 2019. Moving Giants 2019. Translocation of elephants from Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (South Africa) to Zinave National Park (Mozambique). Picture: James Oatway

It’s in partnership with Peace Parks Foundation, the not-for-profit transfrontier conservation organization that co-manages Zinave National Park with the Mozambique government, and Conservation Solutions, the world leader in wildlife translocation handling the complex logistics and veterinary care required for a safe, healthy journey for the elephants.

What prompted the creation of this expensive, mind-boggling operation? The 32,000-hectare (80,000 acres) VLNR was established in the early 1990s to preserve its impressive ecosystem of diverse flora and fauna, including ancient Baobab trees, more than 400 species of bird life and a variety of wildlife including giraffes, wild dogs, and three of the big five:  lions, leopards and elephants. By 2017, however, the reserve’s elephant population had grown to more than 270, exceeding its carrying capacity of between 60 and 70 elephants.

Elephants naturally roam great distances, contributing to forest health through seed dispersal from their dung. They clear pathways and find water other animals depend upon.  But when elephants don’t have enough area to roam freely, they can inadvertently harm trees and terrain, with potentially adverse effects on the ecosystem. The De Beers Group ecology team determined that the best way to save the VLNR ecosystem, and its plants and wildlife, was to find a new home for 200 of the elephants.

That home is 1,700 kilometers away in Zinave National Park, Mozambique.

Mozambique is still recovering from its 15-year civil war that ended in 1992, which caused the loss of more than one million human lives and much of its wildlife.

The country is now rebuilding its economy and resources, and re-wilding its national parks in hopes of creating a sustainable eco-tourism industry.  Zinave National Park, with more than 400,000 hectares, (1,000,000 acres) has a substantially higher rainfall and more lush variety of plant life than VLNR.  This “elephant paradise” with a carrying capacity for 500 elephants provides the newly introduced elephants a vast area to roam freely, helping to attract more wildlife, diversify the ecosystem and create local employment.

When reviewing Moving Giants and its win-win objective, we see a compelling, unprecedented human-elephant story and conservation initiative that demonstrates a remarkable commitment from a diverse group of people, companies and organizations.

During its second phase we caught up with some key participants to find out how the elephants translocated to Zinave so far are adapting.

The translocation of wild elephants is not new. Historically there have been failures and some elephant lives have been lost. Fortunately, advances have been made to find the best methods to ensure safety for the elephants in risky, unpredictable circumstances.

Kester Vickery and lead veterinarian Andre Uys of Conservation Solutions, have learned a thing or two themselves during their precedent-setting achievements with their organization that has moved 1,600 elephants, and thousands of rhinos and other animals.

Picture: James Oatway

One priority, they have learned, is the importance of transporting family groups together, ensuring matriarchs, moms and babies are moved as quickly as possible. Elephants have social and emotional bonds very similar to humans, in that the impact of separating family members is traumatic. The complex process includes rounding up the families by helicopter, darting to sedate them, loading the elephants on custom-designed covered trucks and transporting them before the final step:  their release into their new habitat.

It requires hours of orientation, safety briefings and the coordinated efforts of several skilled people, and a race against the clock.  The 1,700-kilometer, 40-hour journey is designed to be as stress-free and comfortable as possible for the elephants.

“I feel a huge sense of relief when the elephants are offloaded in their new home,” says Vickery. “I know then that the worst is over and that the elephants are home free!”

June 2019. Moving Giants 2019. Translocation of elephants from Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (South Africa) to Zinave National Park (Mozambique). Picture: James Oatway

The first 48 elephants have reportedly adapted well to their new life at Zinave, with the subsequent birth of baby elephants being a positive sign.

Picture: James Oatway

With a denser forest and larger habitat to roam, matriarchs have been outfitted with GPS collars for tracking.

Picture: James Oatway 

“They seem quite relaxed when encountered in the park,” says Bernard van Lente, Project Manager, Peace Parks Foundation. “The newly translocated elephants do sometimes intermingle with the first group but they generally stay within their family groups, which is normal elephant behavior.”

Before any of the elephants were brought to Zinave, Peace Park Foundation launched an educational program about environmental and economic benefits for local communities. The funding commitment of $500,000 from the Anglo American Foundation to Peace Parks to bolster its anti-poaching ranger training program is strengthening the protection of the elephants at the park against poaching.

Picture: James Oatway

The team has the first female anti-poaching rangers in Mozambique, which is also providing a new employment opportunity for women from local communities.  “I don’t think people realize how tough it is to be an anti-poaching ranger, and to watch these women do it is such a privilege”, adds Carina Kolodny, the project’s media producer.

“Moving Giants is the type of project that can only happen when a corporation empowers its employees to think big,”, says South Africa born Mpumi Zikalala, Managing Director of De Beers Group Managed Operations. “Finding a viable solution took a lot of people who were deeply committed to doing right by these elephants, thinking outside of the box,” she said. “I think this also demonstrates the power of partnerships. We can do more when we work together and capitalize on each other’s expertise.”

De Beers Group is putting its money where its mouth is. The company has an environmental impact offset, with six hectares set aside for conservation for every hectare of land affected by its mining operations.

“This equates to around 200,000 hectares [500,000 acres],” explains Matt Crabb, Senior Manager, Group Brand Communications, De Beers Group. “It’s not easy, but it is absolutely the right thing to do. I hope people will realize that businesses can, and should, be a force for good in this world.”

Picture: James Oatway

Vickery believes there will be a growing need for translocations.

“Mostly elephants are limited in their ability to migrate from one area to another due to fences and increased human populations which cut off their ancient migration routes. As populations grow in South Africa they [the elephants] will need to be moved.  The hope is that as new areas are protected they will open up new habitats for elephants.”

As human civilization continues to expand, so will the loss of natural habitat. We are going to be faced with the increasing need to re-wild and protect areas so that not only elephants, but all wildlife and plant species can continue to thrive. They all have a role to play in balancing ecosystems.  With the climate crisis upon us what better time for corporations to offset their negative environmental and social impacts of the past, act responsibly, and give back for the future.

Large mining corporations with vast resources and influence such as De Beers Group can set a positive example by making a commitment to preserving habitats, as opposed to exploiting resources only for a profitable bottom line.

Moving Giants shines as one such project that demonstrates how corporate actions of environmental and social good can make a positive difference for elephant conservation and the health of the planet.

The third phase of elephant translocation is planned for 2020. Stay tuned! To follow the Moving Giants story, the people behind the project, and progress of the elephants in their new home, please visit MovingGiants.org and Facebook @wearemovinggiants

Researched and Written by Anne Dillon Communications Director, World Elephant Day

with Patricia Sims Co-Founder, Executive Director, World Elephant Day

World Elephant Day 2018 is here, and, in keeping with tradition, we wanted to devote some time and attention to what’s happened for the elephants over the past year. There is, as always, good news and bad, but we are hopeful that the tide overall is beginning to turn in the elephants’ favor. Because so much is going on, what we detail below is not meant to be comprehensive. It is instead a summary update of some of the issues that the world’s elephants currently face, as well as an elaboration of other issues that have caught our attention and are a cause for continued concern. The big overarching problem, of course, remains human-elephant conflict (HEC): the classic, perennial struggle over land and resources. We report about it every year because it is a constant—the prevailing issue of the day. We’ll discuss it in more detail later in the review.

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

Trophy Hunting

Here’s the U.S. Administration’s position on trophy hunting:

To recap briefly, in November of 2017 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service announced that an existing Obama-era ban on importing legally hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia would be lifted. A public outcry ensued and President Trump then inserted himself into the equation by putting the reversal on hold for further review. At the same time, environmental groups filed a lawsuit challenging the reversal, in part because it violated the Endangered Species Act. In March of this year Fish and Wildlife announced it would allow trophy imports on a case-by-case basis. This too was challenged in court. Additional legal action ensued on August 1 when conservationists and animal rights activists brought suit against the recently formed (November 2017) International Wildlife Conservation Council (IWCC). According to a Department of the Interior press release issued at the time, the function of the council is to “provide advice and recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior. It will focus on increased public awareness domestically regarding conservation, wildlife law enforcement, and economic benefits that result from U.S. citizens traveling abroad to hunt.”

The council is a pro-hunting group of politically connected donors with ties to the gun industry. The August 1 lawsuit is contesting the group’s legality.

On another front, Botswana, the country with the largest number of African elephants on the continent, is contemplating lifting its elephant hunting ban. Botswana argues that it has too many elephants, with escalating human-elephant conflict as a result. One manifestation of this is the classic case of elephants raiding farmers’ crops. Apparently to Botswana’s way of thinking if the hunting ban is lifted some of these troublesome elephants will no longer be a problem. However, in this they make a fundamental miscalculation given that typically large bulls are targeted in a trophy hunt, which takes place during the dry season. Crop raiding, on the other hand, usually involves young bulls or herds of families foraging for food during the rainy season.

In any event, to even contemplate a lifting of the ban, Botswana must first determine exactly how many elephants it has. The government puts the population size at 237,000, while surveys conducted by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) and Elephants Without Borders (EWB) estimate 130,000 individuals.

There has been some talk that Botswana is deliberately inflating the numbers to justify a lifting of the ban. A new census is underway, the results of which will be published early in 2019. Initial findings, however, are exceedingly grim. They reveal an elephant poaching hot spot in Okavango Delta, a highly protected area of Botswana. This underscores that Botswana doesn’t necessarily have an elephant overpopulation problem. It would appear instead that it has a serious poaching problem.

One argument that is constantly trotted out in support of elephant hunting is that the money generated will be used for conservation purposes. However, corruption being an ever-present evil, this argument has a hard time holding water. Last year a study conducted by the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic found that sophisticated ivory trafficking in central Africa is driven largely by corruption. A glaring example is the recent allegation of ivory trafficking leveled at former first lady of Zimbabwe, Grace Mugabe. In another instance, in Mozambique, tusks stored by the government mysteriously seem to keep walking away. One of the three public servants arrested in connection with this was the Chief of Provincial Forestry and Wildlife Services in Niassa.

Captivity and Welfare

Zimbabwe has other PR problems when it comes to elephants, namely the continuing capture and export of them to Asia. In October of 2017, estimable wildlife journalists Christina Russo and Adam Cruise wrote a groundbreaking story in The Guardian on the subject. In it they reported that earlier in August, fourteen young elephants had been captured for sale to a Chinese national with a track record of animal neglect (see video here). These elephants were ultimately destined for Chinese zoos.

Earlier, as documented in a National Geographic article, seventeen elephants were exported from Swaziland to three zoos in the U.S.: the Dallas Zoo; the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas; and the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. Elephants captured for a life in captivity have been known to be as young as two years old. Problematically, at this tender age they remain reliant on their mother’s milk for survival. (For more on U.S. policy about the import of African elephants to American zoos, see this seminal interview with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.)

CITES regulates the trade in live animals, but there is ongoing concern that the trade requirements that CITES itself established are not being met—and yet the trade continues. In the years 1990 to 2015, per the CITES trade database, 1,774 wild African elephants were exported. Five hundred and eighty-three of them were destined for circuses and traveling shows, and 331 of them were destined for zoos.

As if being torn from their families and incurring abuse in the process weren’t enough, typically zoo elephants are fated to an existence marked by misery and isolation, as filmed by the renowned Australian writer/wildlife conservationist Sharon Pincott when she visited the Beijing Zoo this year (see her videos here). Other zoos across Asia also tend to isolate the animals, although in Japan there are some faint hints this might be changing.

Elephant lovers and animal rights activists know that elephants are extremely social creatures. They also argue that they are not “things.” Indeed, they are autonomous creatures and as such are entitled to choose how to live their lives, which includes the right of bodily liberty. That, specifically, is being argued in an ongoing legal case that aims to release elephants from a Connecticut zoo.

Elephant captivity is always a bad idea, no matter where it is.

India grapples with the issue, given that so many elephant there are used and abused in temple ceremonies. There are roughly 10,000 processions or ceremonies in one Indian state alone (Kerala) and it is traditional to feature elephants in many of them. This is big business, with big bucks—as much as $5,000 per day per elephant—changing hands between elephant owners and temple authorities.

The litany of abuses that these captive temple elephants suffer is seemingly endless: many are deaf from the thundering festival noises and fireworks they’re forced to endure day in and day out—often for twelve hours a day without respite. Many aren’t adequately fed, housed, or otherwise cared for, resulting in lung abnormalities, intestinal problems, and severe dehydration, among other problems. Routinely they are forced to stand and walk on hot tarmac and, during their mating period when their hormones are surging (“musth”), they are not permitted to act on their natural aggression. Instead they are given hormone-suppressing drugs that damage their internal organs.

Forty-six captive elephants died in 2016 and 2017 in Kerala alone. In 2018 to date in that Indian state, seventeen captive elephants have died, largely due to the abuse they suffer day in and day out. Fortunately, thanks to Asian elephant activists like Sangita Iyer and her seminal documentary film Gods in Shackles, a spotlight is being cast on the bleak temple elephant scenario. We hope that change is in the air—and more importantly on the ground, where it matters most.

There is also the issue of elephants in circuses. The great news in this department continues to be that Ringling Brothers shut down in May of 2017 after having ended its elephant act the year before.  

In terms of the bigger picture, the use of wild animals in circuses has been prohibited in forty countries worldwide. Canada has thirty local bans in place. In the U.S., in more than eighty jurisdictions in twenty-nine states, full or partial bans are in effect. (For a full listing, click here.) Illinois was the first state to ban elephants in circuses and travelling exhibitions, and a handful of other states are contemplating this too. Legislation that would provide a blanket ban, The Traveling Exotic Animal and Public Safety Protection Act, is also being considered on the federal level in the U.S.

In the U.K., the public is lobbying to ban advertising that promotes vacation destinations where elephant riding is featured or that involve live shows in which elephants are part of the act.

And the state of Uttarakhand in India has just outlawed the commercial use of all elephants. It would be great if India’s twenty-eight other states follow suit!

Hopefully some of these positive trends, which reflect the global public’s growing sensitivity to the elephants’ welfare, will gain momentum in the days and weeks ahead.  

PERNICIOUS POACHING  

As we know, the poaching of elephants in the wild remains an ongoing problem. Given that the death rate of African elephants still exceeds the birth rate, and because of other factors such as HEC, the overarching elephant population of Africa continues to decline.

That said, as of October 2017, according to CITES, in eastern Africa the rate of poaching has dropped to 2008 (pre-crisis) levels and overall across Africa poaching is down.

However, various pockets in Africa can’t report the same good news. Elephant poaching is increasing in some areas of the south, particularly Kruger National Park in South Africa and in northern Mozambique. To help address this, a stirring conservation project by the name of Moving Giants is bringing elephants from South Africa to Mozambique. South Africa’s Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (VLNR) has a carrying capacity of sixty elephants, but as of this July had more than 270 elephants. To ensure the long-term biodiversity of that fragile ecosystem, 200 elephants have to be moved to another home.

After extensive research, that new home was chosen: Mozambique, whose national parks lost nearly all of their wildlife after a devastating civil war (1977–1992). Moving Giants is the largest elephant “re-wilding” effort ever attempted, from South Africa to Mozambique, as 200+ elephants will journey 1,500 kilometers to their new home. In the initial phase of the process fifty-two elephants were moved, four of whom did not survive the experience.

The Moving Giants initiative is a collaboration between the owner of VLNR, De Beers Group; Mozambique and South Africa’s governments; and Peace Parks Foundation (PPF), the NGO managing many national parks for Mozambique. Moving Giants’ website (MovingGiants.org) will have full coverage, an autumn video series, and inspiring elephant-oriented news from around the globe.

In addition to what’s going on in southern Africa, the elephants of central Africa have also been under continued duress from poaching. Here the forest elephant populations have suffered precipitous declines of more than 60% since 2002, resulting in their now inhabiting only one-quarter of their former range in the Congo basin. Minkébé National Park, for instance, in Gabon, has witnessed an 80% decline of its forest elephants in the last ten years. The situation here is so appalling that the British Army has stepped in to train eco-guards in military tactics and techniques.

The forest elephants of Central Africa are also increasingly being plundered by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Under the direction of its leader Joseph Kony the LRA is using the revenues derived from the sale of contraband ivory to fund its nefarious network. Sadly, when we lose the forest elephants we lose the forests, and their capacity—as the planet’s second set of lungs after the Amazon rain forest—to generate oxygen.

Fortunately, five central African countries are coming together to work collaboratively to improve legal enforcement measures in the region by sharing intelligence information about wildlife crimes.Concerns about poaching and trafficking are certainly valid but often serve to mask the underlying mother of all concerns: Demand. Until the public appetite for ivory slackens, it will continue to be one step forward, two steps back on all of these other fronts.

A recent study undertaken by USAID Wildlife Asia, Beijing Normal University, and the marketing concern GlobeScan pinpointed the Chinese consumer’s appetite for and awareness about elephant ivory. One of the study’s more sobering findings was that less than half of the (Chinese) respondents were aware of China’s recent ivory ban. The study also found that 82 percent of those Chinese people surveyed who had purchased ivory in the past intend to purchase it again.  

In addition to elephants being poached for ivory, they continue to be poached to supply a new demand for their skin. This is particularly true in Myanmar, where the skin is ground up for use as medicine and for jewelry, with Chinese customers being the recipients of both products.

JUSTICE: THE UNBALANCED EQUATION

In October of 2017, CITES reported that while the global trade in illegal ivory stayed the same (as it had been for the past six years), the number of large-scale ivory seizures in 2016 was at an all-time high. An example of a truly spectacular seizure is the recent Operation Thunderstorm, news of which broke in June of 2018. This massive seizure involved ninety-two countries and the confiscation of thousands of live animals as well as many other types of wildlife contraband, including elephant meat and 1.3 tons of ivory.

In terms of sentences for wildlife crimes, across Africa they remain uneven. In Kenya, where elephant populations are now relatively stable, a man found in possession of thirteen pieces of ivory was recently given a jail sentence of eight years.

Indeed, reflecting the gravity with which Kenya’s government views the problem, there has been some talk of establishing the death penalty for wildlife poaching in Kenya. (Currently a poacher faces life imprisonment or the payment of a fine not less than 20 million shillings, about $200,000 U.S.) Although overall Kenya is headed in the right direction in terms of deterrent sentencing for wildlife crimes (poaching and trafficking), in early August of this year a Kenyan judge reversed an earlier court decision that had put ivory trafficking kingpin Feisal Mohammed behind bars for twenty years. That reversal is being appealed but in the meantime, Mohammed is free.

Elsewhere, in Zimbabwe, a man was recently sentenced to ten years behind bars for ivory possession. (Per the Great Elephant Census, Zimbabwe had 82,000+ elephants in 2014.)

Contrast these prison sentences with those of Central Africa and in particular, Gabon. Gabon harbors 50 to 60 percent of the world’s remaining 45,000 forest elephants, and as noted above, these elephants are being poached at an astronomical rate. And yet prison penalties for wildlife crimes in Gabon are typically only a maximum of six months, as mandated by Articles 92, 274, and 275 of the Gabonese Forest Code. Gabon’s president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, is allegedly a friend of the elephants. This being so, why do these penalties remain so low?  (Just sayin’…)

MARKETS CLOSING

In the plus column, the world’s ivory markets are slowly beginning to shutter. China’s ivory ban, effective as of the beginning of this year, is a huge step in the right direction. However, there has been an uptick in trade in nearby Laos, where many customers are Chinese tourists buying ivory trafficked through Thailand. (USAID conducted a recent study on demand for elephant ivory in Thailand, well worth reading; found here.)

Taiwan has announced it will close its legal ivory market, to take effect in January of 2020, while nearby Japan is implementing tighter trade restrictions and registration procedures for raw ivory. (According to the World Wildlife Fund, between 2011 and 2016 Japan illegally exported over 2.4 tons of ivory to China.)

Singapore tells us that it is contemplating a domestic ivory ban. It banned ivory import and export in 1990, although ivory that entered Singapore prior to 1990 is legal.  

The trade in these Pacific Rim countries must be closed for Chinese demand to drop. If this happens and enforcement is strengthened, then perhaps China’s appetite for ivory will ultimately wither away.  

Last year, the U.K. was named as the world’s largest exporter of legal ivory between 2010 and 2015. This helped put pressure on that country to close up shop. A bill to close ivory loopholes in the U.K. is currently wending its way through Parliament there. Pressure is on the E.U. to do likewise, especially given that a recent study by Elephant Action League, Avaaz, and Oxford University found illegal ivory for sale in ten E.U. countries.  

Down Under, Australia has recently conducted public hearings as to whether or not its present legislative stance on ivory trading needs to be improved upon. Currently, domestic trade within Australia is legal but importing ivory is not. There is some speculation that Australia may follow the U.K.’s lead in further tightening its trade. An ivory crush in Melbourne on World Wildlife Day (March 3) destroyed over 100 kilograms of ivory and rhino horn donated by the public, indicating a growing general awareness about the poaching crisis and the desire to do something to end it. (Over 500 kilograms of ivory were destroyed in Nice, France, on May 30 as well.)

In the U.S. nine states have outlawed the ivory trade within state borders: California, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington, New Hampshire, and most recently,  Illinois.  Massachusetts has been valiantly trying for some time to pass an ivory ban bill and although H19 passed their House of Representatives, they must restart their efforts with the advent of the new legislative session in January 2019. Vermont is also going to resume the fight to pass an ivory ban bill in 2019.

As regards Canada, despite repeated pressure being put on that country’s government by way of a petition that 125,000 elephant lovers have signed, urging Canada to close its legal trade and ban imports and exports, Canada remains impervious and intractable on the issue.

Meanwhile online, Facebook faces allegations of SEC violations as they pertain to that platform’s trade in illegal products, including elephant ivory.

THE DIRE TRAJECTORY: HUMAN ELEPHANT CONFLICT (HEC)

Across the African continent elephant habitat is rapidly shrinking or being otherwise infringed upon: Virunga and Salonga National Parks in DRC will be opened up for oil drilling; a large-scale logging project is being planned for the Selous Reserve in Tanzania; and human encroachment is adversely impacting forests in Ghana. This shrinking of the elephants’ range will only serve to worsen human-elephant conflict (HEC) in these areas.

HEC is more acute in Asia than in Africa, but prevails in both places nonetheless. When contemplating this issue, it’s helpful to keep in mind the results of a recent, shocking study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It ascertained that mankind represents only 0.01% of all living things, yet since the beginning of civilization we have been responsible for the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of the world’s plants. Today, according to the study, “60% of all mammals on Earth are livestock, mostly cattle and pigs, 36% are human and just 4% are wild animals.”

It’s worth noting that the farts and burps of livestock are a major source of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. “Scientists calculate that over a 100-year period the ‘global-warming potential’ of the gas [methane] is 28 times greater than for carbon dioxide.” Thus does the increasing cultivation of livestock for food contribute directly to climate change. This serves to perpetuate the downward spiral of deleterious effects—such as drought, flooding, and wildfires—upon wildlife and the planet.

Because of the dire trajectory that these findings imply, we continue to believe that solutions to HEC must start with an honest acknowledgement of the need to limit the growth of the human family on the planet, (currently 7.5 billion people). Without this, all other attempts to mitigate HEC fall short.

India currently has 1.3 billion people, and if the current fertility rate prevails (2.4 births per woman), that country’s population is expected to be in the neighborhood of 1.8 billion by 2050 and 2.5 billion by 2100. Last year, India told its parliament that in the past eight years, elephant deaths due to HEC were in the neighborhood of 700. It also stated that in terms of human HEC casualties, 1100 persons were killed in the previous three years.

That’s India. As regards Africa, its population is currently 1.2 billion people, expected to climb to 2.4 billion by 2050.

And we think human-elephant conflict is an issue today? …

That’s why it’s important to have a whole-systems approach when considering HEC solutions. This begins with an appreciation of the fact that elephants are migratory creatures and their traditional migration paths and corridors must be maintained, without human encroachment, and respected. In short, elephants must be prioritized and in this, be allowed to retain their right of way. For further reading on India’s elephant corridors, please see the definitive study entitled “Right of Passage,” published in 2017 by the Wildlife Trust of India.

According to a recent article in India’s Deccan Herald, as of last year only 1.8% of India’s 101 elephant corridors had no human settlements in them. 1.8%! Surely India can do better.

The same article goes on to say that 20% of India’s corridors are crisscrossed by rail tracks. As many people know, elephant mortality as a result of railway accidents is very high in India. Indeed, from July 1987 to mid-2017, trains there killed 266 pachyderms.  

HEC remedies that are being tried include speed restrictions on the tracks as well as the construction of  ramps across them so that elephants may have protected pathways over which to cross and otherwise maneuver out of the way of approaching trains. Oftentimes animals are drawn to litter and food discarded by railway passengers. One recent initiative in Karnataka involved cleaning up this trash, thereby mitigating elephant train deaths. In some parts of India, the sound of bees buzzing acts as a deterrent to the elephants, who fear getting stung. In other areas, sensors alert the forest department as to when an elephant is about to cross the tracks, thereby allowing them to chase the creature away before an accident occurs. In addition to being killed by trains, elephants are being electrocuted by high-tension wires at an alarming rate. A possible antidote to this is to insulate the wires with cable, which is presently being tried in India.

In terms of additional solutions to HEC, beehive fences, pioneered Dr. Lucy King at Save the Elephants in Kenya, are increasingly being used across Asia to keep elephants from farmers’ crops. One variation of this is to deter elephants by subjecting them to a blend of chemicals that simulate the alarm pheromones of honeybees. In Sri Lanka, electric fences are employed to keep elephants at bay, while early warning systems in India are proving to be quite effective, too. (Speaking of Sri Lanka, the government there will be undertaking a census of its elephants this year. The last census in 2011 put the number of wild Sri Lankan elephants at slightly more than 5800.)

In Southeast Asia, elephants’ pillaging of crops used in the production of palm oil is leading to increasing friction between man and beast, with elephants being killed in retaliation by irate farmers. As many people know, palm oil is ubiquitous and as such, difficult to avoid. It’s found in processed food, make-up, soap, and innumerable other consumer goods. (A list of some of the various names that palm oil goes by can be found here.)

Old open wells that elephants fall into and can’t escape from remains a large—and largely unaddressed—problem. The Wildlife Trust of India has made some headway in covering over these deathtraps, but these efforts need to be replicated across Asia. (The state of Odisha alone has 5,000 open wells.)

In Cambodia, that country’s increased appetite for bushmeat is resulting in baby elephants being caught in snares, with many of them dying as a result.  

NEW INSIGHTS INTO OUR ELEPHANT FRIENDS

This year scientists continued to explore what makes elephants and other critters tick. The following are some of those findings.

The nose knows: The elephants’ sense of smell is extremely developed. They top the list in terms of the number of smell receptors they have—more than any other mammal on the planet!

Why elephants’ balls don’t descend. (C’mon, we know you want to know!)

Elephant activity changes to avoid poachers.

Elephants exhibit an array of complex emotions, just as humans do.

Finally—critters like to chit-chat too! (And if you want to “speak like an elephant,” learn how here!)

APPOINTMENTS AND DEPARTURES

In December 2017, Prince Harry was appointed the new president of African Parks, which manages thirteen of Africa’s parks in conjunction with local communities of behalf of the government.

John Scanlon is stepping down as Secretary-General of the CITES Secretariat after eight years of dedicated service.

WE MOURN THEIR PASSING

This year we lost some outstanding individuals who spent their lives protecting the elephants of the world. We acknowledge them here.

South African Wayne Lotter, renowned conservationist, was shot and killed in August of 2017 in Tanzania. The director and co-founder of the PAMS Foundation, established in 2009, was 51. The PAMS Foundation is an NGO that supports local communities in Africa in the fight against poaching and trafficking. It was Wayne Lotter’s belief that PAMS had effectively decreased poaching in Tanzania by 50 percent or more. Wayne is the posthumous recipient of the prestigious International Ranger Federation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed in acknowledgment for his years spent working to prevent elephant poaching and trafficking in Tanzania and Africa.

Esmond Bradley Martin, a prominent American investigator of the illegal trade in ivory and rhino horn, was killed in his Nairobi home, Kenya, on February 4, 2018. Police surmise that the murder may have been part of a botched robbery attempt or a deliberate murder attributable to his work to end ivory and rhino horn trafficking—or that his death was precipitated by a contentious local land-grab dispute. A UN special envoy on rhino conservation, Esmond Martin was highly regarded in the conservation community. His views and analysis were frequently solicited by wildlife conservation organizations as well as the House of Commons. He was 75.

We continue our never-ending salute to the innumerable rangers who serve to protect the world’s wildlife every night and day. According to the World Ranger Day In Memoriam list, 128 confirmed ranger deaths occurred in the last twelve months. Words cannot adequately convey our appreciation to these relatively unsung heroes of the conservation world who tirelessly and humbly work to preserve that which we all love the most.

Last, but by no means least, the Grande Dame of elephant conservation, Daphne Marjorie Sheldrick, passed away on April 12, 2018, of breast cancer at the age of 83. Born in the British colony of Kenya in June of 1934, Daphne wed renowned naturalist and founder warden of Tsavo East (Kenya’s largest national park) in 1960. Soon thereafter Daphne perfected a milk formula that successfully replicated a mother elephant’s milk, without which a baby elephant will not survive. The wildlife conservation work she performed with her husband included rehabilitating orphaned animals for release back into the wild. She established the now legendary David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in her husband’s memory after his death in 1977.

She is the recipient of an M.B.E. bestowed by the Queen of England in 1989 for her work protecting Africa’s wildlife. In addition, in the 2006 New Year’s Honors List, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Dr. Daphne Sheldrick to Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick is the recipient of numerous other prestigious accolades and awards.

We conclude our Annual Review this year with Daphne’s insightful words about why we love elephants so much.

“Their tremendous capacity for caring is, I think, perhaps the most amazing thing about them.

They have all of the best attributes of us humans and not very many of the bad.”

Written by Patricia Sims, Co-Founder, World Elephant Day

Each year for World Elephant Day we put a lot of our elephant conservation attention toward the ivory poaching crisis threatening African elephants, and the tourism and captivity issues that the endangered Asian elephants face. Yet the larger conservation challenge of habitat loss for both African and Asian elephants is looming. Our increasing encroachment on elephant habitat throughout Africa and Asia is putting elephants at greater risk, resulting in human-elephant conflict issues, and the demise of elephant populations and the ecosystems that they, as a keystone species, maintain.

So what are the solutions?  Can moving elephants – from one location where there isn’t enough space for them –  to another location where there aren’t enough elephants,  help solve this issue? At the heart of this critical elephant conservation conundrum is a partnership between the De Beers Group –  the world’s leading diamond company – and Peace Parks Foundation, a leading not-for-profit organization focused on the preservation of large cross-border ecosystems.  They have just completed the first phase of the largest and longest translocation of elephants ever recorded in South Africa. This translocation project is called “Moving Giants.”

23 July 2018. Elephant Relocation from Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (South Africa) to Zinave Reserve (Mozambique). Picture: JAMES OATWAY

Over the course of several weeks between mid-July and early August 2018, forty-eight elephants were moved 1,700 km between the Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (VLNR), a conservation area owned by the De Beers Group in South Africa, to Mozambique’s Zinave National Park.  The reason for this translocation was to address the issue of too many elephants living in the VLNR, which is 32,000 hectares and only has the carrying capacity for approximately sixty elephants.  Yet, as of July 2018, VLNR had a population of approximately 270 elephants, which far exceeds what this region can support, and which negatively impacts its ecological health.  By comparison, the 400,000 hectare Zinave National Park, which at the beginning of this year only had eight elephants, would benefit greatly with more elephants to help replenish its ecosystem. As Bernard van Lente, Peace Parks Foundation’s Project Manager in Zinave National Park explains, “The normal processes that elephants drive – recycling vegetation, pushing over trees which creates different opportunities for insect life, hiding places for small animals – these processes driven by elephants are not taking place in Zinave.  Disturbance stimulates diversity – we don’t have these processes without elephants”.

As a solution to these two conservation problems the Moving Giants project was undertaken with the intention to create a win-win for both the elephants and their habitats.  This initiative is the first phase in the translocation process, with second phase plans to move the remaining 150 elephants next year. It is an ambitious project, and a positive step forward for elephant conservation.  But it is not without risks.

23 July 2018. Elephant Relocation from Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (South Africa) to Zinave Reserve (Mozambique). Picture: JAMES OATWAY

One of the world’s leading experts in elephant translocation strategies, Kester Vickery, Co-Founder of Conservation Solutions, was enlisted to oversee and strategize this logistically complex undertaking.  The operation involved an array of technology ranging from helicopters, all-terrain vehicles, transport trucks, GPS monitoring, a series of tranquilizing medications for the elephants, and a team of veterinarians – all brought together to ensure the elephants’ safety remained a top priority.  Yet even with all these safety measures in place, Kester says, “In short, it is risky for the elephants and the crew.  A lot of this risk is mitigated by having an experienced crew doing the capture, having efficient recovery equipment to limit the time that the elephants are under the immobilization procedure, and planning border crossings and logistical concerns before the operation starts.   To put this in context you need to weigh up the translocation risks versus the outcome of other means of population control like culling”.

23 July 2018. Elephant Relocation from Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (South Africa) to Zinave Reserve (Mozambique). Picture: JAMES OATWAY

Ironically the over-population issue that elephants face in South Africa due to limited habitat puts them at risk on many fronts, whether it be culling, human-elephant conflict, trophy hunting, or poaching.  In the first phase of the Moving Giants project fifty-two elephants, which made up seven breeding herds, were selected for translocation.   Although four elephants unfortunately did not survive the translocation process, the forty-eight elephants that are now successfully living in Zinave have the opportunity to thrive in a new habitat that offers a better future for them and the new ecosystem they inhabit.

As difficult as it is to justify the tragic loss of these four elephants, it is important to recognize the costs of action versus the costs of inaction, which are ultimately greater.

Piet Oosthuizen, De Beers Group’s Senior Ecology Manager states that “People around the world need to recognize that Africa has unique challenges.  In South Africa, we are seriously challenged by excess elephant populations”.  With not enough habitat in South Africa for these elephants to live in, contraception vaccines are darted into the elephants from helicopters as a method of birth control.  The Moving Giants project creates a new opportunity for elephants that would otherwise be subjected to contraception. Now they can continue their natural reproductive process that will ensure growth in elephant populations in the African countries where their numbers are declining.

The question of how and if the elephants will be protected from poachers in Zinave is addressed by the well-established anti-poaching squad of over fifty trained rangers that operates within its 400,000 hectare boundaries.  Zinave is co-managed through a formal agreement between Mozambique’s National Administration for Conservation Areas and Peace Parks Foundation.  Peace Park Foundation will carry out ongoing monitoring of the elephant’s health and numbers and ensure that they remain protected.    

30 July 2018. Elephant Relocation from Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (South Africa) to Zinave Reserve (Mozambique). Picture: JAMES OATWAY

The Zinave National Park has reportedly not had any cases of elephant poaching for more than three years.  To provide additional anti-poaching support, the De Beers Group is providing US$500,000 over the next five years to Peace Park Foundation for support to Zinave and other areas in Mozambique where the elephants will be translocated in the second phase of the Moving Giants project.

Large corporations such as De Beers that have had a negative environmental footprint due to their mining operations are in the position to step up responsibly and reciprocate with funds and positive action to help solve conservation problems. More corporations would do well to follow suit with similar conservation commitments to protect habitat and ensure a future for elephants in Africa.

Annual Review 2017

Written by Erika Mansourian, with Anne Dillon and Patricia Sims

Founder’s Note:

This year marks our 6th Annual World Elephant Day campaign. We here at World Elephant Day are very proud of how the day has grown year after year after year. Our global media reach continues to blossom, signifying that our impact is ever-expanding — which means that increasing numbers of people are becoming conscious about what’s really at stake for the elephants.

For World Elephant Day, one of our goals has been to put together an annual review of what’s happened in the world for elephants over the past year: the milestones, the successes, and the work that still needs to be done.  

For this year’s review, our guest writer is Erika Mansourian, a well-known and passionate elephant advocate and conservationist who has worked with several elephant organizations. Anne Dillon, our Communications Director, works in a variety of capacities on behalf of the elephants. She provided background research for this report, as well as editorial support in the writing of it.

We hope you enjoy it and we look forward to your feedback amid the rumblings and trumpeting currently underway for World Elephant Day 2017!

Elephantically yours,

Patricia Sims Co-Founder, World Elephant Day President, World Elephant Society

What are the encouraging developments and the intractable challenges from the world of elephants since last August 12th? We’ll try to take that on in this update, which focuses on the state of the extraordinary but beleaguered elephant. The landscape for elephants, literally and figuratively, continues to shift, so there is more news than we can possibly cover. But here are some highlights, shared with the hope that both the good news and the bad will motivate you to commit your time, skills, and creativity to saving the most worthy of animals. Our greater hope is that one year soon we will be able to report even more positive progress and fewer grim statistics.

In December, China made a stunning announcement: it will ban all commerce in ivory by the end of 2017. Coming from the world’s largest consumer of ivory, the move may deal a blow to elephant poaching in Africa. This follows on the heels of the Obama administration’s near total ban on the commercial trade in elephant ivory. Hong Kong says it intends to ban ivory by 2021, Japan’s internet retail giant Rakuten Ichiba has ended all sales of elephant ivory, and there have recently been high-profile trafficking busts throughout Southeast Asia, Europe, and the U.S., signaling that the noose is tightening around traffickers of (primarily African) ivory. Of course, far more must be done to reduce the supply, demand, and killing.

That said, with a handful of bold actions offering a glimmer of hope for the African elephant, this year we’d like to emphasize the ongoing plight of the Asian elephant, both wild and captive.

Captive Asian Elephants: A Pachyderm Paradox

There is a stark contradiction in the current state of captive Asian elephant welfare.

Growing Awareness, Changing Behavior

·       Well-meaning but uninformed tourists are becoming more aware of the gruesome reality behind the scenes at elephant riding camps and venues where elephants are forced to perform. According to World Animal Protection, 60% of the people it surveyed said they would avoid tour operators whose activities cause suffering to wild animals.

·       Circuses that exploit exotic animals are closing down due to diminishing sales, including the most famous of them all, Ringling Bros.

·       Legitimate sanctuaries such as Elephant Sanctuary Brazil are opening.

·       Ethical elephant tourism guides and lists of places to consider visiting are currently available; they offer advice as to best practices for interacting with and viewing captive elephants and various forms of wildlife.

·       Some safari camps are no longer offering rides and other places never have.

·       More than 160 travel companies have signed a pledge to stop promoting and selling travel packages that include elephant entertainment. (For a full list of elephant-friendly travel companies, visit World Animal Protection’s site. They include Peregrine, Albatross Travel, Jetair, Qantas Vacations, AAT Kings, APT, Helloworld, Harvey World Travel, and Expedia.)

Elephant Exploitation: Progress is Slow and in Some Places, the Situation is Worsening

Over 3,000 captive elephants in Asia are enduring abuse and neglect, living for years in chains when they’re not being forced to carry heavy burdens of tourists or perform unnatural and painful tricks. Sadly, between 2010 and 2016 there has been a 30% rise in the number of elephants used in tourism in Thailand.

The exportation of wild elephants into captivity is a deflating indication that demand for entertainment and tourism is, in some areas, still thriving. In December, Zimbabwe airlifted 35 wild elephants to a zoo in China, some as young as three years old. As can be imagined, the transport was a living hell for the animals. This June, it was revealed that the Namibian government planned to capture and sell five baby elephants to the Dubai Safari Park in United Arab Emirates. It is believed the elephants would be used for riding, so the brutal practice of “breaking” them in is inevitable.

Wild Asian Elephants: The World Closes In

Human-Elephant Conflict

The problem is straightforward: Too many people and not enough space for elephants. The causes are not as simple — there a just too many of them.

Human population growth threatens elephant territory, most notably ancient migration corridors that elephants have trod for millennia. Seeking new routes, they’re frequently struck by trains or electrocuted. Nearly 300 wild elephants died in India’s Orissa State in the past five years; most of the deaths were caused by accidental electrocution. More than 1,200 trains crisscross the country, through some of the most vulnerable wildlife habitats. In the past three years alone,   40 elephants have been killed by trains in India, according to the government.

Elephants in search of food and water frequently rampage villages and attack villagers, who kill them. In Odisha, 388 elephants died in man-animal conflict in just six years.  

Industrial development such as the palm oil trade in Sumatra and logging camps and infrastructure expansion choke off the highly limited land for elephants and other wildlife.

Poaching and illegal trafficking is an ongoing scourge throughout India and Asia.

Perhaps most heartbreaking is the capture and smuggling of wild baby elephants in Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and elsewhere to feed the appetite of the tourism trade. Solutions Planned or in Place

The solutions for protecting wild elephants can be as varied as the problems. Recently, a panel of experts shared their ideas for better co-existence. Foremost is pushing conservation to a higher priority on the political agenda, giving a voice to suffering human communities, and promoting the intrinsic value of elephants.

Corridors and Underpasses

In India alone there are 88 wild elephant corridors, making it impossible to secure them all. But both government agencies and NGO alliances are expending resources to create sustainable spaces for jumbos. Villagers are voluntarily relocated to safer areas to ensure their peace of mind, such as 38 families in Assam, India, in 2016.

To address strikes by trains, providing the Indian public with a more complete list of elephant-crossings and lowering train speeds in those areas will hopefully reduce the number of elephant deaths. Beehive fences are increasingly being used to deter crop-raiding pachyderms. The cost is low relative to their effectiveness.

The future of the Asian elephant can seem unnervingly precarious. For many conservation organizations, agencies, and individuals, though, giving up is not an option.

African Elephant Update

As with the Asian elephant, the past 12 months have brought some surprisingly promising news from some African countries, but also a continuing downward trend in others. Census results reflect the contradiction.

Numbers Up, Numbers Down

According to an aerial survey by the Kenya Wildlife Service, there has been a 72% increase in the number of elephants in the Maasai Mara Conservancy and the Tsavo-Mkomazi ecosystems since 2014, and poaching in Kenya generally saw a decline in 2016. It goes without saying —but we’ll repeat the refrain anyway — upticks like these are relatively slim. Kenya will complete a broader elephant survey by the end of 2018.

A shocking 730,000 elephants are missing across 73 protected areas in southern Africa, according to a new study from the University of Pretoria (UP).

Perhaps most troubling of all, this spring an aerial survey of a large swath of northern Central African Republic (CAR), conducted with funding from the Great Elephant Census, a Paul G. Allen Project, observed no elephants at all, nor even any sign of them. Surveys of the area in 1977 estimated 35,093 elephants; by 2010 only an estimated 68 elephants remained in the landscape.

Keeping the Faith: Steady Steps Yield Sustainable Results

Three tourism agencies in China have stated that they will phase out their promotion of elephant riding, and other forms of entertainment at the elephants’ expense, in the travel destinations of India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.

Beehive fences are being increasingly used in Africa (where they originated). In Gabon — home to 45,000 forest elephants — electric fences are allowing people and elephants to better co-exist.

Elephant riding camps in Botswana and South Africa have ended the practice.

Malawi is in the midst of relocating a total of 500 elephants from the Lower Shire district of Chikwawa to the country’s central grasslands and woodlands.

There has been a decline in the legal trade in China. Indeed, that country’s resolve to ban its legal commercial ivory trade has sparked a dramatic downturn in ivory prices throughout Asia, including in Bangkok’s black market.

For decades Japan has ignored an international ban on poached ivory. Now it’s taking small but meaningful steps to join other countries, while giant retailers also commit to stop the sale of ivory products.

On the trafficking side, in June a cross-border African task force cracked a major ivory trafficking ring moving ivory from Uganda to Singapore by way of Kenya, and in July, the Environmental Investigation Agency published news that the small town of Shuidong in Guangdong province in southern China has been a seminal ivory trafficking hub; 80% of all poached ivory from Africa passes through this one pivot point.

CITES 2016

African elephants and rhinos were front and center at the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), held in Johannesburg last October. Held every three years, with 183 member countries, the conference had 62 individual proposals under consideration, but with an unprecedented 30% decline in the African elephant population between 2007 and 2014, elephants were high on the agenda. In the past, CITES has sometimes frustrated conservationists with its decisions mired in political interests, but this year it is believed to have had more highs than lows for wildlife protection.

Bans for Conservation and Welfare

Here are a few of the notable rulings and ivory-ban legislation from around the world.

As the largest city in the world, in July of this year New York City set a powerful example by banning all performing exotic animals, and a ban on the use of elephants in entertainment is awaiting the governor’s signature in New York State.

According to the Humane Society of the US, ivory sales are currently illegal in California, New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington State. This year, Nevada joined their ranks. Ivory-ban legislation is being considered in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Massachusetts.

On the world stage, France announced an ivory ban last August, and last month Hong Kong launched a bill that would ban the import and export of ivory by 2021.

Over in the UK, the Labour Party Manifesto 2017 is calling for a total ban on trade in ivory. Prime Minister Theresa May abandoned her previous commitment to a ban. A startling report last August revealed that thousands of ivory products are on sale throughout Britain. On the upside, last November the country pledged £13 Million ($17 million) to tackle illegal wildlife trade.

Deploying More Tech Tools

The tech industry was initially sluggish in contributing their innovations and products to the battle to save elephants. Rangers, law enforcement, guards, and communities relied on their weapons, their eyes and ears, and a simple determination to protect their wildlife. Now, Silicon Valley is teaming up with conservation organizations, and everything from solar fences to GPS telemetry to whatsapp is helping to level the playing field.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, whose Great Elephant Census was as comprehensive as it was alarming, wants to cover 90,000 square miles of Africa with smart sensors and drones by the end of the year: the Domain Awareness System (DAS) is the most ambitious tech-focused conservation project yet.

Cutting edge DNA barcoding, which uses short DNA sequences to accurately identify species, is becoming an effective courtroom tool for prosecuting wildlife crime. With a grant from Google, the Barcode for Wildlife Project has trained hundreds of law enforcement officials and scientists to use the technology in South Africa and Kenya.

To Crush or Not to Crush?

This month, New York City once again held a crush, destroying two tons of ivory worth about $8 million. Other crushes have been held in other countries around the world. But are they effective? Or do they do more harm than good? This piece asks several wildlife experts for their opinion on the controversial strategy.

The Power of One  

Never underestimate the power of one person to make a difference. Stephanie Vergniault fell in love with elephants on her first visit to Chad in 1995, when she saw them in great numbers. As she watched them disappear, the French native knew she had to act. She founded SOS Elephants, the first organization of its kind in Chad, through which she has built support for the anti-poaching cause. The result is that, although challenges remain, elephant protection has become a high priority in Chad.

Fascinating Findings about an Already Fascinating Animal

Each year, new research increases our respect and admiration for the elephants (if that’s even possible).

·       Elephants know when their bodies are obstacles to success in a novel transfer task

·       Genetic study shakes up family tree

·       Elephants born without tusks due to poaching

Alarming Trends

There is a horrific, invasive cactus in Kenya that can kill an elephant when its spines become lodged in the animal’s throat or stomach.

SA National Parks in South Africa is refusing to provide statistics on how many elephants have been poached in Kruger National Park this year. Queries are referred to the Dept. of Environmental Affairs (DEA), which likewise declines to release the figures.

An emerging threat to elephants is skinning — being killed and stripped of their skin, which is sold on the black market, promoted as a medicinal cure or made into beads. The recent discovery of 421kg of elephant skin seized in southwest China confirms this devastating market development.

Wildlife traffickers are using Facebook to sell ivory and rhino horn.

The Telltale Conclusion

The pressures coming at the elephants come from all sides — climate change, toxic land and water, global unrest, and the Sixth Mass Extinction that is well underway. Our most precious resource is the one we can’t make more of: land. How are we to make the most of what we have? How can we preserve the few wild spaces left, to ensure that flora and fauna will survive, and maybe even thrive? It requires innovation, collaboration, and long-term resolve.

For things you can do for elephants all year long, check out World Elephant Day’s ideas and actions. To quote the British explorer Robert Swan, “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

With that in mind, we’d like to leave you with a thought-provoking question that we’ve dubbed the “One Question, One Word” challenge. Come up with one word to describe what you think is the single most effective tool for saving elephants.  And, in three sentences or less, tell us why.  

We’ve asked a few elephants conservationists and welfare experts for their views on this; below are their replies.  

Send your word and explanation to [email protected] with the subject line  

“One Question, One Word” and we’ll share all of your hopeful words with the world in our next newsletter  

•           Compassion

Most wild animal species that are declining can be considered ecological refugees. If we can invoke compassion in the minds of the pubic for a sentient being that bears so many similarities to us, we can create a powerful force for elephant conservation.

Compassion, or Karuna, is an important concept in Buddhism: the desire to remove harm and suffering from others. Karuna works with Muditha, which is the desire to bring about the well-being and happiness of others.

—Ravi Corea, President, Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society

•           Influence

If we, as the governing species on our planet, do not speak up on behalf of elephants and the forests, land, and water that we all need, who will?

—Monica Wrobel, Head of Conservation and Campaigns, Elephant Family

•           Community

Elephants will survive best when the community has security, education, and livelihoods.

—Denis Galava, African Wildlife Foundation

•           Passage

Elephants are large animals (megaherbivores) and need to constantly move to feed. Unless their right of passage is established over these traditional migratory routes, there will be higher conflict rates and fewer elephants in the future.

—Vivek Manon, Founder and CEO, Wildlife Trust of India

•           Oneness

Oneness is important in the elephant welfare movement, as it will create unity, and foster symbiotic relationships. As seen in the natural world where organisms thrive together, we can manifest changes by embracing each other’s unique talents, rather than compete or imitate. Every human being has an authentic and necessary gift that needs to be harnessed in order to bring an end to the atrocities against these supremely intelligent and noble animals.

­—Sangita Iyer, Founder and President, Voice for Asian Elephants Society and filmmaker of Gods in Shackles

•           Integrity

Integrity is key to making a difference overall, because without it amongst all groups involved with elephant protection — from rangers to conservation officials to law enforcers to prosecutors and judges and politicians, as well as funders and NGOs — elephants will not be saved. In every population where poaching is out of control, there is a lack of integrity among at least one of these groups — those who are entrusted to enforce laws and protect wildlife.

—Wayne Lotter, Founder of PAMS Foundation, Tanzania

•           Land

Nearly everywhere in Asia elephants are threatened by encroachment on their habitat. India, where humans outnumber elephants by about 50,000 to 1, is a prime example. While it is hard not to sympathize with poor farmers terrorized by crop-raiding elephants, human usurpation of the elephants’ land is illegal, even immoral, and must be stopped.”

—Richard Lair, Consultant on Asian Elephants

•           Hope

Hope alone won’t save the elephants, but without it, we don’t stand a chance. With hope comes the belief and the action necessary for us to save the magnificent elephants from extinction.

—Patricia Sims, Co-Founder, World Elephant Day, President, World Elephant Society, Filmmaker of When Elephants Were Young

In our two previous newsletters this year we included excerpts from a prescient message that the renowned French writer Romain Gary (1914–1980) wrote to the elephants, as expressed in a letter published in LIFE magazine in 1967, fifty years ago. We end this update with some more of his words here:

“We never met again, and yet in our thwarted, restricted, controlled, indexed and repressed existence, the echo of your irrepressible thundering march through the open spaces of Africa keeps reaching me, awakening a confused longing. It sounds triumphantly like the end of acceptance and servitude … and for all of us who are sick and tired of our polluted cities and even more polluted minds, your colossal presence and the fact of your survival against all odds acts as a God-sent reassurance.

by World Elephant Day guest blogger Ruth Powys

Saving Myanmar’s Elephants

By Ruth Powys

While a boom in the illegal ivory market is threatening the world’s African elephants, their lesser-known cousins across Asia are silently facing a similar fate.  

The illegal trade in animals and their body parts has been going on for decades. Black markets have been brimming with pangolin scales; elephant ivory, tiger skins, rhino horns and exotic pets for years, but more recently, a new fad has been emerging as Asia’s elephants are being poached for their skin. Hidden in the dense forests, Myanmar’s elephants are witnessing a drastic decline as they succumb to this growing, illicit trade.

Ranked the fourth largest global illegal trade after drugs, arms and human trafficking, illegal wildlife trade is a sophisticated business with an even more sophisticated distribution network. Mong-La in northeast Myanmar, a protectorate area of China well-known for gambling, prostitution and illegal trade of wildlife products, is one of the main destinations where elephant ivory, bones and skin are sold.  

Elephants are endangered across Asia, with only an estimated 40,000 remaining in the wild today – a 90% decline compared to a century ago.  Myanmar retains some of the largest areas of habitat left for Asian elephants and possibly the third largest (yet declining) population of wild Asian elephants after India and Sri Lanka. The country now has as few as 2,000 wild elephants and 6,000 timber elephants left. It is estimated that if the current rate of poaching in the country continues, Myanmar’s elephant population could soon be completely wiped out.  

In 2015 alone, 36 wild elephants were reported to have been killed, with experts believing that many poaching incidents went unnoticed. Last year, Elephant Family – an NGO dedicated to protecting the Asian elephant – funded one of the first ever undercover investigations across Myanmar and China to unravel the growing trade for elephant skin and make this issue known. The findings revealed that elephant poaching in Myanmar is indeed increasing, fuelled by the demand from neighboring China. The skin is cut up, dried and sold on the black market believed to ‘treat’ a number of ailments such as eczema and digestive problems. The investigation also revealed that the skin is being cut into cubes, dried and carved into polished beads for jewellery.

While elephant ivory remains the most valuable part of an elephant, the growing demand for elephant skin and other parts continues to drive up the demand for elephant poaching in Myanmar, further decimating its already fragile elephant population. This year alone, a herd of 20 elephant carcasses including calves, were found in two sites across Myanmar’s forest stripped off their skin.

But Elephant Family and its partners are determined to crackdown on poachers and stop the trade.

What can be done?

Last October, we presented our investigation findings at the CITES[1] Conference of Parties (CoP17) in Johannesburg to make this issue known, calling on range states to tighten procedures to stop trade.  Our ongoing efforts were made visible when our calls to action were successfully incorporated and passed at the Convention.

Our next steps are to build the capacity of regional police, customs and wildlife officials within targeted countries in order to better detect and prosecute cross-border and wildlife trade. If Elephant Family can continue to secure a war chest of funds and carry out further investigations to establish the full extent of this abhorrent trade, we can invest in stronger intelligence and understand more clearly who is trafficking and supplying elephant products, allowing us to crackdown on end markets once and for all and sources fuelling the trade.

So this week, to commemorate World Elephant Day, let us shine a multi-coloured spotlight on Myanmar’s elephants to raise awareness and much needed funds for this little known yet growing trade -a threat that has never been greater.

Our combined efforts can help save Asia’s elephants and stop the trade from escalating up to the level of elephant ivory and rhino horn, while we still have time.  

To find out more about the illegal trade in elephant skin and how you can help, visit http://elephant-family.org/what-we-do/campaigning/elephant-skin

[1] Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species

Oft-Forgotten Threat of Human-Elephant Conflicts

By Laurel Neme, Ph.D.

 On World Elephant Day, people around the world come together to celebrate these pachyderms and raise awareness about the dangers they face. While poaching and the illegal ivory trade are often at the forefront of news stories, garnering less attention is the conflict between people and elephants.

The roots of conflict are complex. Elephants are being pushed onto smaller and smaller forest and land fragments as settlements expand and habitat is destroyed for other developments. The result is elephants and people sharing the same land—often with disastrous results.

Elephants eat a lot. A single adult can consume 200–600 pounds a day, which means the animals forage for most of the day—up to 18 hours. It comes as no surprise, then, that they eventually move onto farmers’ fields, where they trample and eat the crops. In a single night, a herd can destroy a family’s food for the year. Elephants pose a physical danger as well, sometimes killing or injuring people who try to shoo them away. It becomes a vicious cycle, with farmers and villagers retaliating by shooting or poisoning them, or even helping poachers.

 Below are some snapshots of the impact and examples of how communities are trying to lessen the conflict.

Snapshots of the impact of human-elephant conflict:

 ·      Tanzania’s Malinzanga, one of 23 agrarian villages outside Ruaha National Park, is a hot spot for crop raiding. There were almost 400 elephant raids there in 2016, and 100 more just in January 2017.

 ·      Crop raiding by elephants in India affects 1 million hectares of land farmed by 1 million families. At times, that results in death to both elephants and people. According to the World Wildlife Fund, 100–300 people are killed by elephants each year in India, and 40–50 elephants die from conflicts.

 ·      The situation is similar in Sri Lanka, where elephants kill about 50 people each year, and 100–150 elephants die from conflicts.  

 ·      Conflicts include train collisions and electrocution from low hanging power lines, both of which can kill elephants. Railway lines are a particular issue, as they often run through forests and other wildlife corridors for long distances.

 ·      In India, trains killed 150 elephants between 1987 and 2010. In August 2016 in Sri Lanka, a passenger train killed an adult and three calves. In Kenya, a new railway links Mombasa to Nairobi, with almost 500 kilometers running through Tsavo Conservation Area. Conservationists remain concerned even though special passages for wildlife have been built and some sections are fenced off or elevated.

 Solution Snapshots:

 ·      Beehive fences — In Kenya and elsewhere in Africa and Asia, farmers hang beehives on wire fences to protect their plots. Studies show they are effective about 80 percent of the time. When an elephant disturbs the wire, it angers the bees. Because Elephants are afraid of being stung, they run away when they see or hear the beehives. The hives have an added benefit for farmers because they can sell the honey and earn extra income. One issue, however, is that despite their low-cost, they may still be beyond the reach of most farmers—which means building them can require outside funding from NGOs. In Tanzania, for example, the $900 cost of a beehive fence to protect two acres is almost twice what an average farmer can earn for the year.

 ·      Chili peppers — Elephants don't like chili peppers. Actually, what they hate is capsaicin, the chemical that makes them hot. Farmers take advantage of this natural deterrent and plant chilies around their crops or hang them on fences to create a “barrier” that elephants don’t want to cross. Others will burn chili briquettes or fire “chili guns” to deter the animals. Like the beehive fences, this option has the added benefit that farmers can earn extra income by selling the chilies.

·      Early warning systems — Another strategy is for people to simply avoid the elephants. In India’s tea-growing region of Anamalai hills in Tamil Nadu, people are warned about elephants in an area so that they can avoid surprise encounters. A range of alert systems are used, including text messages, automated calls, announcements using public transport, and beacons in strategic locations.

 ·      Herding drones — For the last two years, rangers in Tanzania have experimented with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to herd elephants away from farms and communities, according to a study published in Oryx. The quadcopter drones seem to work because the elephants dislike the buzzing sound. While some biologists fear the elephants will get used to the sound, so far, the rangers, who have flown over 120 flights, report no signs of decline in the drones’ efficacy, even with repeat-offender elephants who encounter the drones multiple times.

 ·      Other strategies to reduce elephant deaths include: burying electric cables to stop electrocution of elephants by low-hanging wires; speed limits for trains; and special wildlife corridors or underpasses.

Dear Friends and Associates,

We are looking forward to World Elephant Day 2017 and appreciate you being part of this annual celebration of the elephants on Saturday, August 12!

This year there are numerous public events around the globe on or near August 12. Two of them in particular we’d like to shout out here:

On August 3 Wildlife Conservation Society will be conducting an ivory crush of nearly two tons of ivory (value US$8 million) in Manhattan and will use that to launch ten days of elephant messaging that carries us to World Elephant Day.

Elephants DC is hosting the Fifth Annual International March for Elephants in Washington DC on August 12.

And there are more events being posted every day.  We hope you are planning informative and interactive events as well, to trumpet your love of the elephants.  Please post any events that you’re organizing on the “Elevents” page of our website.

Our new beautiful World Elephant Day T-Shirts are now available in our   Store. These wonderful designs are created by Animalia Collective in support of World Elephant Day.   Also in our Store you’ll find the documentary film “When Elephants Were Young”, the moving, story of a young man and a young elephant living in Thailand that portrays the issues impacting Asian elephants, and conservation solutions.

Proceeds from sales of all Store items are donated to World Elephant Society, our umbrella organization that manages the annual World Elephant Day campaign.

We at World Elephant Society work to educate the global public about the plight of elephants and the conservation solutions required to ensure their survival. We rely on your continuing support to raise awareness about the threats to elephants, and what we can all do to save them from extinction.  Please donate to support our efforts to keep this awareness building for World Elephant Day, and every day, and help us bring the world together to help elephants.

DONATE

Our last newsletter contained a section of a letter to an elephant, written by French writer Romaine Gary (1914–1980), and published in LIFE magazine fifty years ago.  Here is a continuation of that letter:

"Years later, somewhere in Sudan, we met again. I was returning from a bombing mission over Ethiopia, and brought down my damaged plane south of Khartoum, on the western bank of the Nile. I walked for three days to reach water and to have the most satisfying drink of my life, thus, as it turned out later, contracting typhoid and almost dying. You appeared before me among some meager acacia trees, and at first I thought I was a victim of hallucination.

I took a step in your direction then another. . . . For a man as utterly tired as I was, there was something strangely reassuring about your huge, rocklike sight. I knew that if I could touch you, caress you, lean against you, you would give me some of your life force. It was one of those moments when a man needs so much energy and so much strength to overcome and to prevail that he thinks of God.  I have never been able to raise my eyes that high, and so I stop at elephants."

Sincerely,

Patricia Sims, Co-Founder World Elephant Day, President World Elephant Society

Dear World Elephant Day Associates and Friends, World Elephant Day 2017 is almost here and it’s time to rally the troops once again to bring the world together on August 12 to help elephants. It’s hard to believe that this is our sixth year of awareness-raising about the elephants and their plight - an indication that there is still much work to do.     Since our inception in 2012, the World Elephant Day team has been comprised of a small group of dedicated and compassionate people who have diligently worked on maintaining its website and its educational content and performed the social media outreach necessary to fulfill the mission of World Elephant Day. But none of this would be possible without your support and acknowledgement of this day’s significance. We are grateful to all of you - from scientists to NGOs to individuals alike - for coming together at this time to do whatever you can to speak out about the issues that elephants - and all wildlife - are facing. In review, so much has happened for elephants since the last World Elephant Day. Over these next few weeks we will be putting a focus on some of these accomplishments, as well as on the many issues that still need action. Some of these issues include:

Poaching for ivory, which still remains near the same level despite China’s positive action to cease its legal ivory trade by the end of this year.

Other countries, like Japan, still maintain a legal ivory trade.

Asian elephants in Myanmar killed for their body parts to supply a  market hungry for medicinal cures it believes these parts will provide.

The ongoing escalation of human population and resource development, and the resulting loss of habitat for elephants and increase in human-elephant conflict.

The exploitation of elephants in captivity for tourism and entertainment, and the need for a standard of ethics/code of conduct when encountering them in captivity.

A commitment to solving these problems ultimately requires our recognition of the true value of what the elephants bring to us - their uniqueness and their mystery - and their irreplaceable worth to humanity and the planet. This recognition has inspired us to create a theme for this year’s campaign, which we are calling “BEE” - “Be Elephant Ethical.” The various ways to BEE may come into play if you have the good fortune to encounter an elephant in the wild, at a wildlife sanctuary, an elephant camp, or a zoo. We believe that the ways to BEE remind us that we should treat elephants the way we would like to be treated ourselves.   Thank you for choosing to “BEE” with World Elephant Day this year! The 2017 Events Page is up and running so please let us know what you’re planning by posting your “Elevents” here. We’re looking forward to sharing all the exciting and important work that people everywhere will be doing for the elephants.  

To celebrate we’ve released our film When Elephants Were Young. The film has been in the making since the first World Elephant Day in 2012 - five years ago, so we are so excited to share it with you! Many of you have followed us through this journey and we can't thank you enough for your encouragement and support.

You can rent or buy the film here https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/when-elephants-were-young/id1114251560?ls=1

William Shatner is a huge advocate for elephant conservation, and has been a supporter of World Elephant Day since its launch on August 12, 2012.  Mr. Shatner is the narrator of the film "Return to the Forest", which tells the story of  the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation, and their work to return captive elephants back to the wild. "Return to the Forest" was released on the first World Elephant Day.

Mr. Shatner also narrates the follow-up feature documentary "When Elephants Were Young", to be released worldwide on World Elephant Day 2016!

Interview with World Elephant Day Co-Founder and When Elephants Were Young Director Patricia Sims Purchase When Elephants Were Young

Interview by Anne Dillon Canadian filmmaker Patricia Sims has always had a thing for large-brained megafauna of the earth—dolphins and whales—and following that, the land mammals. To learn more about these amazing animals, she took to filming stories about them. Formally a narrative filmmaker, she switched to the documentary form to pursue this specific calling. As she explains it: “I really lost interest in narrative film because I found the real world was much more interesting. I realized that storytelling through documentary film was capable of elevating people’s awareness and consciousness about issues I was concerned with, which in my particular case was the natural world.” Particularly intrigued by the complexities of human/animal relationships that have developed down through time, Patricia found an ideal subject in the Asian elephant, featured in her new film, When Elephants Were Young.

Patricia made When Elephants Were Young with her longtime filmmaking partner, fellow Canadian Michael Clark. Their previous documentary Return to the Forest chronicled the successful and ongoing mission of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand to return captive elephants to the wild. That earlier film highlights the work and mission of this organization, which was initiated in 2002 by Queen Sirikit of Thailand. Over the course of its history, the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation has reintroduced over one hundred formally captive elephants to protected wildlife sanctuaries that are co-managed by the Royal Forest Department of Thailand, and the Foundation

Patricia and Michael’s new feature-length documentary, When Elephants Were Young, details the life of Bangkok elephant Nong Mai, and her “mahout” (caretaker and trainer), a young man named Wok. Nong Mai and Wok attempt to forge a living by illegally begging on the streets of Bangkok, facing indifference if not outright hostility at every turn. This is a demeaning devolvement from a culture that once elevated the sacred elephant/human dynamic.

As a filmmaker, Patricia chose to focus on Asian elephants rather than African elephants because for over 4,000 years Asian elephants have participated in a symbiotic codependent relationship with humans that is unique to that part of the world. “Elephants have been accorded a high degree of reverence in these cultures,” she said. “The other reason I was drawn to the Asian elephant is because Asian elephants are so critically endangered. Learning that there were less than 45,000 Asian elephants in the world was very upsetting to me. The other thing, too, is that for most people, the first elephant they see, typically in a zoo, is usually an Asian elephant, not an African elephant.”

Patricia’s first Asian elephant experience was in China, in southwest Yunnan Province. She had traveled there to see China’s population of wild elephants. That was the first stage of her research into all things elephant. Here in the wilds of China she also encountered a staged show featuring seventy ornately costumed Asian elephants.She was to discover that these elephants were elephants from Thailand, as were their mahouts (keepers). That was Patricia’s introduction to Thailand, the “Mecca of the human/elephant experience,” as she calls it.

She and her crew met the stars of her current film, Wok and Nong Mai, as a result of those early travels to Thailand in 2010, and soon thereafter realized that Wok and Nong Mai’s story was crying out to be told. She was intrigued by the close emotional relationship that Wok shared with Nong Mai and wanted to find out what made that tick. Patricia and her crew had to earn the trust of both Wok and Nong Mai—a trust that developed gradually over time. Patricia attributes this trust engendered in part to the fact that she and her team were very nonjudgmental about the circumstances that had led Wok to beg on the streets of Bangkok with the captive elephant who was also his best friend. Other challenges involved staying on the right side of the law as she and her crew followed the largely illegal activities of Wok and Nong Mai with their cameras.

Return to the Forest and When Elephants Were Young both put a spotlight on a primary threat to the survival of the Asian elephant: shrinking habitat as a result of the human family’s accelerated growth rate, which continues to make inroads into elephant habitat in a myriad of ways.

“That’s the number one issue, but how we treat them in captivity and the exploitation, the abuse, is the longer-term issue,” Patricia commented. She is referring to the growing tourist trade in Asian countries, wherein as many as fifty wild elephants are captured as babies every year and their spirits broken to condition them to a life of subservience in “eco-friendly” tourist camps, zoos, and circuses. Fifty elephants might not sound like so many elephants, but consider that the lifespan of a captive elephant is typically shorter than that of its wild counterpart and that a sexually active female only gives birth every four to five years, with a gestation period of twenty-two months. “It’s not like they breed quickly like rabbits,” Patricia notes.

A component of making the film was having access to the protected wildlife sanctuaries that are overseen by the Elephant Reintroduction of Thailand, to which the formally captive elephants are returned to live out a life free from human demands. Patricia and her team were the first film crew to enjoy exclusive access to these areas. Return to the Forest was released on the very first World Elephant Day in 2012. We offered it free to the world in order to represent a very positive conservation model for what the future can be and should be for Asian elephants—which is returning them back to their natural habitat.”

In addition to the work of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation, the government of Thailand has taken other steps to protect the elephants, including the introduction of an ivory registration system that documents the ivory owned by Thailand’s civilian population. There is a legal domestic trade in elephant ivory in Thailand, which undoubtedly will continue on. As Patricia says, “Thailand’s not going to stop its domestic ivory trade. That’s something they clearly aren’t interested in doing; they’ve had that in place for millennia. But in the last year they have put stronger enforcement practises into effect to prevent illegal African elephant ivory from being smuggled into Thailand and sold as Asian elephant ivory. Also there are registration practices for captive elephants—to ensure that they’re—quote—legal elephants as opposed to being captured from the wild. There’s been a lot more awareness in Thailand in the last couple of years on these particular issues.”

In addition to that, there’s been a consolidation of captive elephant management practices. “Part of the problem in Thailand has been that elephants were being managed through the various ministries of the government, which didn’t allow for a set standard of conduct regarding these management practices. This made it very difficult to find all the loopholes. There’s been a movement to simplify that process,” she added, noting that complete reform in this area will no doubt take some time to achieve.

When Elephants Were Young is narrated by fellow Canadian William Shatner, as was Return to the Forest. He is a dedicated animal rights activist and has been quite vocal in the ongoing issue involving Lucy, a zoo elephant in Edmonton, Canada, who has lived a life of solitary captivity at the Edmonton Valley Zoo for the past thirty-nine years. This deplorable situation continues to exist despite a massive amount of condemnation by animal rights groups and concerned individuals to remedy this terribly sad scenario. According to Patricia, “William Shatner is really generous with his time on the elephant issues.” That’s probably due to the fact that he may be classed as a rather large-brained megafauna himself, as Patricia clearly is too.