44 elephants now safely moved in Malawi
This post was filed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Neil Greenwood, who is on the ground in Malawi.
We’re back in action and the capture team is in high spirits and working hard to make up for lost time in capturing and translocating the elephants. Since Saturday we have captured a further 26 elephants, making a total of 44 elephants safely moved to their new home at Majete Wildlife Reserve.
While the conditions have been challenging the team has had great success in finding and capturing family groups of elephants – a group of 10 on Saturday, nine on Sunday and seven yesterday. Every capture and translocation has attracted a huge amount of attention from the local community and several hundred people turn out every day to cheer and sing as the elephant pass by on the recovery vehicles.
On Sunday we loaded a cow elephant of about 50 plus years old into the wake-up crate for her move down to the reserve, her sunken temples telling of a grand old lady who has seen it all. I felt a great sense of satisfaction and achievement in knowing that she will be able to spend her golden years in the safety of a protected area.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the relocation of the Phirilongwe elephants is the only realistic option for protecting the Phirilongwe elephants. The project will not only benefit the lives of the elephants but also those of the greater community.
For more information and to donate please visit: www.ifaw.org/helpelephants
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An inspiring story about both animal welfare and ecology. I imagine there is much work to be done and I wonder how many other species need similar help. Is there a priority list of projects? How much money is needed?
Posted by: Shawn | June 24, 2009 at 10:09 PM
Is it possible for this to be stopped?
http://www.bushdrums.com/news/index.php?shownews=2287
Posted by: Shivakumar BG | June 26, 2009 at 05:09 PM