Building The Road Out for the Phirilongwe Elephants - Malawi, Africa

This post was filed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Michael Booth via satellite from Africa.

The main focus of today’s operation was to cut roads from the main Mangochi highway to allow the access of specialized transport vehicles and crates that will carry the elephants. This operation involved a massive bulldozer which was used to grade an even surface for the trucks to work on during the capture stage. These roads are vital for the elephant’s well-being during the move as the current paths were such that the animals would have been thrashing around dangerously risking injury. The process took the best part of 7 hours under the unforgiving African sun.

So what’s needed to make this challenging move possible? In short, a very qualified and professional team of passionate individuals. For this move, IFAW drew from the expertise of Conservation Solutions, a group that has extensive experience in the capture and relocation of Africa’s wildlife.

The core capture team is comprised of Kester Vickery (operations manager), Dr. Andre Uys (veterinarian), Lucille Labuschagne (vet nurse and logistics coordinator) and Barney O’Hare (helicopter pilot), and Charles Denison (coordinator). IFAW’s Neil Greenwood completes the team that has ambitiously taken the task of capturing and moving 60 elephants on a 7-hour road trip to their final destination in Majete.

Today’s work was the final stage in preparation for this exciting elephant move that is just moments away.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ifaw.org/helpelephants

Comments

[Noa Pinter-Wollman]

one can only hope you are taking into account the experience and findings from past elephant transloctions.

[Shiva]

I heard that this translocation has been halted because of a court order. Any further updates?