Help Endangered Elephants (lots of ideas to help)

Ava Lily

We all want to help endangered elephants, as they are up there with one of everyone’s most beloved creature. But the are critically endangered due to habitat loss (which brings them into conflict with humans when they visit villages to find food), pollution, climate change and illegal poaching, for their ivory.

Elephants are the world’s largest mammals (a baby can weigh 19 stones!) yet all three species are endangered, despite a ban on poaching. A trophy import ban is imminent.

Elephants don’t see well (they communicate by low vibrations and use their trunks to drink water, breathe while swimming and forage for food). They keep cool by taking dust baths, and wallowing in mud.

Isn’t ivory now illegal?

Yes, even to buy and sell second-hand (piano keys are no longer made with it, and tagua nut buttons are instead sold in jewellery as a ‘vegetable ivory’). You can now only give ivory as a gift (though who would want it, is anyone’s guess).

Ivory is too hard to burn, so IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) wants the government to create a disposal system, so ivory can be surrendered, to stop it re-entering the marketplace. Often used in the past for carvings and walking sticks, ivory also is from other creatures (walrus, hippos, warthogs, sperm whales and narwhals).

Be careful with ‘elephant sanctuaries’ abroad

Responsible Travel has a list of genuine ones and those to avoid (some ‘sanctuaries’ are in their words ‘awful places’ where elephants perform tricks and mahouts use hooks).

These elephant sanctuaries are authentic, if you would like to support with donations (anonymously, if preferred).

Elephant Nature Park was founded by an amazing (tiny) woman, and cares for over 100 elephants, many rescued from begging, rides and circus shows – some are blind, orphaned, senior and disabled.
Boon Lott Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand) was named in honour of a baby elephant rescued by the founder. She married a local, and elephant ‘bridesmaids’ smothered her dress in mud, with their trunks! You can support through Easyfundraising (it receives a portion of profits, each time you shop online).
Sheldrick Wildlife Trust protects elephants from poachers, and creates sanctuaries for elephants and their calves. It has successfully raised over 260 orphaned elephants, and also safeguards wilderness area.

Don’t visit wild elephants in zoos

There are around 51 captive elephants in UK zoos. In the wild, herds (headed by the matriarch) roam hundreds of miles, while zoo space (10,000 to 140,000 times less) leads to foot and muscular-skeletal problems, mental illness and loneliness).

We don’t have the right temperature for elephants, and even solitary bull elephants are miserable as it’s not their natural environment.

Report concerns of captive animals at Born Free.

You likely know that the charity Born Free was founded by Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna (now run by their son Will). But it was founded due to not being able to rescue a little elephant in Kenya, from being ‘gifted’ to London zoo.

Years later, they visited the stressed lonely elephant. She clearly remembered them, stretching her trunk out to greet them. Feeling terrible they were unable to help, they launched a campaign to at least send her to another zoo, to be with other elephants.

But kept in a crate for hours, she collapsed and was put to sleep, just a teenager. Determined for her life not to have been in vain, this is why they founded what is now the world’s most successful charity in helping zoo animals find freedom in natural habitats.

It recently has raised concerns over elephant deaths in British zoos, saying infant mortality and stillbirths are always higher in captive elephants. And in the wild, female elephants witness mothering skills in large herds. The last calf born at Twycross Zoo has never witnessed an elephant birth.

Although animal circuses are now banned in England, worldwide elephants are forced to stand on hind legs to perform tricks or ‘play football’.

Elephant Gin (a tipple to help gentle giants!)

Sold in recycled glass bottles with natural corks, Elephant Gin uses profits to help wild elephant charities, and also sells coffee liqueur and ready-to-drink negroni.

If drinking with tonic water, avoid for certain medical conditions (liver failure, blood thinners, antibiotics and anti-depressants). It should not even be consumed alone for pregnancy/nursing.

Unless chopped up, corks are too dense to compost (and choking hazards, if left around). So recycle them at your local off license, or send off in bulk to Recorked.

Helping to stop elephant/human conflict

Elephant Crisis Fund says issues of elephant/human conflict are due to lack of habitats and poor land-use planning, as creatures venture onto land to find crops to eat.

In Botswana, locals are using ‘smelly elephant repellent’, watchtowers (for farmers to alert villagers) and sturdy non-electric fences (reduce crop raids by 90%).

Elephant-friendly tea plantations promise not to poison elephants, farm organically and avoid electric fencing, razor wire and deep narrow ditches (difficult to cross).

What’s the answer? Elephant dung!

This is such a great idea. Paper High sells beautiful notebooks, greetings cards and photo albums made from a blend of recycled paper and elephant dung (each page has flecks, depending on what your elephant friend ate that day!) Elephants eat the equivalent of us munching through over 300 cans of baked beans each day. That’s a lot of dung!

Currently, villagers often come into conflict with elephants, seeing them as threats to their livelihood if they eat crops. But this way, villagers are paid to collect the dung, so they see elephants as income opportunities and therefore friends. Purchase also provides income for female artisans in Sri Lanka.