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SESSION VII EX SITU BENEFITS and SUPPORT of in SITU CONSERVATION the Bigger Picture: How Captive Elephant Facilities Can Benefit Wild Elephant Populations

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SESSION VII EX SITU BENEFITS and SUPPORT of in SITU CONSERVATION the Bigger Picture: How Captive Elephant Facilities Can Benefit Wild Elephant Populations PRESENTATIONS SESSION VII EX SITU BENEFITS AND SUPPORT OF IN SITU CONSERVATION The Bigger Picture: How captive elephant facilities can benefit wild elephant populations Sean Hensman Manager, Adventures with Elephants Bela Bela, Limpopo, South Africa. We got our elephants in 1988, not to have as pets or to do Safaris, but to release onto a once commercial cropping farm which dad had converted into a Game Reserve so that we, as his children, could grow up learning about a range of animals in a wild environment. Dad enjoyed the African bush and this was his attempt to bring the Zambezi valley a little closer to home for all of us. We got our first elephants from culling operations in Zambezi and they arrived at 45 inches tall. We realized that they were too small to release as we had originally intended, so we put them in an enclosure and looked after them. This is where we learned that there was so much more to elephants than we had originally expected. They were eager to interact and within a few weeks they were following a handler about the farm. As time went on we got more and more orphans and problem elephants and as such landed up with a herd of 12 elephants on the farm. If you have pets at home or look after animals you will understand how expensive they are, so we made them earn their keep by doing farm chores such as rounding up cattle, checking fences and conducting wildlife patrols. As time went on we had more and more visitors coming out to visit the elephants which was one of our interests, and since the expenses were covered by the farm and dad liked people learning about the elephants in this unique manner, we allowed people to interact with them for free. Though the elephants weren’t originally planned to be our pets, we enjoyed spending time with our elephants, as one would with their pet dog or horse, great symbiotic relationships happened between us and the elephants, we landed up doing some incredible things with them. However, Dad realized that he could reach a wider audience and teach a wider range of people about the elephants if he got into tourism, so our first herd was sent up to Victoria Falls in 1993 and began doing Elephant Safaris. After that we got another 12 elephants which we started to train for anti-poaching in the Zambezi Valley where 33,000 rhino were lost in a 20-year period. Dad’s plan was to assist anti-poaching teams with their mobility issues, as the great thing with the elephant is that they can go anywhere, were built for all the African conditions, never need to be refuelled or retreaded and can follow a human scent. Incidentally we successfully used them to track down a robber who had broken into our next door neighbour’s house in Zimbabwe when the police dogs couldn’t. Unfortunately we had to leave Zimbabwe before we could get involved in anti-poaching and moved to South Africa in 2002. The elephants provided us a lifeline and since then we have carried on with public elephant activities. Today we bring in problem elephants that are going to be destroyed and give them a second chance by training them for public education activities, telling people about the elephant in general as well Page 1 of 6 as the plight facing wild populations and conservationists in an ever changing Africa. The first elephant we tamed in South Africa was Tembo, a 32-year old 6 ton bull. He caused over R1 million worth of damage to a game lodge in 6 months; he broke into buildings, turned over vehicles, killed buffalo and even rhino. One can imagine that he was not a very popular elephant, and he was going to be destroyed. Today he is educating people at Elephant Whispers in Hazyview, near the Kruger National Park. We are not a government funded operation and earn a living from our elephants. The elephants were always seen as part of our family and we get immense joy from them, in turn we looked after them and today it is a privilege working with them and introducing people to them while highlighting the difficulties they face in an uncertain world. We also conduct a range of interesting research with our elephants in a quest to learn more about them, as they have given us so much that we are always trying to find ways to give back to their continued conservation and to come up with conservation solutions for our elephant’s wild cousins. Having captive elephants is a hotly contested issue, and there are people who will agree with what we do and people who will disagree with what we do. I try understand both sides of the argument, however they are vast and complex due to issues such as emotion, differing perspectives, different goals, egos, and more. Many people do not see, or do not want to see, the value of having elephants in captivity and I understand I understand why they feel like this. Though we have our own captive elephants we too would like to see all elephants roaming free, but the reality is that the world has changed and today WE NO LONGER LIVE IN AN IDEAL WORLD. If we did we wouldn’t be wearing fancy clothes or depleting the ozone by burning jet fuel to come to America to talk at an international conference about the problems surrounding the conservation of African and Asian animals. So we feel that a compromise between the two extremes is acceptable, especially if our captive elephants can assist wild elephants. One thing is VERY clear; as the human population grows and develops its only going to get worse for wildlife as ultimately, the root causes of all the issues in the world today are due to us humans in one way or the other. The old world our fathers experienced is long gone, the reality remains that many of the remaining elephants in the wild are being forced into small and diminishing, enclosed reserves where their own safety or survival cannot be guaranteed and we have to find a variety of solutions to ensure their future fast! If some people’s predictions are right there will probably be no elephants left in the next few years in many countries that currently have wild elephant populations – and it is also happening to the rhino at a rapid pace. There are those that believe in wildlife remaining wild and those who see potential in working with wild animals in captivity. If we don’t find ways of working together or even possibly agreeing to disagree, we will waste valuable time, money and energy arguing with each other instead of finding a common understanding and finding solutions for the conservation of wildlife in a rapidly changing world, where animals come second to commerce and human needs or greed. Most of us ironically benefit from elephants in one way or another (through donations for research, entry fees to zoos or facilities such as ours, donations to save them, entry fees to national Parks to see them etc.) , and ultimately we all have the same goal: that our grandchildren’s children can experience elephants in the wild, but we have different ways of reaching that single goal. Page 2 of 6 I’m not saying that I have the answers, but I am saying that the potential for captive facilities to assist wild elephant populations is incredible if it is done in a correct and in an ethical manner. Not everyone is able to live with and observe elephants in the wild, and not everyone is able to work with them in captivity, so it is our responsibility to do our level best to make sure that people appreciate elephants and nature! We should all be working together toward a common goal as WE all WANT ELEPHANTS IN THE FUTURE!!! We are about making connections, connections between humans and animals. These connections are created through education and hands-on experience which results in understanding. Through these interactions, elephants become emotionally valuable to humans, through association and understanding. Education is paramount and we all push to enlighten the public about elephants in one way or another, researchers do work to find out more about elephants and then publish their work for the world to see. Captive facilities allow the public access to easily observe or interact with elephants. In addition there are other outlets for education, there is the radio, internet and television and we all take advantage of these. Our main focus is to allow people to simply let go and enjoy the elephants as we do, and see more in them than people give them credit. We do a variety of different things with the elephants to show people their values and how incredible they really are. Our aim is to educate the public about elephants, their biology, ecology and conservation. We feel that guests are able to experience a captive elephant in more ways than a person might normally be able to experience an elephant from watching it in the wild or even on television in their home. Our hope is that the next time a person watches an elephant feeding in Kruger they’ll think about how soft the elephants tongue is, or what the environmental impact is of the elephant in that area. We invite them into the elephant’s world, where our visitors can learn in the most primal of fashions, through experience.
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