World Elephant Day is a day to talk about elephants; to show our concern for them or to just share our love for them with others, in any way (social media, small gatherings, fundraiser events).
Elephant Spoken Here was also born on this day, August 12th, in 2015, to advocate for both elephants in captivity and elephants in the wild. And to share our love for elephants.
Image: African elephant herd making their way to the water hole including two baby elephants, from cc video by Peet J van Eeden, “The magic of Mana pools”
Image: African elephant mama & baby, & Auntie from cc video by Peet J van Eeden, “The magic of Mana pools”
Image: African elephant looking for a snack, from cc video by Peet J van Eeden, “The magic of Mana pools”
Image: African elephant enjoying a snack, from cc video by Peet J van Eeden, “The magic of Mana pools”
WILD ELEPHANTS
Never Forget…
Our elephants in the wild face extinction as they are hunted, snared, and caught in the battle of human elephant conflict.
- Those elephants that are poached for their ivory tusks are savagely killed.
- Elephants are most likely the “unintended animals” (3) nonetheless they become trapped and injured and can die after they are unable to free themselves from rope, cable or wire snares.
Little Khanyisa, a baby albino elephant, was found and rescued by HERD (14) with a snare wrapped around her neck cutting “very deeply…into her mouth, cheeks and behind her ears”. (5)
This little elephant was and is a fighter and has survived. But the emotional trauma she suffered will never go away. (5)
Image:by HERD, Unseen Footage of Four Month Old Albino Elephant, Khanyisa & Her Blue Eyes Creative Commons YT video, Khanyisa & Adine HERD
- Human elephant conflict,/human wildlife conflict continues to threaten our wild elephants as populations continue to infringe on areas elephants were once free to roam. Elephant Family, (6) especially, has addressed the need to provide Asia’s elephants with elephant corridors to lessen the threat to both humans and elephants, with their co-existence campaign. (6) (7)
CAPTIVE ELEPHANTS
Never Forget…
Captive elephants (8) suffer from standing on hard surfaces and from the lack of room to roam.
Zoo elephants (8) do not sway back and forth endlessly from contentment rather from anxiety and despair.
Lucy the elephant at the Edmonton Vally Zoo in Canada (11) and the Oregon Zoo elephants (9) continue to experience this dismal life despite pleadings from the public and organizations such as Free the Oregon Zoo Elephants (FOZE) (10) and Leap For Lucy (Lucy’s Edmonton Advocates’ Project (12) in Canada
Image: CC Flickr by Kurayba, Lucy the elephant Edmonton Canada Zoo (staring out green fence)
Baby Packy and his Mama Belle
credit: CC Flickr
Never Forget,,,
Elephants Never Forget.
Happy World Elephant Day 12 August 2024!
HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY ELEPHANT SPOKEN HERE!
Advocating for Elephant Conservation:
Save Our Elephants in the Wild, Help Our Elephants in Captivity @ESHelephants
Watch this video for A MAGICAL EXPERIENCE OF OUR AFRICAN ELEPHANTS, JUST BEING ELEPHANTS, IN THE WILD. And other Wild Animals, such as hippos, just chilling out on a peaceful day.
Source: (1)
Images: from cc video by Peet J van Eeden “The magic of Mana pools” (13) & World Elephant Day Banners (2) & cc flickr by Kurayba, Lucy the elephant at Edmonton Valley Zoo in Canada (15) ; Khanyisa & Adine (16) ; Oregon Zoo elephants Packy and his mother Belle (17)
Sources:
(1) World Elephant Day https://worldelephantday.org
(2) https://worldelephantday.org/press-room
(3) https://www.savetheelephants.org/news/what-they-are-doing-is-sad-and-emotional-poachers-use-snares-to-trap-animals-in-kruger-park/
(4) https://elephantspokenhere.com/?s=khanyisa&submit=Search
(5) https://elephantspokenhere.com/2023/01/03/herd-elephant-orphanage-manager-delivers-impassioned-message-to-stopsnaring-as-the-devastating-effects-not-only-impact-our-african-elephants-but-the-ecosystem-as-well/
(6) https://elephant-family.org/
(7) https://elephantspokenhere.com/?s=co-existence&submit=Search
(8) https://elephantspokenhere.com/category/abzoolutely-not-or-the-controversy-of-zoos-others-keeping-elephants-in-captivity/
(9) https://elephantspokenhere.com/?s=oregon+zoo&submit=Search
(10) https://freeoregonzooelephants.org/
‘(11) https://elephantspokenhere.com/?s=lucy+the+elephant+canada&submit=Search
(12) https://www.leapforlucy.com/
(13) creative commons video by Peet J van Eeden “The magic of Mana pools” https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=x5Et95Fqa_8
(14) https://herd.org.za/
(15) https://www.flickr.com/photos/kurt-b/4747560963/sizes/l/
(16) https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=6_eRQ2J82SU ‘Unseen Footage of Four Month Old Albino Elephant, Khanyisa & Her Blue Eyes’
(17) https://www.flickr.com/search/?l=cc&q=oregon%20zoo%20elephant%20packy
Elephant Spoken Here Facebook
Elephant Spoken Here twitter now called X @ESHelephants
Image: African elephant mama & baby from cc video by Peet J van Eeden, “The magic of Mana pools”