Animals and humans will create controversy until Kingdom
come. That’s just life. When the idea of riding elephants for a
safari was presented, I did a lot of research before deciding to do this. Those that know us well know that elephants,
giraffes, and dogs have sweet spots in our hearts. At the same time, we don’t want to do
anything that interferes with the natural order of the wildlife. My research lead me to discover that there
was a herd of elephants in Zimbabwe that were rescued orphans that resulted
from a culling a few decades ago. The
local farmers were complaining about the destruction the elephants were
causing, so the government allowed the culling to take place. Unfortunately, several babies were left alive
without mamas to teach them what to do.
A few farmers decided to create an elephant sanctuary for many of these
orphans. To keep the other farmers
happy, they had to be followed by humans constantly to keep them out of other
farms. Eventually this turned into a
real bond between humans and elephants, and on the Zimbabwean side, they
decided to cater to the tourists by offering safaris atop elephants. As the herd grew and the tourist numbers
grew, the decision was made to 12 years ago to bring six of these elephants
across the river to Zambia to make it easier for tourists to learn about the
elephants and ride them. Several of the
handlers came too, and a place was made for them at Thornberry Lodge within the
Mosi-oa-tunya National Park. There are
herds of wild elephants here too, along with dozens of other species. The elephants are allowed to wander during
the day, and they are penned at night.
The handlers sleep nearby and pretty much wait on them hand and hoof. Some of the elephants even have gotten mixed
together with the wild herds. Eight
years ago this happened, and one of the females refused to separate out from
the wild herd. Ten months later, she
showed back up to the orphan herd pregnant.
Wild child! What that taught the
handlers is that the herd is family and they will come back home. I think that’s pretty cool. The herd is now up to 9. The oldest guy is over 55 years old and
retired from safaris. The wild bred baby
has been born, along with a captive bred baby.
About 3 years ago, the herd came back one evening with an orphaned baby
in tow. They adopted him themselves and
brought him home. The handlers looked
across the whole park for a dead mom, sick mom, something, but never figured
out what happened to the mom. The
elephants started being trained at 4 and ridden by tourists at age 7.
My research also led me to discover that there was a herd of
elephants here in Livingstone doing the same thing as those at Thornberry, but
they were pulled from the wild. I’m not
ok with this. Maybe my thoughts are
simply justifying a means to an end, but I see a real difference between
helping a herd survive and creating a new herd for sole human gain.
A Canadian zookeeper with a background in elephants works at
Thornberry and oversees the elephants’ care.
Her name is Clover King, and she is amazing! Clover visited with Isaac and me for quite a
while after our safari, telling us a bit more about what they do and gushing
about Houston’s awesome elephant research program. Why, yes, we know! It was awesome to hear it from the field
though. Clover married a Zambian and
they now have a 7 year old who had a leopard visit her school today. Yeah, Zambian private school kid reality is a
little different from any American kid reality.
Sheesh. Clover also made sure we
had her contact info so that if we come back with youth we can do an elephant
interaction for free. Um, yes please!
Our handler’s name was Eliah, and our elephant was a 35 year
old bull name Marula. Marula is also a
tree in southern Africa. The fruits
naturally ferment, and the South Africans make a beer from it. The elephants also eat them, and if the
fruits have been sitting on the ground, the elephants can get drunk from
them. Oops.
Eliah worked on the farm that began the orphan elephant
program in Zimbabwe. He ended up being
assigned to muck out their stable and fell in love with them. Over time, he learned how to be a handler and
has been with them ever since. He moved
to Zambia when this herd split 12 years ago.
His wife, two children, and the two children of his deceased sister
still live in Zimbabwe. Eliah goes to visit
every 25 days for a week. Basically they
work three weeks on, one week off. The
elephants enjoy routine, and this helps them maintain that. It’s hard Eliah, but he loves his job. We talked about how Mugabe has ruined the nation
of Zimbabwe with fear and corruption. A
new presidential election is supposed to be held next month, but no one wants
to go vote. Last time, Mugabe lost the
election but refused to leave office so no one sees the point. The economy went belly up years ago and runs
solely on the US Dollar. Street vendors
sell Zimbabwean money as souvenirs now. It’s
completely worthless.
It was a cold morning to ride Marula, but we were so excited
to be experiencing riding an elephant in a game park that we didn’t care. The elephants walk in a straight line, but
they don’t have a pecking order, so they move around in the line a lot. Because it was so early, we didn’t see many
other animals out, but we did see bushbuck, impala, hippos, hornbills (Zazu
from Lion King), and vervet monkeys. During
the summer months, the elephants walk into the Zambezi River with their riders,
but it’s too cold now for the elephants to want to do much more than just
drink. The riverside is beautiful
though.
After our ride, we were able to spend quite a bit of time
feeding the elephants and just talking to them.
They knelt down so we could be eye to eye with them, which was
amazing. Marula cares mostly about his
stomach, and he ate a lot. When we ran
out of treats, my jeans and shoes sounded just fine to him. Oh, he was amazing! I love how most of the ride his ears would
flicker right over my calves. Then they’d
just rest there. God is so good in His
creation! I hope Heaven is just like
this!
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