Elephants - A Surprisingly Special Animal:
Elephants Enormous in size yet they can be so graceful. Hardworking yet very playful you can view and elephant at work or play in its natural habitat or zoo. The elephant can be found in many different countries around the world and I have been privileged to see an elephant in the African Masai Mara Game Reserve, elephants and their babies when traveling on the Indian subcontinent and the Asian elephant when traveling in Thailand. Of course if you have ever been to a fete or fair you just might have seen a white elephant stall.
Elephants are herd animals and will do anything to protect their young and other members of their herd. They can be a formidable enemy and charge at anything or anyone that represents danger potentially causing severe damage to life and property. The trunk of an elephant has many functions and is extremely strong at moving and lifting objects in it's way as well as give a baby a gentle nudge when necessary.
Elephants don't have too many predators in their natural habitat and not even a lion in Africa is usually game to take on the weight of these massive creatures, however one of the elephant's greatest threats is a human. Still hunted for their ivory in particular from poachers trying to make a living some countries have established an elephant sanctuary. There is a special place for elephants in Kenya where local people are employed to care for them and encouraged to educate others against poaching them.
When traveling in India I found it most disturbing to still see so many elephants in chains used for logging and other laborious tasks imprisoned by their human captors. Some baby elephants in India are born in captivity and have never experienced the freedom that many of their ancestors had roaming the jungle and eating the local vegetation freely. Some encouraging news is emerging in India with the activities of a group calling themselves "Elephants Without Chains". The group organizes themselves with the intention of educating and freeing elephants when possible and raising funds from various activities including art exhibitions that include works of art featuring elephant themes from well known and budding new talent. Unfortunately like many animal activist groups they have come under a lot of attack including physical and often brutal attacks on the members.
If you would like to help support the preservation and humane treatment of these much loved animals there are many organizations around the world that you can donate money to or even time, energy and love in some instances if you want a holiday with a difference.
Keeping elephants in a zoo is a bit of a conundrum because on one hand we may be contributing to their survival with mating programs and the other hand many zoo enclosures barely seem large enough to house and keep fit these precious animals.
Who knows how much longer we will be able to enjoy these creatures in the wild or in a zoo.