It’s a crazy project. The British Aspinall Foundation plans to reintroduce a herd of elephants into the wild at once. The organization plans to fly 13 pachyderms currently living in southeast England to Kenya.
as reported from Naïrobi, Sebastien nemeth
The Aspinall Foundation is addressing a challenge that is both biological and logistical. The 13 elephants currently live in a three-acre enclosure at Howletts Wilds in Kent. They will travel in boxes made to measure by a specialized South African company. The Pachyderms will come on board a Boeing 747. This will be necessary, as the crew weighs 25 tonnes.
After a journey of 7000 km, supervised by veterinarians, the boxes will be taken to a still secret place in Kenya. Damian Aspinall, the foundation’s president, acknowledges that there are “major risks to any project of this size. But we think it’s worth it. They belong to Africa, he said.
The 13 elephants will first spend 6 months in captivity to be observed and see if they adapt to the environmental change. Then they are definitely released.
For the Aspinall Foundation, this project is also a symbol of life in captivity, where “women’s life expectancy is reduced by half and where these animals reproduce poorly. Even if elephants receive the best possible care, they must live in the wild, says the foundation. In the long run, she hopes zoos will stop breeding or trading elephants.
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