Throughout the program, I was bowled over by the amazing dedication of Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick as she continued the legacy of her husband David after his death in 1977. The care she and her many helpers give to these orphan elephants is extraordinarily heartwarming as much as it must be heart wrenching each time a little one loses its fight for life. It is something you would never get used to no matter how long you had been doing it, as Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick visibly demonstrated.

Seeing the plight of these elephants led to further research only to discover the appalling suffering of these enormous animals in circuses and tiny zoo enclosures. That is the equivalent of keeping a large dog such as an English Mastiff or Saint Bernard permanently enclosed in a small one bedroom unit without ever taking it outside. It beggars belief that we are quite prepared to do it to a huge creature such as an elephant yet we would never dream of keeping a large dog in such confined quarters!

If you know very little about elephants and their habits, an excellent source of information is EleAid, and their description of elephant behaviour gives us a better understanding of their social structure:

Elephants are highly socialised animals that live in family groups. Wild herds consist of females and their young and are led by a matriarch who is the undisputed leader, where she goes the herd will always follow. The matriarch and other senior females carry within their memories the wealth of knowledge gained from their life experiences, which is vital to the extended family’s well being.

At the onset of maturity young males will be ousted from the herd and form small male groups of up to ten animals. These will roughly track the movements of the main female group. As they reach their mid twenties mature males usually stay in pairs or a group of three. There is a hierarchy among the adult male with the dominant bull having prime mating rights. This position is usually attained by a trial of combat against any challenging bulls.

Different herds including male groups can come together at favoured water holes or grazing sites. There is never friction between the groups and observers have reported that often they appear to be joyous reunions.

In light of that information, the next article makes it is easier to understand why the following problem occurred when culling at one stage, was considered the best way to control elephant populations in certain areas of Africa:

As part of the culling activity in the past, certain sub-adults (elephant between the age of 8 and 14 years old) and even babies (2 to 6 years old), were removed prior or during a cull and reintroduced to new wildlife reserves elsewhere. There was at the time, a demand for elephants for the repopulation of certain game farms.

Young elephants were established on new reserves without the leadership of older cows or bulls to temper their behaviour, to guide them into adulthood.

These young elephants, through no fault of their own, became juvenile delinquents. They ran amok, killing rhinos, fighting amongst one another, challenging game viewing vehicles full of tourists and breaking out of fenced areas, raiding crops and traumatizing communities. So many of them
were ultimately shot for disturbing the peace. There was and remains serious concerns in this regard.

Of course once older Kruger bulls were introduced to these eco-systems, and a new hierarchal authority was established, normality in the young elephant’s behaviour was soon re-established. There was peace in these elephant communities, simple disciplines were introduced by the old bulls.

The history of this situation has left certain provincial conservationists nervous of re-enacting a management policy which failed.

Source: Efaf

This naturally lead to elephant delinquency which is not surprising. Along that note, for those interested in the psychology of elephants, this PDF document entitled Elephants on the edge fight back offers another insight.

We really do need to fully understand the extent to which trauma affects elephants and this PDF document clearly outlines this: Post-Traumatic Stress and Elephants in Captivity. Further information is available at Elephants.com.

Still not convinced? Galen Hazelhofer has put together two heartbreaking pages of information on her website on the plight of captive elephants and a link to Clara’s story which I strongly suggest you read – they had me in tears. You will also find plenty of other informative links on these pages:

• Elephants in Zoos
• Elephants in Circuses
• Clara’s Story
  

Please don’t sit back and think it is not your problem and leave it up to everyone else to fight on behalf of these gentle giants. Make your objections publicly known and help to save the plight of captive elephants and those in the wild in whichever way you can. No matter how insignificant it may seem to you, small efforts from many people will make a huge positive difference to all those elephants suffering around the world!

Post from: Madam Zebra's Blog

Plight of Elephants

Currently I have three cats: Nimue the female cat is a Singapura and Osher, a male cat is a cream Burmese. These two live indoors with supervised time outside. Joey is a brown burmese and comes in and out as he pleases.

Nimue, my female Singapura cat

Osher, my male cream Burmese cat

Joey, the male brown Burmese cat originally from across the roadÂ

Our house has also become a haven for a neighbour’s cat who visits daily and demands to be fed and I am not surprised as my cats are only given premium dry food to eat which is not available at the supermarket.

Joey, (originally a neighbour’s cat who was left with us when they moved back overseas) was in the beginning quite overweight and first sneaked into our yard to steal Phoenix’s food which was readily available. Phoenix regarded the front yard as his territory and did not appreciate such blatant intrusion by Joey. Poor Phoenix is not allowed in our house as unneutered cats tend to “spray” to mark their territory. Over time, he has come to realise that Joey is an accepted member of our household and Phoenix is now more tolerant of his presence although I occasionally still hear the odd grumble from Phoenix.

Living with cats – not only are they completely different in appearance but their individual personalities are definitely unique.

Post from: Madam Zebra's Blog

My cats

What can I say? Just happened to come out of my gate to see Joey’s head pop up from behind the sign on the wall near our door bell.

Despite laughing so hard, somehow I still managed to take a photo with the camera on my phone.

The glare on this cat should be enough to put anyone off *smiles*.

Post from: Madam Zebra's Blog

Guard cat!

Librarian Vicki Myron, discovered one very small cold kitten underneath some books in the book drop on a Monday morning in January 1988 – it was minus 10 degrees!

Dewey lived out his life of 19 years in the Spencer Public Library and as it turned out, was the perfect personality for the public. He loved people and the antics he got up to brought this library to life in a way no other public library could match. Dewey became known all over the world and the local patrons adored him.

Dewey was one very special cat with a big personality and tears flowed freely as I got to the end of the book and the end of his life. It is a book definitely worth reading: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World.

Sioux City Journal published an article about Dewey after his final departure from this life.

I may have missed Dewey’s time here on earth but am very thankful that Vicki has put his wonderful life story into writing for us all to share. His memory will live on in those whose hearts he touched both during his lifetime and after his passing.

Post from: Madam Zebra's Blog

Dewey Readmore Books

This news story details the beginning of Christian’s life when he was originally purchased in 1969 by Australians John Rendall and Anthony ‘Ace’ Bourke from Harrods department store of London. Many of the videos about Christian focus on the reunion without giving you any other background information, hence the inclusion of this article.  It is quite bizarre to think that such a wild animal was even available for sale in a department store in the first place. But then anything was possible in the freedom loving 60′s and 70′s.

Tiger feet: Christian enjoyed living in swinging London

This is a video of Christian’s reunion with his former owners and that moment of recognition is a truly memorable and emotional scene. The video clip is the final 6 minutes from the film Christian the Lion, with original soundtrack and commentary by Virginia McKenna. Virginia McKenna played the part of Joy Adamson in the movie Born Free about Elsa the lioness, another fabulous story worth knowing if you are unfamiliar with it. Christian’s story is also available as a book called,  A Lion Called Christian: The True Story of the Remarkable Bond between Two Friends and a Lion.

May the memories of Christian the lion and Elsa the lioness live on and continue to spread awareness around the world for conservation of wild animals.

Post from: Madam Zebra's Blog

Christian, the lion who lived in my London living room

Phoenix, the black cat from next door, used to be very territorial about our front yard which he considered to be his territory for a long time. Joey from across the road has been hanging around our place for so long now that the tension between him and Phoenix has virtually disappeared. As you can see, they can be in the same place without any dramas although I very much doubt they will ever become best friends.

I find it fascinating that the three cats are totally oblivious of each other and are comfortable enough in each other’s company to concentrate on their own thing. Once upon a time, there was NO WAY Phoenix would EVER have had his back to Joey!

We as humans can learn a lot from cat behaviour!

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Three cats outside

You have to remember that elephants live within very tight social structures and it is the adults, like adult humans, who teach appropriate behaviour to guide their young. Just imagine if all (human) teenagers around the world were left to their own devices without any adult guidance whatsoever! Or toddlers for that matter. Mind boggling isn’t it. Yet that is precisely what has happened in Africa in elephant communities where adults were removed and the “teenagers” subsequently had no role models and were expected to innately know how to survive and how to behave – which of course they had no idea!

Read the article here titled: Poaching of African elephants for ivory leaves young to run wild.

Post from: Madam Zebra's Blog

Poaching for ivory leaves young to run wild