Incredibly, elephants have the ability to communicate over long distances using deep sounds. It is sort of like how whales communicate to each other in the ocean.
It is humbling and exciting to cycle through the herds. The elephants have a calm energy. They watch us while waving their trunks in the air. Elephants can use their trunks to smell. When they wave their trunks in the air, it is so they can smell us to identify what species we are, and to identify if we are a threat. Bulls can be a bit more unpredictable than other elephants in herds. I saw one bull spread his ears in warning and raise his leg to make sure I didn’t get too close. Riding near wild elephants was a dream. I hope you will all have the chance to ride with elephants someday.
Elephants are endangered animals and need our help to continue to live in their natural habitats. Sadly, wildlife is still hunted all over the world for sport. Sometimes, people will pay money to come to Africa to hunt elephants for fun, or for their ivory tusks. This practice is incredibly damaging to the environment and to the elephant’s ability to thrive in the wild.
There is a lot of conflict between conservation groups and local farmers at the moment. Elephants and humans both need water to survive. When an elephant’s water source dries up, they can sometimes wander too close to human farms. Elephants are very large, and can be very damaging to local farms. When a farm is harmed, it means that a community of people may not be able to grow enough food. But, conservation groups and farmers meet and work together to try to preserve the land for all. One of the solutions the two groups have found is in the form of tourism.
