JUMBO FAMILY: An adult elephant with two youngsters. Picture: Supplied
Happy endings are not limited to fairy tales – at least not for nine rescued elephants at the Knysna Elephant Park.
Most of the small herd had been rescued from culling operations over the past 20 years.
This week they were moved to a bigger and better home at the Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve.
Park owner Lisette Withers said: “Ever since their rescue, the long-term objective for the elephants was for them to remain together in a free-range environment and to be returned to a habitat as similar as possible to the home they had come from.”
Plans to move them were put in motion two years ago when four young cows – aged between one and three – joined the park.
Mpho, Lundi, Kito and Ntombi belonged to a herd living on a private hunting farm that was due to close down.
The mothers were seen to be too dangerous to move, but authorities agreed that the young elephants could be saved if a suitable home could be found.
The Knysna Elephant Park offered to take the four.
“But first of all a surrogate family had to be found,” Withers said.
“We knew that [the park’s] retired bulls Harry, Namib and Gambo, together with bonded female Tosha, would give the four calves the support, guidance and leadership they needed.
“Add to the group a small calf named Tembi, born to Tosha and Harry in May 2013, and the perfect family was formed.”
Harry, rescued from a cull in the Kruger National Park, has been with Withers and her team since they started in 1994.
On Monday, the next step of their journey was completed when the herd was successfully moved to the privately owned Plettenberg Bay reserve with more than 3 000ha to roam in.
The park team, assisted by wildlife vet Brendon Tindall and a professional game transport company, took the elephants to their new home in two trips – first the bulls, then Tosha and the young elephants.
Cape Nature representatives were at the release camp.
The African Elephant Research Unit (AERU) has been monitoring the elephants since their arrival and will continue to do so.
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