Majestic symbols of Africa, elephants are not the easiest creatures to transport. You can’t pop one in your handbag like Paris Hilton’s chihuahua.
Elephant at Kruger National Park. Image: Rachel Fortner
Yet, 200 elephants will be transported 1500 kilometres from the Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve in South Africa to Mozambique. The first 60 have already made the journey and arrived at their new home in Zinave National Park, central Mozambique, on Tuesday 25 July 2018.
Image supplied.
De Beers Group has partnered up with Peace Parks Foundation – a non-profit organisation that focuses largely on the preservation of cross-border ecosystems – to facilitate this mammoth task. This elephant translocations is said to be one of the largest ever to be recorded in South Africa.
The conservation initiative aims to help restore Mozambique’s elephant population, while protecting the welfare of wildlife in South Africa. The Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve covers 32000 hectares and can accommodate up to 60 elephants. There are currently more than 270 elephants on the reserve due to natural population growth. While conversely due to the former Mozambiquean war, the wildlife population in Zinave National Park has depleted over the past 15 years.
Werner Myburgh, CEO, Peace Parks Foundation, said: “Ecosystems require a range of fauna and flora to stay balanced. If you remove one species, such as elephant, it has a ripple effect on the whole system. The reintroduction of elephants to Mozambique will bring us one step closer to achieving our dream of restoring the landscape and establishing uninterrupted connectivity with seamless migration of wildlife across the parks within the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area.”
