Africa-Press – Botswana. Elephant Havens has released 12 orphaned elephants back to the wilderness after spending five years at the orphanage centre.
The elephants were abandoned by their mothers and could not survive on their own.
A senior elephant handler, Mr Akanyang Mosabata told North West District leaders, a team from the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and other stakeholders during a tour of the orphanage to appreciate its operations.
He said they currently had 13 orphan elephants and that 12 were released in 2022 with zero human contact before being reintroduced to other elephants. “We are happy that they are coping well and are easily adapting to the wilderness,” he said.
The delegation learnt that at five years when they showed signs of independence, they were moved to soft release areas as a herd for about 10 years where they learnt to explore, forage and play together without constantly interacting with their handlers.
Mr Mosabata also informed them that the released elephants were tagged with a tracking collar for easy identification.
He also noted that Elephant Havens was the only elephant orphanage in the country dedicated to rescuing orphaned and abandoned elephants babies across the country through the support and assistance of wildlife officers and the community.
He said they bottle fed every three hours when young as well as taking care of their health and well-being until they were ready to be released.
He noted that they also undertook community projects to empower communities in their vicinity such as drilling boreholes to provide potable water to them, procuring a bus to transport school children and educating communities on elephant behaviour and habitat protection.
“We also donated 100 goats to communities and bought milk from them for the next generation of orphaned elephants,” he highlighted.
One of the elephant handlers, Ms Tshepang Siayo noted that they had a sharp memory. Elephants, she said, could also become aggressive if one did not respect their territory.
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