ElephantVoices

Today is #InternationalDayofCharity At ElephantVoices, we study the voices, behaviors and cultures of elephants and act as a voice for them in the face of human exploitation and a rapidly changing world. We use our data to help to better understand elephants, to shape conservation policy, to educate, and to advocate. We hope that you enjoy what we share here on social media and we are very grateful for your continued support. Your donations make a difference toward creating a future where elephants are respected, protected, and truly understood. Please donate today: https://lnkd.in/drFAcb88 #elephantvoices #nonprofit #conservation #elephants

Here is some good news: Charlie, the bull elephant who spent 40 years in captivity, has finally been freed. Dr. Joyce Poole of ElephantVoices co-authored a report on Charlie's behavior and status at the National Zoological Garden in Pretoria. Charlie has now been relocated to the expansive 10,000-hectare Shambala Private Reserve in Limpopo province. There, he will continue to be closely monitored by veterinary and behavioral experts to ensure his well-being. We extend our heartfelt thanks to FOUR PAWS, the EMS Foundation and everyone else involved in making this a reality.

Today is #WorldElephantDay—a day dedicated to the conservation and protection of the world's elephants. In the wild, ivory poaching, habitat destruction, competition with humans for dwindling resources, trophy hunting, and capture for captivity all threaten the freedom and survival of elephants. Through Conservation, Advocacy, Research and Education (CARE), ElephantVoices promotes the protection and kinder treatment of elephants wherever they may be. Elephants need protection both as a species and as individuals, as each elephant plays a crucial role within its society. Older males and females, in particular, serve as keystones in their communities. Removing any of these individuals can have lasting and cascading effects on other elephants and on the society as a whole. Older males, such as those targeted by trophy hunters, are role models to younger males and recent research has shown that it is these individuals who coordinate movement among groups of close male companions, just as influential females do within families and larger aggregations. We now know that elephants create and use names for one another. Imagine what this really means. If they create and use names for one another, what else might they refer to by name? Places? Specific threats? As one of our followers wrote, this discovery should "cause the world to shift a little." Once again elephants are breaking the barrier between humans and other animals, block by block. On this World Elephant Day, take a moment to reflect on elephants, what they mean to you and what you can do for them. If you would like to contribute to our efforts, you can donate here: https://lnkd.in/dk_wvnGh Thank you! #elephantvoices #elephantbehavior #theelephantethogram #saynototrophyhunting

We would like to share this excellent and well researched article by Dr. Ross Harvey on the trophy hunting of the cross-border Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro elephant population. We’ve faced a lot of unhelpful, misplaced and unscientific comments from some influential conservationists, particularly after our letter, “Stop Elephant Hunting in Tanzania Borderlands,” was published in Science Magazine. Harvey rightly calls out these critics, stating, “We’re at risk of losing the world’s last super-tuskers, and some of the world’s top scientists are loudly defending trophy hunting while ignoring biological reality.” #WorldElephantDay is just around the corner, so we are asking you to please read this article and share it far and wide: https://lnkd.in/dH7u2PnU

Listen to Joyce speaking to Vox for their segment on 'How AI could help us talk to animals.'

It's great to see more local media attention on the trophy hunting of the cross-border Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro elephant population. “These elephants, genetically predisposed to possess some of the continent’s largest tusks, embody centuries of evolutionary adaptation. Their roles in genetic diversity, social cohesion and the local economy underscore their irreplaceable contributions.” Pauline Kairu's article for The East African is both informative and well-written and we encourage you to read it.

Between 2011 and 2016 ElephantVoices carried out a project in the Maasai Mara, Kenya, an initiative that approached conservation through citizen science and web technology. We built a customised online database to enable Mara residents and people visiting the reserve to help monitor and protect elephants by adding their observations via our website and our Mara EleApp. Our concept was to connect individual people - guides, scouts, researchers, photographers, tourists, people of the Maasai Mara - with the lives of individual elephants. Through use of social and educational media, our intention was to develop a community sharing knowledge about the Mara elephants and working together to protect them. Some of our collaborators are still hard at work in the Mara keeping up with some of the elephants we identified and monitored and doing very important work. Mara Elephant Project #ElephantAware Our work in the Mara was featured in the Pachyderm Journal, which you can find here: https://lnkd.in/dquWsseM #theelephantethogram #elephantvoices #conservation #elephants

We are continuing to fight against the trophy hunting of Amboseli’s elephants in Tanzania. Gradually, the issue is gaining more media attention and we would like to share this excellent article by Malavika Vyawahare of Mongabay, who has been able to capture some of the points missed by other journalists. Vyawahare points out that the claim by hunters and many conservationists that trophy hunting is sustainable as long as populations are “healthy” overlooks the importance of individuals in communities formed by highly social animals like elephants. Poole said bulls older than 35 years are “keystones” for male society. “Just like in humans, you can’t just take out a leader in the society and think it doesn’t have repercussions,” Poole said. And Vyawahare raises a concept that may seem other worldly, but is gaining traction as scientific advances and the use of AI allows us to understand the cognitive abilities and communication of other species: that we should take into consideration their perspectives too. “It seems so wrong to me that animals that move back and forth, freely across a border, should belong to anybody except themselves. These are autonomous, conscious, self-aware animals who have names for one another.” - Dr Joyce Poole The killing of Amboseli tuskers spotlights more than one company’s practices; it shows the limits of the human endeavor to subjugate the wild world to human-made laws.

We are once again asking you to join us in appealing to the President of Tanzania to stop issuing licenses for trophy hunters to kill elephants in Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro borderlands and to put a permanent ban in place to protect this unique, long-studied, habituated cross-border population. Avaaz is taking the lead on this petition to help us reach a broader audience. We are so grateful for your support in this issue!

Our commitment to protecting elephants is inspired by our love and respect for them, both as individuals and as a species. This dedication is rooted in our understanding of them, gained through long-term study. To protect their lives and preserve the beauty of their habitats, we must inspire others to feel the same. For this reason, education and the sharing of knowledge are important aspects of all that we do. You can learn more about elephants on our website www.elephantvoices.org #theelephantethogram #elephantvoices #conservation #elephants