Rhino in the evening light

Yesterday I saw the prize-winning documentary Stroop about rhino poaching and the trade in rhino horn in Asia. It’s so sad to know that our greed as human beings destroys the world around us. Why can’t we find a way to share, to go not for profit but for sustainability and livelihoods for workers? Look at this innocent creature, so mighty and strong, but so vulnerable to our vices. Will they still be with us in 50 years time?

Happy baby elephants

In Southern Africa, elephants regularly fall victim to poaching or to conflicts about living space with farmers and villagers. Sometimes baby elephants are left orphaned when their mother is killed – elephants drink their mother’s milk until they are three years old. In Zambia, Game Rangers International rescues, rehabilitates, and releases orphaned elephants back into the wild. The youngest elephants are cared for at the elephant nursery in Lilayi, close to Lusaka. There they receive bottles of milk every three hours and are taken into the bush to learn to vend for themselves. Everyday between 11.30 and 13.00 hrs visitors can watch how the babies are fed – a lovely sight, as you can see in this photograph. When they are a little older, the elephants are taken to Kafue National Park to join other older orphaned elephants, to work towards reintegration with elephants in the wild.