Howletts Wild Animal Park Howletts Elephant herd rewilding

[dillotest0]

I find it amusing that I have received 2 emails in the past week urging me to come and see the largest elephant herd in the UK at half-term!
It seems fine with the AF to use the captive elephants as an advertising tool when it suits

From what I see, the Aspinall Foundation somewhat a separate entity from Damian himself, though Damian of course has sizeable gravity, as he is the governer of the organisation.
But eitherway, I'd imagine that although they are seperate entities, they seemingly both have gravity over the two parks - Seeing how Damian feels about animal captivity in general, I do wonder how he feels about the introduction of new buffalo - or perhaps he decided that he had re-wilded enough wisent as it was, and these buffalo are the next in line for a permanent stay somewhere in Africa..
Though seeing how serious Damian feels about his plans to convert the parks into 'rescue facilities', surely it's unusual he wouldn't just leave the paddock for a 'rescue' animal as a step in the plan?

 

[Pertinax]

Though seeing how serious Damian feels about his plans to convert the parks into 'rescue facilities', surely it's unusual he wouldn't just leave the paddock for a 'rescue' animal as a step in the plan?

I did wonder if the Cape buffalo are already a form of 'rescue' from their previous home- it doesn't seem clear why they were obtained otherwise, as his/their stated aim now seems to be to focus only on 'rescue' and 'rewilding' and he has indicated in a recent interview I read that other species that don't fit these two categories will gradually be phased out. So it seems an odd time to simply aquire another species for any other reason.

 

[David Matos Mendes]

about maintaining a degree of professionalism in your statements on a public forum The Hedgehog, as you never know who's reading...

Indeed... I couldn't agree more with this particular statement

 

[Zorro]

I read online that the Guardian reports that South Africa will release permits for 10 black rhinos,10 Leopards and 150 elephants to be shot so taking a few back to Africa really is not such a good idea, its not going to make no difference in the scheme of things

 

[Swampy]

I read online that the Guardian reports that South Africa will release permits for 10 black rhinos,10 Leopards and 150 elephants to be shot so taking a few back to Africa really is not such a good idea, its not going to make no difference in the scheme of things

Africa is a large continent, containing many different countries, each with different situations and policies towards their wildlife. I'm not saying that I agree with the proposed elephant move, simply that South Africa's hunting permits being reported on has no bearing at all on a proposed project many thousands of miles away in Kenya.

 

[Zoofan15]

This is an ill-conceived idea at best. An wild elephant herd is led by a matriarch with decades of experience in navigating the landscape to find food, water and whatever resources the herd needs. Most of this complex knowledge is committed to memory - a mental map of the environment.

The matriarch of this herd will have no prior experience of the environment she’s released into and despite whatever support they’ll receive in their introduction to the wild, she’ll be completely out of her depth - creating stress for all involved.

And this is before they meet their first pride of lions…

 

[Panthera1981]

Howletts is mentioned briefly in an article regarding captive elephants in the April issue of BBC Wildlife magazine.

I was unaware the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust are involved.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Daimian Aspinall if you are reading this please don't realese the Elephant Herd to their death. If you wish to aid African Elephants in Africa, build a sanctuary that rehubiltates wild born Elephants that have been injured or held in captivity. This is a more sensible way forward than sending a Captive Born Herd to Africa.