ELEPHANT SANCTUARIES: SAVE ASIAN AND AFRICAN ELEPHANTS

Elephant sanctuaries in Asia and Africa are working to reverse the dramatic decline that the elephant population has suffered over the last few decades. Demand for ivory, poaching, and habitat loss have caused both Asian and African elephant populations to dwindle. Only seventy years ago, Africa was home to five to ten million wild elephants. But when African elephants were listed as one of the world's most endangered species in 1989, less than one percent (about 600,000) remained. These magnificent animals, once roaming freely over the entire African continent, can now only be found in the wild in small pockets of the Sahara.

Asian elephants face an even greater risk of extinction. Today, the World Wildlife Fund reports that the Asian elephant population has been reduced from 200,000 to small isolated herds of 35,000 to 50,000. Thai elephants face two problems:

• Wild Thai elephants, once numbering 300,000 now number around 1,500.
• Meanwhile, due to the destruction of their forest habitat, followed by logging bans, hundreds of domesticated homeless and unemployed Thai elephants can be founded begging on the streets of Bangkok, leaving them open to abuse and illegal smuggling.

Organizations like Save The Elephants are creating elephant sanctuaries, teaching elephant protection, wildlife conservation, and management to local residents. You can help elephant conservationists in Asia and Africa save and rehabilitate these intelligent, sensitive and majestic animals.

• Responsible Travel offers elephant conservation programs in Sri Lanka. Volunteers will study Asian elephants and help to develop management approaches for local residents. The program fee is approximately $2,000 for two weeks and includes meals and accommodations with electricity, showers and flush toilets.
• The Elephant Nature Park in Thailand allows volunteers to assist with caring for the elephants, from bathing elephants to basic health care. Meals and rustic accommodations are provided with two-week stays ($260 each week). The park also offers day trips, and 1-4 night trips.
• Global Vision seeks volunteers to help track desert elephants and work on community programs in the northwestern regions of the Namib Desert, Africa. Excluding travel expenses, the cost is approximately $1,600 for two weeks and includes all food, transportation and accommodation during the project.
• Tembe Elephant Park encourages student volunteers to participate in its elephant conservation program near Durban, South Africa. Five week to three month stays (or longer) include meals, accommodations, and transportation in and around Tembe Park, costing approximately $225 per week.