Prince Harry describes ‘amazing’ mission to move 500 African elephants to safer home
Royal helps ambitious task to transport herds 200 miles across Malawi to wildlife haven
PRINCE Harry has described his “amazing” mission to move herds of African elephants hundreds of miles to a safer home.
He joined conservationists on the ambitious 500 Elephants project in Malawi to transport them from an overstocked region to one with less human conflict and more food.
The Prince spent three weeks this summer helping to catch anaesthetised elephants and load them on trucks.
In one dramatic moment he hung onto a rope tied around the leg of a darted bull male trying to escape.
Harry said: “They need to be moved to another place and this is the most efficient and least invasive way of being able to do it. I can tell you after three weeks there is zero stress on these animals and they’re going from one beautiful place to another beautiful place.”
The animals are being moved 200 miles across Malawi from Liwonde National Park and Majete Wildlife Reserve to the Nkhotakota reserve, where the elephants can thrive.
The Prince helped with the first phase, when 261 elephants were successfully re-homed. The remaining 239 will be moved next summer.
The Royal is also seen marking a captured young male with removable spray paint, so he can be identifiable when the family group is released back into the bush.
Harry says in a video of the challenge: ”Elephants – that’s one of the cores of Africa, you can’t imagine anywhere like this existing without elephants.
”People can connect with them. but one of the fears is the overcrowding of elephants and wondering where we are going to put all of these animals.
”In some countries the numbers are dropping unbelievably quickly, in other countries you’ve got almost too many – there’s this weird imbalance.”
Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve supported more than 1,500 elephants 20 years ago but, due to rampant poaching, numbers had dwindled to 100 before the start of the translocation.
Harry added: ”It’s amazing to see such unbelievable creatures being moved in a way you could never even dream of.”
The Prince, in cap, khaki shirt with sleeves rolled up and jeans, was seen putting a strap around a captive creature’s leg, helping to guide an anaesthetised animal to the ground, and stroking a sedated elephant on a lorry.
He said: ”To be with elephants – such a massive beast – is a unique experience.”
Conservation organisation WWF warns that despite a ban on the international trade in ivory, African elephants are still being poached in large numbers.
There are around 415,000 on the continent, down from between three million and five million in the early 20th century.
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