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The park began in 1994 when the owner discovered that the population of elephants in the area had plummeted from 400-500 to just 1 elephant cow in 118 years. The aim was to bring elephants back to the area. The park was the first captive elephant operation of its kind in South Africa. The purpose of the park is to provide a home to elephants in need, providing them with an improved environment, which they certainly get; the elephants are free to roam the 110 hectare park!
The park is well respected for its research efforts; it highlighted the serious lack of research done on captive elephants in South Africa, particularly with respect to their welfare and husbandry, within their own unique environments. Consequently, in 2009 the park established the first captive elephant research unit dedicated to captive elephants. The unit aims to conduct and facilitate research studies of elephants at the park and at other parks across South Africa and promotes ethical, non-harmful research of elephants. This research aims to guide management of captive elephants. Information that is also relevant to wild elephants will be used to improve their protection and conservation. The park aims to achieve conservation through education.
Volunteers are an important part of the park and its research unit. They enable the park to include more animals in their studies and to study these animals for longer periods of time. This is because volunteers enable more elephants to be studied at any one time; this is important, especially for studying interactions between numerous elephants.
Having volunteers to assist with the research has allowed the park to include additional projects into their schedule. This is because of the hands on help that they have provided as well as the financial contribution that they make through their project costs. The knowledge gained from this research adds to the advice they are able to provide for the optimal care and management of captive elephants. This is really important and has the potential to improve the way captive elephants are kept in South Africa.
Having volunteers at the project to help with the research means that behavioural interactions between the elephants can be recorded more accurately as there are more volunteers to observe the elephants. Volunteers also assist in educating local people about the elephant.Volunteers help the elephant staff to feed and care for twelve elephants which is no small task! There is also a personal satisfaction gained when the elephants start to recognise you and trust you; you will become part of the herd! Volunteers also act as ambassadors for the park and its elephants by helping to spread the word about elephants and their research, welfare and conservation issues.
Social responsibility
Before volunteers depart we provide them with a detailed information pack on the area they will be visiting. We try to educate and encourage our volunteers to understand and respect the local cultures and customs and get involved with local communities.
Economic responsibility
For over 10 years we have been providing volunteers to help at charitable projects around the world. A UK charity has now been launched to build on this success by providing financial assistance to overseas causes as well. The organisations we work with are often struggling to fund the work they are doing so every penny raised makes a real difference.
The majority of the fee that volunteers pay goes directly to the park. The park provides employment for many local South African staff. While volunteers are in-country, we encourage them to buy locally and support local businesses.
Environmental responsibility
One of the main negative impacts of our volunteers travelling, is the carbon dioxide created from flights. We work with a 'carbon neutral' charity to help ensure that an amount of carbon is sequestered through tree planting or the promotion of low energy technologies. Volunteers are accommodated in simple shared accommodation with low environmental impact. While our volunteers and customers are overseas, we identify and encourage simple steps to minimise their impact on the local environment.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
