One of the world’s most important animals, the elephant, is being celebrated this month. World Elephant Day, which takes place on 12 August, seeks to raise as much appreciation for their lives as possible, encouraging people worldwide to see the many ways elephants are making the world a better place.
Elephants are known as a keystone species, which means that entire ecosystems are dependent on them for their survival.
The role a keystone species plays in its ecosystem is analogous to the role of a keystone in an arch. While the keystone is under the least pressure of any of the stones in an arch, the arch still collapses without it. Similarly, an ecosystem may experience a dramatic shift if a keystone species is removed, even though that species was a small part of the ecosystem by measures of biomass or productivity.
Recent discoveries have shown that elephants can communicate over long distances by producing a sub-sonic rumble that can travel over the ground faster than sound through air, some estimate this distance of 50 plus kilometres.
And even though elephants weigh on average 5,5 tons, they can run up to 45 km per hour. Probably one of the most fascinating facts about elephants is that they can recognise different tribes from their human languages and scents and know which ones belong to people with a history of confrontation with elephants. This incredible ability is being explored by researchers at the Rory Hensman Elephant Research Unit to see how the elephants compare to dogs and if one day we could use them to help wildlife and humanity by detecting diseases such as ‘foot and mouth’, checking areas suspected to have landmines and possibly even early cancer detection.
As part of the celebration, Adventures with Elephants, located on a beautiful wildlife reserve just an hour’s drive north of Pretoria, adjacent to Zebula Country Club in the Waterberg, will be hosting underprivileged children from a nearby orphanage to enjoy an educational interaction with these tusked creatures later in the week.
Adventures with Elephants offers wonderful hands-on elephant interactions, elephant back rides, swims on the elephants, and tailor made activities. Here people can learn about elephants in a unique way, in a natural setting. Our friendly, experienced and qualified elephant handlers will share their in-depth knowledge and passion for their charges with guests, in this unrivalled and extraordinary experience.
