Tag: volunteer

Elephanatics May 2025 Newsletter

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A Gentle Rumble from Elephanatics 

Greetings Elephant Enthusiasts!

In Vancouver, the days are getting longer, bursting with spring green, and across the globe magnificent elephants continue their ancient journeys. Elephanatics works hard to encourage education about these amazing creatures within schools, the community, and online. We believe that understanding these incredible creatures is the first step towards protecting them. Join us as we explore the fascinating world of elephants!

This Month’s Focus: The Power of Memory

Elephants are renowned for their incredible memories, and it’s more than just folklore! Their complex social structures and survival depend heavily on their ability to remember vital information.

  • Watering Holes and Migration Routes: Elephants can recall the locations of distant watering holes and traditional migration paths, knowledge passed down through generations. This is crucial for navigating vast landscapes and surviving in challenging environments.
  • Social Bonds: They recognize family members and other individuals within their social groups, even after long separations. This memory underpins their intricate social lives and cooperative behaviours.
  • Threat Recognition: Elephants can remember specific threats, such as the scent or appearance of predators or past encounters with humans, allowing them to react appropriately and protect themselves and their young.
  • Learning and Adaptation: Young elephants learn essential survival skills by observing and remembering the actions of their elders, highlighting the importance of matriarchal knowledge.

Did You Know? Studies have shown that elephants can even differentiate between the voices and scents of different human groups, potentially remembering those who pose a threat versus those who are harmless.

Conservation Corner: Understanding Habitat Loss

One of the biggest threats facing elephants today is the loss and fragmentation of their natural habitats. This month, we want to shed light on why this is so critical:

  • Shrinking Spaces: As human populations grow and land is converted for agriculture, infrastructure, and development, the areas available for elephants to roam freely are shrinking.
  • Increased Conflict: Habitat loss often leads to increased encounters between elephants and humans, resulting in conflict over resources and safety for both.
  • Disrupted Migration: When traditional migration routes are blocked, elephants can be cut off from vital resources like water and food, impacting their survival.
  • Ecosystem Impact: The loss of elephant habitat also has a ripple effect on entire ecosystems, as elephants play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity. They are a keystone species.

Upcoming Events:

  • Our African Elephant Specialist, Dr Rene Beyers, will be giving an online presentation May 23, with Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants, VP of Education, Jesse Hildebrand. Don’t miss this exciting educational broadcast on Rewilding and its global importance in saving wildlife and ecosystems!

Wildlife Conservation Conferences / Symposiums coming up in May and July:

  • Canadian Environmental Crime Symposium (CECRN) (May 8th and 9th – 9am-5:30EDT) Launch of the first CECRN. Presented online or in person. Topics include transnational environmental crime, organized crime and environmental crime convergences, poaching, trafficking, crime journalism and more. Registration is free. https://lnkd.in/ere2pB2S
  • Global Conference on Environmental and Biological Science (GCEBS) (May 16-18, 2025): Taking place in Vancouver, Canada. This conference covers a broad range of topics, including conservation biology and biodiversity conservation. To be held at The University of British Columbia, located at 800 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 3B7, Canada, in Room C215. 
  • Annual International Conference of the Wildlife Disease Association (July 27 – August 1, 2025): This conference focuses on wildlife health and its connection to conservation. Held at 720 Douglas St, Victoria BC, V8W 3M7, Canada.

What Can You Do? Supporting organizations like Elephanatics helps fund initiatives that work to protect and restore elephant habitats through anti-poaching efforts, community engagement, and advocating for conservation policies such as rewilding. 

Get Involved!

  • Share the Knowledge: Help us spread awareness by sharing this newsletter and facts about elephants with your friends and family.
  • Follow Us on Social Media: Stay up-to-date with our latest news, photos, and educational content on Facebook / Instagram / Threads / X and our website elephanatics.org
  • Join our community of dedicated elephant advocates! We need volunteers of all kinds! Contact us @ elephanatics.org/volunteer
  • Consider a Donation: Your contribution, no matter the size, directly supports our educational programs and conservation efforts. Visit elephanatics.org/donate
  • OR donate to the Fran Duthie African Elephant Scholarship. The goal of this scholarship is to provide financial support to Kenyan nationals acquiring a technical certificate, undergraduate or postgraduate (Masters or PhD) degree in an area related to conservation and the protection of wildlife. Donations go to maraelephantproject.org/donate

Thank you for continuing to be a vital part of Elephanatics community. Together, we can ensure a future where elephants thrive.

Until next time, enjoy the longer days and sunshine!

The Team at Elephanatics
elephanaticsinfo@gmail.com

It’s Friday the 13th but Good Luck for Us!

Published on by elephanatic
ELEPHACT FRIDAY:
Volunteers Make ALL The Difference! 
A big thank you to our grade 11 student volunteer, Muskan Sadioura, who has been super proactive in sharing Elephanatics mission to protect the African and Asian elephant!
Muskan is a student at Fleetwood Park Secondary School in Surrey and has worked diligently at sharing our lesson plans with teachers, encouraging other students to support us, and has given an announcement to her whole school about our organization.
She will be introducing Elephanatics to her elementary school’s student council this June and will give a school wide announcement next October about our organization. She has also offered to deliver presentations to summer camps that have requested us to speak this summer.
We can’t thank her enough for her passion and drive to support elephants and her desire to give back to the community.
Thank you, Muskan!!
Pic 1) Muskan delivers announcement to school.
Pic 2) Display in Fleetwood Park Secondary School hall on elephants.

Student Takes A Stand For Elephants!

Published on by elephanatic

Calling All Students!

We are so pleased to share our student volunteer’s blog, “Help Save the Enchanted Elephant.” Dhanvin is a grade 10 student attending Kwantlen Park Secondary School in Surrey. From his experience growing up in Asia, he has a keen sense of the need to protect this valuable species. We thank him for his time and efforts at promoting the work we do as an organization at his school.

Help Save the Enchanted Elephant

(My teacher giving an info session on Effects of Elephant Poaching)

May 9th, 2022

Hi, my name is Dhanvin. I am a grade 10 student attending Kwantlen Park Secondary School in Surrey, BC, Canada. I have offered to volunteer with Elephanatics – an elephant advocacy organization based in Vancouver – to help spread awareness about the crises facing both the African and Asian elephant and the necessity to help save these majestic animals.

Growing up in Asia I have a deep connection with Elephants. I have admired these fascinating creatures since my childhood. Elephants play a significant role in my culture. I had the privilege to touch and ride on one. I vividly remember riding on a 20-year-old Asian elephant. It felt magical riding on this magnificent creature. Riding over 7 feet high through a thick green luscious forest gave me the opportunity to reflect and reconnect with nature. This is one of my favourite memories that I will cherish all my life. Little did I know at the time that riding elephants is not good for them and can cause unnecessary pain to their backs. After reading about unethical tourism, I realized I needed to make others aware that in order to ride elephants they have to go through a horrible procedure to become tame called, ‘Phajaan’ or ‘the crush’. It means to break their spirit and they are beaten to become domesticated. Unethical tourism is a big problem and needs to end.

African and Asian elephants are powerful, compassionate and magnificent animals. They are also ecosystem engineers, playing a critical role in shaping the natural environments where they live. Ecosystems are a complicated web where animals and plants depend on each other for survival. Ecosystems have been developing and evolving for eons. It is depressing to see humans wreck these fascinating systems in just a few decades. Disrupting the balance of ecosystems can threaten human life existence on earth. In spite of the efforts from some governments, the number of African forest elephants fell by more than 86% over a period of 31 years. The African Forest Elephant is Critically Endangered and the African Savannah Elephant is Endangered and on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

The Asian Elephant is listed as Endangered because of a population reduction to be at least 50% over the last three generations. The biggest threat to Asian and African elephants now is habitat loss and fragmentation.

Some of the main reasons threatening the existence of elephants include:

Poaching

Elephants are most vulnerable to poaching for ivory and bush meat. Unfortunately, many people take pride in hunting elephants. Over the past 200-years ivory has become increasingly valuable. At the beginning ivory was collected from dead elephants but it pains me to say that many innocent elephants are now killed to make jewellery. It is tragic that human greed kills these creatures. I feel great sorrow looking at the unfortunate poaching events involving elephants. Recent studies show elephants have begun evolving without their beautiful tusks. Approximately thirty thousand elephants are killed every year due to poaching.

Climate change

Humans have become the most disruptive species on earth. With continuous expansion in human settlements there is a significant impact on our climate. Degrading climatic conditions are ruining the habitats of many animals and elephants are one of the most prominent species impacted. Their forests and grasslands have been cut down to expand cities and agricultural demands. Elephants are a keystone species and play a huge part in the worlds biodiversity.

Human Elephant Conflict

Expanding settlement boundaries have caused elephants to wander into human settlements. This has led humans to take drastic measure to protect their families and crops. According to WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) over 100 people and 50-80 elephants are killed in this conflict every year. It is upsetting to see humans disrupt the delicate balance and co-existence between all species.

It is not too late to stop this destruction. In my opinion education is the best way of spreading awareness. With education we can pass on a better world to our successive generations. Although I am unable to go and help the elephants in person myself, I want to sensitize others. I have been volunteering with Elephanatics for over three months. They have given me access to a wide variety of insightful learning resources. These resources have been invaluable in helping me spread awareness in my school community by distributing the lesson plans to my teachers. My social studies teacher loved the idea of including the lesson plan and he was able to share these insightful resources with his colleagues and present a lesson plan to his students.

I have tried to start a club and organize fundraiser, I was turned down by my school admin, but I did not give up and I tried by best to spread the awareness and encourage my peers in supporting this cause. I believe I can make a difference and give our future generation an opportunity to see these stunning creatures.

If you love elephants and want to help save them, please join me in spreading the word about the crises facing elephants by sharing Elephanatics petition to end the domestic trade of elephant ivory in Canada – over 687,000 people have signed this petition making it one of the largest petitions in Canada.

#IvoryFreeCanada

Thank you and I hope you will join me in trying to help these magnificent creatures.

You can contact me at:

Dhanvinraj12@gmail.com

or, feel free to contact Elephanatics at: elephanaticsinfo@gmail.com

Dhanvin