Narrator Susan George begins, "By their sheer size, mature elephants do not have any natural predators, except man. The barbaric trade for ivory has decimated many family units. Ironically, the young orphans that are left behind only have one hope for survival--further intervention by human beings. This is one such story."
An irony, indeed. And while our story begins on a somber note, this beautiful DVD is an inspirational example of dedicated conservationists pouring their love, sweat and tears into helping orphaned elephants be rehabilitated into the wilds of Africa again.
In this 48-minute documentary, director, photographer, and writer Joe Phillips takes viewers inside the compound of my favorite elephant charity, The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. In truth, asking me to declare a favorite elephant organization is like asking a mother to name a favorite child, but the Trust has captured my heart profoundly and securely. (Read the back story in Rumblings of a Calling.) The Trust is a micro-organization, founded by matriarch Daphne Sheldrick, who still presides over it today. Their mission is to rescue orphaned elephants and rhinos, who could not otherwise survive on their own, and carefully nurse them back to physical and emotional health. Once stabilized and resocialized into a new herd, the orphans are released back into the wild. Daphne and her team of elephant angels are my heroes. After watching this film, you'll understand why.
The stars of the show are six orphaned elephants living at the Trust's nursery outside Nairobi:
Four of them, Dida, Malaika, Edo, and Ndume are old enough (approximately 18-months) that they are ready to graduate the nursery and be moved to the Trust's property in Voi, near Tsavo, where they will gradually be reintroduced to the wild.
Two of the elephant babies are mere infants.
Ajok, the scene stealer of the film, is a rambunctious bull who was orphaned at just two weeks old. His playful antics will make you laugh and coo. Chasing his baby zebra friend in circles. Ears flapping. Trunk flailing. (There is nothing cuter in this world than a floppy baby elephant trunk.) You will fall in love with him.
Tya was a baby girl elephant who had sustained a head injury. You will see the keepers and veterinarian work hard at saving her, falling in love with all of them. However, heartbreaking as it is for everyone involved, this little one does not survive. Sadly, many of them don't. Happily, many now do--so it is with animal rescue.
It's important to understand the impact of poaching and human-elephant conflict on elephant populations as a whole. One point from the film really stood out to me, "During it's height in the 1980's, the ivory trade was taking 825 tons of ivory every year. Some 70,000 elephants died. This figure does not take into account the small tuskless calves that would have perished as a result of the poaching." You see, young elephants are usually protected by their mother and the community of the herd. If we lose adults, we lose their offspring, too. This simple fact makes poaching losses exponentially greater.
Oh, did I tell you there was lots of mud wallowing in the film? Yes. Big sloppy, slippery, muddy elephant youngsters having one heck of a good time at their daily mud bath. I don't want you to think the whole film is about the hardships elephant orphans face. The keepers at the trust make extreme efforts to nurse their charges back to emotional wellbeing. You'll see the babies drinking their milk bottles. Playing soccer. Being tucked into bed by their keepers at night. Sweet.
Meanwhile, down south at the Voi unit, keepers there were preparing for the arrival of the four older babies. When you're watching the film, you really do need to keep in mind that they are mere toddlers (to equate them with a human's age.) Standing chest-high to the keepers, they look big. Yet when you see the Voi unit's 33 year old matriarch, Eleanor, show up to greet the new arrivals, you'll be reminded just how big adult elephants are. Huge.
Ivory Orphans offers a rare inside glimpse into the good works of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Viewers are educated with useful entry-level facts about elephant health and life cycles, so they can understand how elephant poaching impacts the species and see some of the challenges conservationists are facing.
Keep in mind that I don't have children myself (just two nephews and some adopted elephants) but I think this film is suitable for elephant lovers age 12 and up. There are some really cute elephant and rhino photo slide-shows set to African music on the bonus tracks. Those are great for your littlest ones, so they don't feel left out.
Ivory Orphans is available for on-line purchase direct from the publisher or at Amazon.co.UK
Buy Ivory Orphans from Beckman Visual Publishing
Buy Ivory Orphans from Amazon.co.UK
Disclaimer: I gratefully received a review copy of this product from the publisher. While my opinions and writing remain untamed and uncaged, the FTC now requires bloggers to disclose such gifts.
One last note: You can foster a baby elephant or rhino for as little as $50/year. The Trust has a really cute program where they will email you fostering certificates and monthly updates on your baby. Makes a fantastic gift! Please click the graphic below for more information.
I was enjoying an email conversation with artist Karin Taylor about her work that includes a whole herd of elephant designs. I thought you might enjoy her art work, but also her answer to my questions:
What made you choose to draw elephants? What do they mean to you?
"I started drawing elephants one day when I was playing with a new medium, oil pastels. I recall having a small sheet of yellow pastel paper available and some new vibrant pastels just purchased...I can't recall why I drew that first elephant, he just was there, I saw him in my mind's eye. For these 7 years, I've had a love affair with adorning elephants with designs, swirls, embellishments...and the longer I sit on an idea, the more intrigued I become with the elephant.
I watched a program where a beautiful baby girl elephant was dying from depression after her mum had died, a Steve production (from Australia Zoo) and that really moved me. I then learned about the amazing emotional displays of elephants who are grieving, and the way they interact as a community, I love to learn, particularly about social behaviours. Whatever it is I'm interested in from an educational or research point of view, I tend to also become interested in drawing and painting. Or sometimes it can happen that I enjoy the image so much, that I long to draw and paint it, and afterwards, comes the obsession of learning more about whatever I'm trying to paint.
In this case, I began painting elephants before I knew why....then learned about them, and how beautiful they are afterwards. I was particularly interested to learn about the elephant keepers who told Charles Darwin that elephants can cry when grieving or feeling sad or under severe stress and this led me to understand that animals have feelings, just as humans do. I am fascinated by elephants, and all creatures in fact. The first elephant I drew was "Rainbow Elephant" and "Magic Elephant" and "The Littlest Elephant Lovelinks" would be the most recent, all in all I've painted elephants over the last 7 years, just now and then, I feel an intense desire to paint one... once painted, they become like real souls to me, I feel they are my children."
Ah! Another matriarch who heard and responded to the elephant call. I just love how Karin's inspiration moved through her to create these lovely designs.
You can view (and buy) all of Karin's art, including her elephant t-shirts, elephant framed art prints, elephant greeting cards, elephant calendars and more, over at RedBubble.
Shoe retailer Footcandy has teamed up with the red hot designer Christian Louboutin to raise money for Asian elephants. Louboutin agreed to make 50 pairs of zipper-wrapped & strapped Rodita sandals in hot pink (instead of the original black) exclusively for Footcandy. All proceeds will go to the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) in Thailand.
The answer to the question on every fashionable philanthropist's mind is YES. Yes, yes, of course they have Louboutin's signature red sole.
So what is the story behind this venture, you ask? I called their St. Helena store hoping I might reach the owner Carolyn Butler to inquire. When she wasn't available, her perky salesperson Brenda was more than happy to explain. In 2006, Carolyn and her husband Perry fell in love with elephants on a trip to the Four Seasons Tented Camp, where it seems their hearts were cracked open by the terrible sadness of how elephants are mistreated in Thailand. I can only imagine, as I have not been to visit the Thai elephant conservationist groups yet, though I have a deep longing to go. It looks profoundly sad, as there is much rescue work to be done there. Carolyn and Perry saw it first hand and were moved to assist through cross-promoting with their shoe & vineyard businesses. [Click here for more of the Butler's story on the GTAEF site.]
The joint venture with Christian Louboutin isn't Carolyn's first footwear promotion for elephants. Her employee explained that she first did one with Cassidy, then another elephant shoe with Manolo Blahnik (shown at right.) I'm not a Manolo devotee anyway, but I'm somewhat taken aback at his choice to create a faux leopard shoe for a conservationist cause. It's an interesting debate amongst us animal lovers as to whether faux endangered species fur items are a compliment to nature's beautiful designs or if they perpetuate the dark history of adorning ourselves with living creatures to the point of extinction. My personal stance is that if it's clear that it's not real, but more of an homage to the animal, then it's okay. These pony-haired Manolo's are borderline for me. Carolyn, if you're reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this over a glass of wine sometime!
Footcandy is a charming store in Napa Valley. Being a West Sonoma County girl now, I haven't been by that shop in ages, but trust me, it's fabulous. And now it seems that Footcandy has four locations in California, as well as an on-line store.
I'm so very tempted right now. Those sandals would look so good with the little black dress I got recently. They even have a couple of pairs left in my size. Oh, but it IS for such a good cause and what a fun conversation starter! I would love to tell the story of those shoes while wearing them!
As of 12/1/08, ebay is implementing a global ban on ivory sales. Although international ivory sales on ivory are already illegal in many places, unscrupulous sellers and buyers have been using ebay's online store platform to break the laws. After much prompting by animal rights groups, ebay has taken a stand against the ivory trade (forgoing their former profits on the legal, as well as the illegal trading) and is implementing a site-wide ban on the sale of ivory.
This is a small step in the greater issue of elephant conservation and the ivory trade, but it is one worth acknowledging. You can read more about ebay's decision on their official blog. If you support this cause, please take a moment to leave a favorable comment there.
Click here to visit ebay's blog.
If you would like to use the image from this post on your blog or website, we give you full permission to do so.
Photo ©2007 Jaya Savannah.
The FedEx man delivered a package from my colleague Heather Gallegos today. Inside, a sweet note hoping I don't already have this gift. My elephant ears tell me there must be an elephant gift inside!
Photo ©2007 Jaya Savannah.
Inside the box from The Bombay Company, were four brass elephants: one mama, and and three sha-shas covered in red crystals. I don't know why I call the babies sha-shas. It was just something a friend and I started doing one day while we were watching the littlest elephants with their mothers in Kenya. We'd observe with rapt enchantment as the mothers would move their gigantic legs, revealing a little sha-sha underneath. Awww. Ever since, sha-shas became our collective nick-name name for the babies.
Photo ©2007 Jaya Savannah.
One of the baby elephants is a tiny magnifying lens. When its not in use, its home is inside the mama ellie which is a box with a hinged lid. It feels very Victorian and romantic to have such an ornate miniature spy glass on my desk. I love it! I fancy that I will soon take to wearing hats and writing with a quill pen.
Asante sana, Heather!
When I send holiday cards out, I try to find ones that are on recycled paper, have a charitable component, or something else with meaning besides the design and message. This year, I searched online through website after website for "elephant holiday cards."
After coming up empty handed, even on sites like Conservatree that has many "green" or philantrhopic card companies, but no elephants, it finally occurred to me that I should try going to an elephant organization that I know has an online store, such as The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Success at last!
They have 4 styles of holiday cards with photos of elephants that have been rescued from various zoos and circuses. All the proceeds go directly to the charity, which is a wonderful organization that I've been enamoured with for some time. The cards are nice quality, too!
Happy Holidays! May peace be with you now--and always.
Love,
Jaya
The Elephant Sanctuary's Mission Statement:The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, founded in 1995, is the nation's largest natural habitat refuge developed specifically for endangered African and Asian elephants. It operates on 2,700 acres in Hohenwald, Tennessee - 85 miles southwest of Nashville.
The Elephant Sanctuary exists for two reasons:
To provide a haven for old, sick or needy elephants in a setting of green pastures, old-growth forests, spring-fed ponds and a heated barn for cold winter nights.
To provide education about the crisis facing these social, sensitive, passionately intense, playful, complex, exceedingly intelligent and endangered creatures.
I'm passionate about wild elephant conservation. It's something that has overtaken my heart and soul. After a trip to Kenya, where I went to see wild elephants and meet some of my conservationist heroes, I returned to Northern California, asking, "What can I do to help?" So I began writing.
My intention for Sacred Elephants is to raise awareness about elephant conservation by touching your heart, enlightening your mind, and trumpeting a call out to your elephant-loving spirit.
I'm also looking for opportunities to work with other elephant philanthropists for events, travel/tourism, corporate social responsiblity ventures, and media productions. I also accept requests to review elephant books, DVD's, and other products.
Thank you for reading and helping to save our elephant friends!
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