Wild Horizons Elephant Encounter, Zimbabwe: Where you can interact with African elephants, responsibly

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This was published 4 years ago

Wild Horizons Elephant Encounter, Zimbabwe: Where you can interact with African elephants, responsibly

By Max Anderson
Updated
Come face to face with an elephant in Zimbabwe.

Come face to face with an elephant in Zimbabwe.Credit: iStock

People who go nose-to-nose with a five-tonne bull elephant don't normally live to tell the tale. But instead of being crushed to death (their mode of attack is to go down on their front legs and mash you with their forehead) I'm left only with insights. For instance, elephants have stiff black bristles on their trunks. During mating season, they weep a sticky fluid from holes at their temples. And their ears – which are actually cooling devices – are shaped like the map of Africa.

Wild Horizons Elephant Sanctuary is near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. It's presently home to three small herds numbering 16 animals, all roaming the 1800-hectare private reserve.

On driving into the sanctuary, there's no missing the wreckage left by hungry pachyderms, especially in summer, with leafless acacias torn out of the ground (elephants eat roots in the dry season). By contrast, the heart of the reserve is a thatched compound called the "Boma", ringed by lawns and overlooking a cool, leafy river. The open-walled structure comprises a bar, restaurant and shop.

There's also a small audio-visual theatre room where ranger Dennis explains the sanctuary's origins. "In the 1980s, Zimbabwe's elephant population had grown too big and the government began a program of culling," Dennis says. "Local farmers would adopt orphaned baby elephants and hand-raise the calves. But after three to four years, this would become impractical."

Culling finished in 1987, but farmers were left with huge, hungry and often dangerously randy elephants that were unable to survive in the wild. And what do you do with an elephant that won't leave your property?

In 1992 the sanctuary opened its doors to take in four unwanted animals. Over the years other orphans, as well as injured animals, were added to the number. And under the mantra "rescue, rehabilitate and release", it began building self-reliant herds – typically a matriarch, secondary females, calves and a bull.

But it was a slow process, and it needed funding.

Today, tourists are invited for daily interactions which last for an hour. We line up at the rear of the Boma on an elevated deck, and watch as seven rangers bring in a herd of seven to line up along water troughs immediately beneath deck's edge.

We're literally head to head with the animals. Some extend their trunks to inspect us, physically planting their two "fingers" onto our persons. Others set about sloshing 10 litres of water at a time into their mouths, eliciting the most wondrous noise.

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I smooth the rough, bristly trunk of Jumbo, one of the original adopted animals, and talk with Manda Sibanda, a sanctuary guide of 12 years. "People think elephants are aggressive," Manda says, "but they're not. It's all about how you treat them."

I ask how many times the elephants do the interaction. "We try to give them as natural a life as possible," he says, "so this interaction is it. Afterwards, they're done for the day."

Nor are they forced to attend. Elephant memories, it transpires, are genuinely very good and they well know that a bunch of visitors are keen to feed them with sweet pellets of corn and molasses.

We're invited to issue one of two commands. "Trunk up" results in an open mouth waiting for a well-aimed handful of pellets. "Trunk down" sees the elephant use its trunk to take pellets from our cupped hands. And after a quick feed, the elephants repair to a muddy waterhole where they indulge while we watch on.

The interaction at the sanctuary is thoughtful, measured and informative. And I'm satisfied it treads a careful line between raising revenue through tourism and improving the welfare of animals. Since 1992, 37 injured and orphaned elephants have been rescued by Wild Horizons. In 2015, a group of four was released into the wild, and a herd of five will follow, having successfully moved away from human contact during their "soft release" in the sanctuary.

Eventually the elephants tire of their mud bath and wander off into the bush. As the dust settles, Manda bids us to repair to the restaurant and enjoy snacks and drinks from the open bar. "Now it's time for you to choose – trunk up, or trunk down."

TRIP NOTES

VISIT

The Wild Horizons Elephant Encounter costs $US110 a person, including transfers, snacks and drinks. See victoriafallselephantsanctuary.com

TOUR

Wild Horizons Elephant Sanctuary is part of an 11-day Scenic five-star tour of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana (guests stay three nights at Victoria Falls). Costs from $11,195 a person. See scenic.com.au

MORE

traveller.com.au/zimbabwe

Max Anderson was a guest of Scenic

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