Collaring, News, Timeline, Translocation

Norman walks into a new beginning

May 13, 2022

Norman goes from living alone to joining a new herd.
After years of being the only elephant on a small piece of land (what was intended as a temporary move in response to bull conflict), the opportunity to move him onto a new reserve which provides a larger range with increased forage and other elephants for this bull to interact with was created.

This much-loved bull has been given a new lease on life as he joins a system he can integrate into. As a mature bull he is able to act as mentor and companion to the younger bulls and resident herd on the reserve.
ERT will follow his journey as he adapts to his new life. A journey that would not have been possible without the support of some passionate individuals, Amakhala Game Reserve and Mount Camdeboo Game Reserve who saw that there was a possibility to improve this elephant’s life, as well as improve the social situation in the reserve he was moved to.

We are bringing a remarkable chapter of a successful rewilding story to a close

2025 marks the 10th anniversary of our incredible story of the rewilded African elephant on !Khamab Kalahari reserve. We will be celebrating this success story by removing the GPS collars

New project: Understanding elephant well-being in National Parks in South Africa

We begin our study looking at the interactions between tourists and elephants in National parks in an effort to understand the rise in reported incidences of human elephant conflict instances.

ERT presents at the PAWS (Performing Animal Welfare Society) conference in Los Angeles

The conference provided an opportunity to highlight some valuable findings that we have noted over the last 5 years of studying these elephants, reiterating elephants don't thrive in captivity and

Publication: ERT continues to debunk misconceptions regarding elephants in captivity

Publication on our research on the welfare of Rewilded Elephants in South Africa. The study explores how elephants’ behavioural repertoires and frequencies change throughout a reintegration operation in comparison to

Publication: Rewilding-proof of success!

Our study on the movement patterns of two rewilded herds has continued to amaze us. This study underpins the potential of captive elephants to successfully adapt to a free-living

Our first volunteers

ERT’s team is flourishing with remarkable individuals who are instrumental in advancing our research objectives and beyond. Its been a delight having our first field volunteers, Freya and Immy, form

Sibuya Game Reserve Joins our GWRP

Researching a new elephant population in the Eastern Cape gives us the opportunity to continue learning more about the unique behavioural cultures present in each reserve.

Study of epigenetics of African elephants.

With the support of Humane World for Animals, we are collaborating to understand the effect of large impact events on the epigenetics (the study of how the environment and lifestyle

New calves, new beginnings

Since 2021, the Reintegrated herd on !Khamab Kalahari Reserve welcomed one new calf in 2021 and the Wild herd was blessed with two new calves in 2023. These two herds

GPS collared study animals continue to give us insight into elephant movements

Throughout the course of 2022-2023, we have collared seven elephants and continue to monitor them. Movement patterns of elephants on fenced reserves forms an essential part of our long-term research