On the 10th of October, Brett and Tenisha presented on the rewilding of 17 African elephants that occurred in 2015 and 2016.
The conference provided an opportunity to highlight some valuable findings that we have noted over the last 5 years of studying these elephants. Some key observations including that all stereotypic behaviours ceased, once the elephants were released into a wild system. We also observed lower frequencies of frustrated behaviour after the elephants were released.
This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to debunk the beliefs that elephants can thrive in captivity and that they can’t adapt to a novel environment.
Photo credit: Clive Curtis