The plight of baby elephants in Zimbabwe

The cruelty of the capture of baby elephants from their families in the wild has been revealed in disturbing photos and videos secretly taken in Zimbabwe last month, writes Adam Cruise. They show newly captured elephants being repeatedly kicked in the head.

Since 2012, over eighty elephants (including last month’s batch of fourteen) have been captured from Hwange, Zimbabwe’s largest National Park and sold by the Zimbabwean Government to Chinese zoos. The process is both cruel and violent.

For the capture, a family herd is selected and a helicopter sent in to dart the baby elephants with tranquilizers from the air. As the young elephants collapse, the helicopter dive-bombs the distressed mothers to keep them away while a ground-team with trucks, tractors and trailers rapidly moves  in to bundle the elephants into crates.

The young elephants, some yet to be weaned from their mothers, were then moved to holding pens at an off-limits facility within the park. Here, as the video and photographic evidence reveals, they spent a few confused months terrified, underfed, and abused.

From secret observations of the previous captures of live elephants, this latest batch, after a few months in the holding pens, will be transported in small crates by truck a 250 kilometers to Victoria Falls Airport. Here the elephants will be airlifted to China. Once there, they will be placed in quarantine before they are separated and shipped to zoos and safari parks across the country.

In 2012, three young elephants died after arriving in China, and one died in transit during the flight from Zimbabwe to China in 2016. The actual captures are particularly brutal. According to internal reports from ZimParks, there was at least one death during the capture operation in 2016 presumedly after being crushed by the stampeding herd, while three very young elephants were severely injured during the captures in 2014 – one with a broken leg, another with a damaged trunk and a third with a damaged trunk and tail.

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37 Baby Elephants Now Headed for Zoos in China

37 Baby Elephants Now Headed for Zoos in China

Earlier this year in Zimbabwe, thirty-seven baby elephants were captured, stolen from their families,and brought to a holding facility in Hwange National Park. They have been sold to zoos and safari parks in China, and are currently awaiting shipment. Two baby elephants have already died of starvation and neglect.

Despite worldwide efforts to stop previous live captures from African nations for Chinese and United States zoos, Zimbabwe's Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, makes no apologies for the sale and capture of baby elephants, and has plans to sell off more of Zimbabwe's wildlife to China "without hesitation."

There was public speculation in September that the baby elephants had been captured for export to China, but the government’s national park and wildlife management authority denied it, saying the elephants were being trans-located within the region under a “wildlife drought mitigation strategy.” This has proven to be entirely false, as China continues to purchase Zimbabwe’s wild animals.

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Two Zim baby elephants die before shipment to China

Cape Town - Thirty seven baby elephants forcibly taken from their mothers in the wild in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park are about to be flown to Chinese zoos, despite an international outcry against previous exports

A number of baby elephants from similar shipments in 2012 and 2015 died shortly after arrival and two of the elephants now awaiting shipment have already died, says the Conservation Action Trust.

In 2012, only four elephants of the eight survived the journey and another three died shortly after arriving in China, leaving only one lonely survivor. In September 2015, National Geographic reported that elephants from a shipment in China were being mistreated and were slipping into poor health.

Export of elephants is sanctioned under Cites regulations, as long as trade in individual animals doesn't threaten the long-term survival of the species.

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