A tribute to Trailblazer, the wandering elephant bull of Southern Africa

A tribute to Trailblazer, those before him and those still to come

Although Trailblazer is only one of many elephants who have undertaken this remarkable journey across several countries, his satellite collar allowed us a snapshot of their journey and the obstacles they had to overcome to reach safety. If nothing else, this journey has stressed the importance of developing wildlife corridors in such highly fragmented landscapes, especially with more than half of African elephants’ current home ranges occurring outside of protected areas.

Elephants Alive has collared over 40 elephants in Mozambique in collaboration with the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance (MWA), which has allowed us the privilege of monitoring 10 corridor-moving elephants navigating across three countries. Although these movements hold their own set of challenges due to human-elephant conflict (HEC), fitting collars onto elephants undertaking such journeys has facilitated the establishment of a Rapid Response Unit (RRU) in collaboration with MWA. The RRU is an effective 2-man team (elephant shepherds) on a motorbike who, after specialist training, are deployed to mitigate potential conflict. They do so by warning communities of incoming elephants using the satellite collar data, educating them on how to behave around elephants and gently as well as strategically ushering elephants out of danger zones.

In this instance, although we don’t have a RRU in South Africa, Trailblazer’s collar enabled us to reach out to the relevant stakeholders on the ground to help rally not only their safety during their journey but also the people on the ground.

Now knowing where we need to focus our resources on, with your help we plan to collar more path-forging bulls such as Trailblazer and finance more RRUs who make an active difference on the ground. This will help ensure the safety of people and the elephants themselves as we can closely monitor their movements and warn people ahead of time. Along the elephants’ route, we also need your support to call in expert vets, pilots, and game capture trucks if they get themselves into a precarious situation.

Please help us to help them during their journey by using the donate options provided. A big thank you to those who have already shown such generosity and those who have shared their journey resulting in an incredible response.

For more information visit www.elephantsalive.org

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