Prince Harry Spearheads Effort to Save 500 Elephants in Africa: The Monumental Rescue Mission

Rescue Elephant Haven · December 6, 2023

This week, an unforgettable sight awaits Prince Harry in Africa: a young, sedated elephant cautiously loaded onto a truck.

This forms part of a bold wildlife conservation project, and Prince Harry will be at the forefront, continuing his impassioned campaign to protect Africa’s most iconic animals from the threat of extinction.

Devotion: Prince Harry has been a devoted conservationist and spent three months embedded with an anti-poaching patrol in southern Africa last year. He posted this heartbreaking picture near the end of the tour.

The prince, an accomplished pilot with experience in high-stress environments, will be deeply involved. His mission involves herding elephant families, then assisting in tranquilizing them from above.

These elephants will then be transported 200 miles across Malawi to a protected sanctuary. This initiative, titled ‘500 Elephants’, promises to be a groundbreaking effort in wildlife conservation.

Back to Africa: Harry is spending his second successive summer in Africa, this time working with the NGO African Parks. The project will help 500 elephants move 200 miles to a conservation park in Malawi.

Continuing his devoted work from previous summers, Prince Harry will collaborate with the non-profit organization African Parks.

His prior experience in this field, including a three-month stint with veterinarians and anti-poaching teams in the wild, is of considerable value to the project.

Fran Read, a representative of African Parks, expressed their delight, saying, “We are thrilled that Prince Harry will be partnering with us on this pivotal project.”

Help: Elephant numbers have been dropping in Malawi due to poaching. Above, The immediate priority of the programmer is to check the health of the elephants before they are hoisted onto flatbed trucks.

Prince Harry’s latest endeavor involves the relocation of approximately 500 elephants from two parks in southern Malawi, where food and space have become increasingly scarce, to a wildlife reserve in the central part of the country.

This move will provide these majestic animals with a larger habitat for breeding, thereby helping to bolster dwindling elephant numbers across Africa, largely due to poaching.

Interestingly, elephants hold a special place in Prince Harry’s heart. He has shared personal experiences with them on his social media, including an impactful image of him lying beside a tranquilized elephant during a previous conservation mission.

Frontline: The 31-year-old royal brings valuable field experience from last year’s three months embedded with bush vets and anti-poaching teams, gaining many hands-on skills. Above, he helps treat a rhinoceros.

In the ‘500 Elephants project, Prince Harry will guide the elephants from wooded areas to the plains for easier tranquilization and monitoring of their well-being post-sedation.

This aligns well with his previous work in Namibia, where he assisted with caring for sedated rhinos, their horns removed to deter poachers.

Upon sedation and documentation, the elephants are gently awakened and guided onto trucks for their new home.

Hanging: The Prince has landed in Malawi to assist the NGO African Parks. Above, An elephant is lifted onto a flatbed lorry, ready to journey to its new home. Twigs will be placed in their trunks to help them breathe.

While there are inherent risks and stresses in relocating elephants over long distances, such efforts have previously been successful in southern Africa, with most animals adjusting well to similar environments.

Bas Huijbregts, the African species expert for the WWF conservation group, said the Malawi relocation initiative is a “win-win for elephants and people.”

African Parks envision the elephants in Malawi as a future ‘reservoir’ to repopulate other areas of Africa where elephant numbers have significantly decreased.

Hero: One of the prince’s tasks in Namibia was to measure vital signs and administer fluids to sedated rhinos, whose horns were being removed to make them less attractive to poachers.

Prince Harry’s connection with Africa is long-standing, having been introduced to the continent through his Zimbabwe-born former girlfriend, Chelsy Davy.

His ongoing commitments and private visits to the continent underscore his dedication to this crucial cause.

After the elephant is tranquilized, it is measured in Liwonde National Park, Malawi, in the first step of an assisted migration. African Parks, which manages three Malawian reserves, is moving the 500 elephants.
The Malawi relocation is a win-win for elephants and people’ and an example of wildlife management that ‘will likely become the new norm in many places in Africa,’ said Bas Huijbregts, African species expert for the WWF conservation group.
Once they are sedated and recorded, the elephants are revived with injections in ‘wake-up’ crates, and cattle prods are used to herd them onto flatbed trucks for the day-long journey to their new home.
An elephant is lifted by a crane in an upside-down position in Malawi in the first step of an assisted migration of 500 of the threatened species. The animal is unconscious and will wake up unharmed.
The role of the pilot in the ‘500Elephants’ project is to flush elephants from wooded areas onto the plains to enable them to be more easily darted by the onboard vet – something Harry could easily undertake.

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