Walking With Elephants In Zimbabwe Is A Magical Experience

These beautiful gentle giants live in a reserve where they don't need to worry about poachers, so they sleep in night pens for protection. When the day comes, their handlers take them on walks, where they can roam around the property and browse all they want. There's nothing like walking side by side with these amazing creatures!

Elephants in <a href="https://rumble.com/v3frgz-cecil-the-lions-son-reportedly-killed-by-hunter-in-zimbabwe.html" target="_blank">Zimbabwe</a> are still the center of attention for ivory poachers. In June this year, 10 individuals, including a mother and her young calf, have been found poisoned and their tusks hacked off by poachers. A bucket of poison was found close by.

The poachers use a dilute sodium cyanide solution and, in some cases, paraquat, a powerful agricultural herbicide that is extremely toxic to humans as well as other animals. Roxy Danckwerts, founder of Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery, ended up with kidney and lung failure last year after handling two elephant calves that had been poisoned with paraquat in Hwange.

The first known case of elephant poisoning in Zimbabwe was a single massacre of over 100 elephants in Hwange national park in 2013. Since then it has become a common means of poaching – not only in Hwange but throughout the country’s protected areas, including the Zambezi valley and Gonarezhou national park.