At The Elephant Café in Zambia and Imire in Zimbabwe, elephants have lived under human care for many years, often from a young age. As a result, they have become accustomed to people and rely to varying degrees on human care and protection.
Successful rewilding requires elephants to be able to live independently, respond appropriately to threats, find food and water, and develop the complex social skills normally learned within wild elephant families.
For elephants with a long history of human care, release into the wild may therefore be unsafe or inappropriate. Instead, these organizations provide lifelong protected environments where the elephants can roam, forage, socialize and express natural behaviors while receiving the care and security they need.
Rewilding should always be the goal when it is safe and appropriate—but lifelong protected care is sometimes the most responsible choice.
