'Going home': UK elephants prepare to go to Kenya in world's first 'rewilding' move

A British NGO Aspinall Foundation has been working with The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the Kenya Wildlife Service to move the elephants more than 7,000 km (around 4350 miles) from the UK to a reserve in southern Kenya. The elephants had been living with the Howletts Wildlife Park & Conservation Charity for over several years amusing the tourists. However, the owner now thinks that the tuskers deserve to go back to their homeland as they do not belong in the UK under the conservation approach of ‘rewilding’. 

The staff meanwhile has been arranging special crates to transport the 13 elephants on Boeing 747 or the Dumbo jet from their longtime home near Canterbury in Kent, southeast England, according to several reports. The park will also collaborate with the anti-poaching teams to ensure the long-term survival of the herd, which includes 3 calves. The elephants will be relocated to one of the two sites decided by the government in southern Kenya. 

'To go where they belong,' says PM Johnson's wife

Charity’s head of communications Carrie Johnson, wife of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, told reporters that the plan would support Kenya’s economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic as it would attract tourists. Furthermore, she said, life in Kent has been pretty good for the elephants, all things considered but Africa is where they belong, UK’s The Sun newspaper, published jointly by foundation chairman Damian Aspinall reported. It is the first time that the wild creatures will be re-wilded and the step will encourage their population boom, as their descendants will number in the hundreds — and then the thousands. 

The charity also runs Port Lympne where elephants are bred and cared for but Howletts has been the home to the  largest herd of elephants in the UK. The team admitted that transporting the herd 4,400 miles across the earth to the Africa would be an incredibly complex procedure for the team, and comes with "big risks” but the park was confident that the scheme would prove to be a success. Aspinall, chairman of The Aspinall Foundation told Kent online that while it is an incredibly exciting project, it is also a genuine world-first. He added, that as with any conservation project of this magnitude, there are big risks, but the staff believes that it is worth it as it would mean that the elephants get to go back into the wild where they belong.