Health & Wealth for Humans and Their Animals

Elephants for Africa

In May of 2004 I visited the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana and explored its mind-boggling riches while riding on the back of African elephants. This was an unprecedented and life-changing experience. The first elephant I met and rode was Benny, the subject of this fund-raising project and of the painting represented below. I also met Kate Evans, a British researcher, who, at the ripe old age of 29 had already lived in a tent in the bush for three years in order to pursue her life dream of helping our planet’s elephant population survive. I was so moved by both Benny’s story and Kate’s efforts that I painted an oil portrait of the former and formed a liaison with the latter so that I too might help perpetuate the existence of this magnificent species. Kate, Benny and I hope you will join our efforts by purchasing either a print of Benny or by making a donation to the project, Elephants for Africa.

Artist and animal advocate,

Leta Worthington

It all started with a promise that I made as a seven year old. I suppose that most people would be forgiven if they did not fulfill a promise that they made when a child, but the thing is that I made this promise to an elephant and as everyone knows, an elephant never forgets. So, rather than face the wrath of an elephant whose promise I had broken, I had little choice. I made up my mind there and then, standing next to an orphaned Asian elephant in Sri Lanka, that I would work for the conservation of the elephant helping to ensure that there would be a place in the wild for them in the future.

I was never a great academic, more of a dreamer, at school and so it comes as quite a shock to be undertaking a PhD on elephants. It is amazing where determination and a passion can get you! After completing my Zoology degree at The University of Wales, Swansea I worked for six months to earn some money, then with a return ticket to Johannesburg, my savings in my pocket and a rucksack on my back I headed to Africa, to be a Zoologist and fulfill my dream. It took me seven years of volunteer work to be living that dream, to research elephants, and along the way I worked on hippopotamus, lion, monkeys and insects in desert, coastal dune forest and the Okavango Delta. It was the delta that won my heart and it is here that I was fortunate enough to cross paths with Randall Moore and so began the ‘Elephant Research Project’. The research is focused on adolescent male elephants and the transition from herd to bull life with an emphasis on research into the viability of releasing habituated elephants from Elephant Back Safaris (EBS) herd back into the wild.

I was fortunate to meet Leta when she was on holiday in Africa, and we share a great passion: elephants and their conservation. From that passion came my research project and her vow to raise funds for it through her brilliant art.

-Head of Research,

Kate Evans

The future of the African elephant is still not certain. From a population that numbered 3-5 million in the 1930’s, stretching from the Mediterranean to Cape Town, South Africa, we are left with a fragmented and scattered population of just 10% of what existed 70 years ago. Time and space are running out for this magnificent animal. By supporting the research project Elephants for Africa, headed up by Kate Evans and supported by the University of Bristol in the UK, you will enable valuable data collection to help ensure that the African elephant is given the time and space it needs in order to survive. Your children and grandchildren will thank you.

“Benny”

Each 22″ x 27″ print comes with a signed Certificate of Authenticity

Click below to pay with PayPal or a Major Credit Card:

 or Contact Leta for other payment methods at letabug followed by @ and then gmail.com

 

If you have any questions about this research project or the art work please contact me.

To view a high resolution image of Benny via email, send me an email and I’ll email the image right back to you.

(Please note: If you are using a web accelerator you may not be able to view the image in

high resolution through your browser. You will be able see it clearly through email.)

 

Here’s what one person says about the actual print:

“I just received my print of Benny. It simply took my breath away! … I just keep going back to it.

I don’t know what it is–I’m not an art expert or critic–but something in that picture pulls me to it time after time.

Let me just say I am very honored to be the recipient of the 1st print in this series and that I am able to participate,

in a small degree, in the preservation of the African Elephants. Thank you so much for sharing Benny’s story,

your experience in it, and your awesome painting!”

 

Benny’s Story

Benny is a mature African elephant bull who, from very sad beginnings and a lifetime in captivity, has come full circle and just been released back into the wild in Africa. Benny started his life In the Kruger National Park of South Africa in 1959. At a very young age his family was killed as part of the Kruger’s first culling exercise to decrease the population of elephants within the park. During a cull, the adults of a herd are decimated. The babies watch this horrible massacre and are then captured for commercial purposes. Benny was sold as a toddler to a zoo and shipped to America. In 1987, a man named Randall Moore came across Benny when he was looking for tame elephants to use in a film being made in South Africa. He especially wanted a large “tusker” to play the lead role, and Benny was anything but that. After 21 years in appalling conditions, Benny had broken both his tusks after repeatedly rubbing them against the steel and concrete enclosure. One tusk was broken off completely whilst the other had been rubbed until there was only a small fragment left, near which an ugly hole appeared to drain off the fluid that marked the presence of the infection behind. Along with this problem, Benny had a floppy right ear – bending over his right eye, which was caused by broken cartilage. In spite of the fact that Benny was unsuitable for starring in a movie, Randall immediately decided that the forlorn elephant deserved better and that he would try to return him to Africa. The zoo where Benny was being kept decided that Randall could have him for free if he promised to release Benny back into the wild, so Benny was victoriously joined with three other elephants, Cathy, Abu and Sammy on a trip back to their homeland.

Once in Africa, and after filming was complete, Randall was then left with three very large ‘pets’ with even larger appetites (sadly Sammy did not make it, dying soon after he arrived in South Africa, after having been taken ill on the journey). Randall knew he had to go commercial in order to feed his threesome, so started to take paying clients out on Safari, on Elephant Back–literally on the backs of his elephants, a first for this use of the species (Loxodonta africana). He had been told he could never train an African elephant to carry a rider, but he proved his naysayers wrong. His venture was first based in South Africa and then later moved to northern Botswana to its current location, Abu’s Camp.

When the herd moved to Botswana, poor Benny did not think much of it. In fact he was terrified of just about everything, especially the water, which really posed a problem, as his new home was in the Okavango Delta, the largest inland delta of the world which floods annually. Having only been exposed to water in concrete troughs whilst in zoos, he really did not like this vast expanse of water that he would have to walk through!!! Even to this day he is not particularly keen on the flood season, much preferring the dryer summer months.

Benny is now almost 50 years old and has worked hard all his life. After finally leaving his 21 years of zoo life behind, he successfully participated in Randall’s safari program at Abu’s Camp by dutifully and carefully ferrying people from all over the world around the delta. He performed this role for over 15 years until the summer of 2005. Due to the successful release of four adolescent captive elephants over the past three years under the careful supervision of Kate Evans, director of the research project, permission from the Botswanan government was finally received to release Benny in July of 2005. He has been fitted with a satellite collar so that his whereabouts are known and he can be tracked. While there is some anxiousness as to how he will fare on his own after a lifetime of captivity, elephants are very intelligent animals and have proven to adapt well to change.

Benny is a true symbol of the majesty and intelligence of all elephants, and he is now, finally, back in the wilds of the Okavango Delta exemplifying the strength and courage of his species. After 40 years in captivity he can once again enjoy the simple pleasures of choosing what to eat, where to roam and when to bath.

Although Kate Evans began her Elephants for Africa research project in 2002, the vision behind it all started in 1987 when Randall Moore first met Benny and promised to return him to the African wilderness. He then took the valuable step of supporting Kate’s research by hosting it on site at Abu’s Camp. We all owe Randall and Kate a great debt for their long-term vision and continuing efforts on behalf of the African elephant. By purchasing a print of Benny, you are helping to support elephant research on the largest remaining population of African elephants in the world, thus ensuring its continued survival as a species. Part of this effort will also guarantee the continued monitoring of five captive elephants who have been given back their freedom and will hopefully lead the way to returning more like them to their natural environment in the future.

Postscript:  In the fall of 2006, Benny had a run-in with a wild bull and incurred a wound on his shoulder. He was brought into camp and sedated so the wound could be cleaned and dressed. Unfortunately, when the sedation was reversed, he was unable to stand again on his own and eventually had to be put down. This was devastating to everyone, the only comfort being that, thanks to the release program, Benny had been able to spend the last year and a half of his life living happy and free again as nature intended.

From the bottom of our hearts, we and the elephants

thank you for your support!

 

Leta Worthington

Kate Evans

Adopt, meet, and learn more about Benny and the other magnificent elephants

in the Elephants for Africa research project on Kate Evans’ website:

Elephants for Africa