Zenzo & His Elephants

Zenzo & His Elephants

Zenzo is the manager of the Wild Horizons elephants, of which there are now 2 separate herds which live on the Wild Horizons Wildlife Sanctuary, which is part of the Victoria Falls National Park. He grew up with the four original WH elephants – Miss Ellie, Jumbo, Jock & Jack. The original 4 were part of a large group of surviving orphans that were left after a culling operation in the mid 1980’s. (The Zimbabwean Department of National Parks had a policy of culling what they deemed excess animals within the National Parks. These animals were generally elephant and part of the policy was to destroy the entire herd, apart from juveniles, who were no longer dependent on mother’s milk, yet small enough to translocate. These elephant orphans were sold to various local farmers and to zoos and circuses around the world. Most farmers bought the elephant to restock their farms, however, being hand reared they very quickly became habituated to people and often became a "handful" to have around. Being totally habituated, it was felt at the time that it would be difficult to  safely release them to the wild as it would only be a matter of time before they wondered into a village or town. Zenzo’s father happened to work for a farmer who snapped up four of these orphans – Miss Ellie, Jock, Jack & Jumbo and hand reared them on a farm in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe. Zenzo grew up on this farm as a young boy whilst his father worked as a tractor driver, and from a young age became very close to the elephants, and has been involved in the handling and training of them ever since. 

By the time Zenzo was 17, and the elephants were approaching adolescence at around the age of 10 – the current owner started to see that his elephants were becoming increasingly demanding of attention, discipline and activity – things that he did not anticipate he was going to need to provide, let-alone have the time or resources to provide for his elephants. 

By that stage, the use of elephants in the tourism industry in India was rising in popularity – and so eventually the owner approached a then fairly new tourism company in Victoria Falls – Wild Horizons. Initially skeptical of the idea, Wild Horizons took on the project knowing that in order for it to be a success the welfare of the elephant was paramount. With this in mind Wild Horizons sent two of it’s guides to Riddles Elephant training school, in Little Rock Arkansas. Here they were taught not only how to humanly train the elephant but equally important how to look after elephant in captivity. Zenzo recalls as a teenager seeing Craig White, one of the directors, come to the farm in Chinhoyi to see the elephants with a view to relieving the current owner of his responsibilites.

It was then decided, in 1997, to relocate the elephants to Victoria Falls onto a property where Wild Horizons operated a camp called Jijima, as a trial run to see weather elephant backsafaris would be a feasible product in the Zimbabwean tourism industry. Turns out, it was exactly what the tourists wanted – and the original Elephant Camp was then constructed with the intention of providing luxurious accommodation combined with intimate elephant rides and interactions. Zenzo, at a mere 17 years old, had accompanied the elephants as part of a team of 7 handlers, and has remained with them ever since.

Zenzo quickly rose through the ranks of elephant handling and progressed from being a handler, to a trainer, to eventually the elephant manager in 2003. Zenzo now oversees the entire elephant back safari operation from behind the scenes, from elephant care and training to the logistical and operational aspects involved in keeping these two herds of elephants happy, healthy and safe when taking paying clients out for safaris up to twice a day!

When we asked Zenzo if he thinks he would ever move on from Wild Horizons and the elephants, after a brief pause, he posed the question: “how could someone ever leave their family?”. When asked the tricky question of “elephants or people?” – the answer was out before the question had even been completed!

Zenzo’s wife runs the kitchen and catering at The Wallow (where the elephant back safaris are operated from) and is very good at providing delicious snacks to the guests (as well as Zenzo, it appears! :). 

Another interesting fact about Zenzo is that he used to be quite the soccer player in his youth, playing in the 1^st division for Chinhoyi United, (now the Makonde Stars).

Zenzo is one of the company's most efficient employees, one of the most light-hearted and funny, and one of the most approachable. He truly is an asset to Wild Horizons and we thank him whole-heartedly for his lifetime of dedication to the Wild Horizons elephants!