Painting with the Elephants

by Libby White

Wild Horizons and Art of Africa have teamed up to create a unique elephant experience that is brought to life with the swift strokes of your fingertips beneath the bright African sun. As someone who is remarkably inartistic, even among inartistic people, I was rather hesitant to try out 'Painting with the Elephants' (Wild Horizons Elephant Art), but the lure of spending a few hours with these majestic animals was enough to convince me. Accompanied by my equally inartistic son Josh, we eagerly joined the group of wannabe artists. We were met by Manda, manager at the Wallow, who chatted to us about the elephants and their history. After feeding and touching our ‘models’ we all made our way down to the adjacent waterhole surrounded by an enticing ring of sticky mud.

Under the shade of an enormous Mopane tree, 6 easels - each prepared with a fresh sheet of paper waited for us, along with chairs with brightly coloured aprons and two young and friendly artists eagerly inviting us to sit. Palettes with bright splotches of paint were handed out to us and under the expert tuition of KK and Tich, we were off! In a few moments, our white sheets of paper were transformed by a glorious blue sky, sunshine yellow grass and of course the elephants in front of us, using just our fingers.

It felt surreal to be sitting not twenty metres from these magnificent creatures as they frolicked and rolled in the chocolate mud and sprayed each other with water. Beautiful, individualistic scenes emerged from the other more talented artists in our group. Understanding our considerable limitations in the artistic arena KK and Tich were quick to come to our aid, encouraging us and giving us tips on how to transform our dubious brown splotches into realistic looking elephants.

With the pressure taken off us, Josh and I were able to relax and appreciate the experience for all that it is. We laughed constantly – not only at each other’s efforts to capture the warthogs that came down to join the elephants - but with the sheer pleasure of being out in the bush together sharing such a unique experience. Eventually, after several repeated pleas to finish up, we reluctantly left the elephants playing in the mud and went up for lunch.

A delicious two-course meal, accompanied by a crisp glass of white wine, rounded off our experience perfectly. Later, proudly clutching our ‘masterpieces’, we were driven back into town by Wild Horizons. 

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!

The Reservations Department meets Sylvester & the Elephants.

Last week, after work one evening, the entire Wild Horizons reservations department was transported to The Wallow at The Elephant Camp where the Wild Horizons elephant-back safaris and interactions are operated out of. Some of the newer reservations staff had never visited the camp or any of the elephants before, and as such were quite excited at the prospect.

First we checked out the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust's laboratory, which is also on the property, and we were impressed to see and learn how much actually goes on there. Jessica Dawson gave the group a brief but interesting talk on the functions of some of the sophisticated veterinary equipment in the lab, which is essential for quick detection of diseases in sick and/or dead animals that are found by the VFWT's rangers. With all of this state-of-the-art equipment, the Trust recovers the running costs of the lab through providing veterinary and pathology services to local livestock farmers, such as cattle and crocodile farmers in the Victoria Falls region. The Vic Falls Wildlife Trust also works hand in hand with the Zimbabwean National Parks, and the community funded VFAPU - the Victoria Falls Anti-Poaching Unit.

Routinely, the Trust along with National Parks and VFAPU respond to reports of distressed/injured wildlife in the local area - which consists mostly of snared animals (laid by poachers) such as warthog and small antelope. The Trust also specializes in identifying outbreaks of disease, which could potentially affect local livestock populations, and even jump across to the human population. Aside from the medical / research side of things, the Trust also provides invaluable education to surrounding local schools, and has a different school attending fun educational afternoons every Friday.

From the lab, we then carried on a short distance down the road to The Wallow, where the Wild Horizons herd of elephants were waiting for us to interact, feed and socialize with them. All of the Wild Horizons elephants are hand reared rescue-elephants, and have been put into the WH elephant-back safari program in order to prevent them from being shipped out to zoo's or circuses, which would otherwise undoubtedly become their fate. The elephants are allowed to live as natural a life as possible within the reserve, and will all eventually be allowed to retire and roam freely once again within the reserve.

One thing which I found most fascinating was the fact that as we were feeding the ele's thier pellets (much like horse cubes), inevitably some pellets would fall to the floor. The elephants would then use their massive trunks to pick them up again, one by one, with the precision of a human hand using a finger and opposable thumb to achieve the same! After the interaction and the feeding, all the ele's stood back, and put thier trunks in the air to salute us goodbye. The elephants know how to respond to around 29 separate commands when instructed to do so by their relevant masters.

An added highlight to the evening was the fact that Sylvester - the Cheetah Ambassador, was also out at The Wallow interacting with some clients, who donate money to the Trust in order to meet and walk with him. He is a beautiful specimen with a very interesting story to tell aswell! He was found in the Bube Valley in the South-Eastern region of Zimbabwe by a National Parks ranger who happened to be called Sylvester. The rangers had spotted a female cheetah getting chased by a male lion, and when she failed to appear again after the chase, was assumed to have been killed by the lion. (Predators regularly attempt to eliminate any possible competition). So the rangers then tracked her spoor back to her den where they found a brand new litter of cubs, only a few days old (their eyes had not even opened yet). Unfortunately, out of 5 cubs, only 2 were still alive - the lion had killed the other 3. Of those two, they sadly could not save the one - and the last surviving cub is now the beautiful 4 year-old boy that we know today as Sylvester.

After Sylvester's rescue, he was hand reared by the rangers as a family pet - but soon outgrew his welcome when he started to bully the other pets and the smaller children. National Parks then put out a tender to private organizations country-wide to see who could viably take over the care of this fast-growing animal. He will unfortunately never be able to be released back into the wild - as he was rescued before his eyes even opened and as such humans are the only thing he knows.

After receiving several proposals from organizations which planned to use Sylvester for commercial gain, The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust decided to put in a bid to take care of him and use him purely for educational purposes - as an ambassador for all Cheetah's and to use him as a tangible, living, breathing specimen with which to educate young children on the plight of big cats in the area. (Culturally, big cats have always been killed by locals if sighted in a populated area as they have been known to kill livestock. This has led to their critical endangerment and now the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust is attempting to educate the younger generations in order to try and stamp out such unnecessary actions).

After the staff had had an opportunity to stroke and get some photos with Sylvester - we were treated to sun-downers and snacks from the kitchen at The Wallow, whilst Zenzo - the elephant-back safaris manager, delivered an interesting and interactive talk to the group about various points in the history of the Wild Horizons elephants, to ironing out some of the operational issues which are sometimes experienced when the reservations staff are sending clients for rides and interactions.

It was a super evening all in all and the staff seemed to really enjoy themselves, and even push a few personal boundaries - as I doubt that any of them would have guessed that they would one day take a photo next to a large male cheetah!