137. Save the elephants.

It seems that the world is well aware of the various species that are under threat at the hands of humanity. It has been released today by the WWF, that the entire population of wildlife has fallen by 58% since 1970 because of human activity. I’m sure there are a lot of people that’ll put that down to something besides humans, but frankly I don’t see that there is any denying it and seeing as collectively it is our fault, collectively we ought to be doing something about it.
Elephants are most commonly under threat in Malaysia due to the destruction of their habitats. Whilst visiting an elephant conservation centre here only a few days ago, I watched a video about moving elephant herds to bigger and more dense areas of rainforest, away from plantations. This requires the elephants to be moved individually and can be a long and difficult process. Occasionally, the elephants will die just from the stress of the journey. Whilst I can recognise that their relocation is a process that probably now needs to occur, since elephants living in small parts of forest have less food, cause damage to plantations and therefore come into conflict with humans more often, it wasn’t once addressed that the better solution would be to stop turning their natural habitats into palm oil plantations in the first place, which is entirely the problem. 

There are now only about 1500 Pygmy elephants left in the world, which is a damn shame and something that undoubtedly needs to be rectified. This type of elephant is not only the elephant we know the least about, but they’re also by far the cutest elephants you’ve ever seen. Picture a dwarfed elephant with incredibly oversized ears, a hugely plump belly and a tail dragging along the floor. They’re honestly one of the most beautiful and kindest creatures to ever grace the planet with their existence, and human beings, myself included, should be doing more to ensure that their existence continues.

All the elephants at the Gandah sanctuary just outside of Kuala Lumpur have been orphaned or injured in the wild. The sanctuary is doing their best to make sure these elephants are brought back to health and looked after well along the way. 

Borneo – Sabah

In school, I have a vivid memory of doing a presentation on Borneo’s rainforest and being completely absorbed by a place that seemed so full of nature and adventure that it was almost too good to be true, never mind being over 7000 miles away from my doorstep. This place has always seemed like a far off dream from my childhood, but moving to Asia quickly put it on the map as a very reachable paradise. Borneo exceeded every single one of my childhood expectations in every way and I’ve barely even scratched the surface – This island is home to culture, nature and adventure that are second to none and you could easily spend months exploring.