44 elephants now safely moved in Malawi

Great news! IFAW is...

"...back in action and the capture team is in high spirits and working hard to make up for lost time in capturing and translocating the elephants. Since Saturday we have captured a further 26 elephants, making a total of 44 elephants safely moved to their new home at Majete Wildlife Reserve.

While the conditions have been challenging the team has had great success in finding and capturing family groups of elephants – a group of 10 on Saturday, nine on Sunday and seven yesterday. Every capture and translocation has attracted a huge amount of attention from the local community and several hundred people turn out every day to cheer and sing as the elephant pass by on the recovery vehicles.

On Sunday we loaded a cow elephant of about 50 plus years old into the wake-up crate for her move down to the reserve, her sunken temples telling of a grand old lady who has seen it all. I felt a great sense of satisfaction and achievement in knowing that she will be able to spend her golden years in the safety of a protected area.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the relocation of the Phirilongwe elephants is the only realistic option for protecting the Phirilongwe elephants. The project will not only benefit the lives of the elephants but also those of the greater community. ~ Neil Greenwood, IFAW

YOU can help IFAW. To donate, go HERE.

IFAW's operation "Ele Move"

The IFAW rescue mission is underway to save the last free-roaming wild African elephants in Malawi from a government-planned slaughter, and has already begun to move them to a protected reserve over a hundred miles away.

That's right, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, in the midst of this massive translocation, has built a hundred miles of access roads, imported super sized livestock trailers, lifting cranes, helicoptors and spotter planes from South Africa.

Presently, they are sedating and capturing between 60 to 100 elephants, careful to keep family groups together.

To read their blog and view their videos go HERE.

This map (courtesy of IFAW) shows the route operation Ele Move will make translocating a herd of elephants from the the northeastern Phirilongwe region to the animal preserve in the southwest.

The herd is made up of several family groups and individual bulls.

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Of Polar Bears and Seals

To help prevent the sea-ice habitat of three Arctic pinnipeds from becoming a slushy, polluted industrial zone, late last week the Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for delaying Endangered Species Act protections for the bearded, ringed, and spotted seals. In May 2008 we petitioned to protect the seals from global warming, increasing oil development in their habitat, and other threats, and while the agency has since found that all three seals may deserve federal protection, it failed to make a decision on that protection before its one-year legal deadline. "Unfortunately," said Center lawyer Rebecca Noblin, "the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shown the same disregard for the law under the Obama administration as it did under Bush. Federal officials should not be allowed to view compliance with legal deadlines as optional."

The bearded, ringed, and spotted seals all need sea ice to survive, but global warming is rapidly depleting that ice -- also critical to the famous polar bear, for which the Center is still working at full tilt. To educate the public about the polar bear's plight, we created two heartbreaking TV ads showing warming's devastating effect on the bears (and the planet). Polar bears are dying, but it's not too late to help them and the entire Arctic ecosystem.

Watch these gripping TV ads, share them with everyone you know, and take action for polar bears now. Then read the latest on the Arctic seals in USA Today. So SAVE THE SPECIES, SAVE THE WORLD!.