Baby elephants receive specially tailored horse rugs for winter
Baby elephants in Zambia will be keeping warm this winter, thanks to specially tailored horse rugs this winter.
Equestrian company Horseware Ireland has donated the rugs to an African elephant orphanage.
The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) — a wildlife conservation charity — made a plea last summer for people to donate horse rugs to keep elephant orphans warm this winter.
DSWF was “overwhelmed” by the response, and in particular by the rugs made by Horseware Ireland with extra space at the neck to fit the orphans.
“We are delighted,” said Rachael Murton of the Elephant Orphanage Project, which is supported by DSWF.
“And the elephants at the orphanage are very please to have them!”
DSWF helped establish the first elephant orphanage in Zambia in 2008 and it now has two sites — a release facility in Kafue National Park and a newly opened nursery facility in Lilyai, close toZambia’s capital Lusaka.
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As ivory poaching increases, the number of baby elephants orphaned when their mothers are killed is also on the rise.
For more information visit www.davidshepherd.org
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A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.