31 Jan The Presidential Herd
The Presidential Herd comprises roughly 450 – 500 elephants made up of about 17 extended family groups that live close to the main gate of the Hwange National Park.
They originate from 22 elephants which initially ranged on an area of about 14 000 Ha (35 000 acres) of land known as the Hwange Estate in the 1970’s, which falls outside the borders of the national park, but the animals today move freely between the two areas.
These animals are known as the “Presidential Elephants” due to a 1990 presidential decree issued to try and ensure the elephants enjoyed special protection against trophy hunting and poaching.
The decree was issued at the urging of conservationist Alan Elliot, who was alarmed at the dramatic decline in the elephant population in the area in the late 1980s.
The population was able to recover and became the subject of the 2011 film “The Presidential Elephants of Zimbabwe”, which detailed the 13 years elephant researcher and author Sharon Pincott spent studying social structure the animals, and the challenges facing them.
Australian-born Pincott, who worked on a voluntary basis with the elephants between 2001-2014, kept a close record of the animals, gathering information on their births, deaths, and genealogy. She also noted which animals had been injured by wire snares, and in some instances helped remove them, and reported her observations to park authorities.
