HERD Announces Update on Elephant Incident and Safety Measures

By ffc_admin

Hoedspruit, Limpopo โ€“ 22 September 2025 The Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development Trust (HERD) continues to mourn the tragic loss of our beloved carer, Israel Shambira, who lost his life on 13 September 2025 following an unexpected incident involving Limpopo, a 19-year-old female elephant under our care. In the days following the incident, our dedicated … Continued

COMFORT SUCKLES & SUCKLE STANCES: Elephant Behaviours Episode 3

By ffc_admin

Have you heard of the term โ€œComfort-Suckling?โ€ Learn All About it Here! In Episode 3 of our HERD Elephant Behaviour Series, we delve not only into the behaviour of comfort suckling, but we have included an additional behaviour that is often seen at the same time as comfort -suckling, and that is the โ€œSuckle-Stanceโ€. The … Continued

FOOT-SWINGING ELEPHANTS – Elephant Behaviours Episode 2 (Attentive)

By ffc_admin

From elephant trunks to elephant feet! Episode two of our educational elephant behavioural series sees us taking a look at the elephant behaviour called โ€œfoot-swingingโ€ as referenced by Elephant Behaviours. The behaviour of Foot-Swinging can be seen in five different contexts, as follows: Conflict & Confrontation; Movement, Space & Leadership; Vigilance; Ambivalent, and finally Attentive … Continued

Elephant Behaviours Episode 1: Trunk to Mouth (Affiliative)

By ffc_admin

Welcome to Episode One of our Elephant Behaviours Series. We would like to take this opportunity once again, to thank Elephant Voices for sharing all their research on their public platform called the Elephant Ethogram, which provides the world with all this incredible insight into elephant behaviours. In Episode 1, we take a look at … Continued