Last Octo­ber, a colla­bo­ra­tor of SOS Pri­ma­tes, Jor­di Rovi­ra, sent 36.3 kg of work equip­ment dona­ted by the Bar­ce­lo­na Zoo to the care­gi­vers of the Rete­ti Elephant Sanc­tuary in Ken­ya, which hou­ses orpha­ned elephant offs­pring due to human acti­vi­ties (either per­sis­tent drought or hun­ting, among others).

The pur­po­se of Rete­ti is always to rein­te­gra­te elephants into their family group, if pos­si­ble. If not, as a last option, they rai­se them and later relea­se them in areas near the sanc­tuary so they can join esta­blished family groups. They train them for sur­vi­val at the center.

Sin­ce its crea­tion, Rete­ti has suc­cess­fully rein­te­gra­ted 10 offs­pring into their group (this year 13 more indi­vi­duals are already pre­pa­red). Currently, 46 elephants are under their care at the cen­ter, among other orpha­ned ani­mals such as giraf­fes or even pri­ma­te spe­cies like baboons.

As you know, SOS Pri­ma­tes mana­ges and sends mate­rial dona­ted by the Bar­ce­lo­na Zoo to wild­li­fe reha­bi­li­ta­tion centers.

Jor­di is a jour­na­list and a tra­vel gui­de who has spe­cia­li­zed in Afri­ca for the past 17 years, and he has his own safa­ri com­pany in Ken­ya, whe­re he hap­pily lives with his family.

In the pho­tos, you can see some of the wor­kers in uni­forms per­for­ming tasks such as bottle-fee­ding the young elephants.

Thank you very much to all tho­se invol­ved (Bar­ce­lo­na Zoo, Rete­ti, and espe­cially Jor­di), not for­get­ting the volun­teers of SOS Pri­ma­tes who stri­ve to help all the ani­mals daily in a com­ple­tely altruis­tic way.

If you tra­vel to any pla­ce with pri­ma­te or other ani­mal cen­ters and want to help, do not hesi­ta­te to con­tact us so we can orga­ni­ze a ship­ment during your trip.

If you want to learn more about this pro­ject and colla­bo­ra­te with us, you can wri­te to info@sosprimates.org