Zimbabwe: FOUR PAWS leads Mary’s herd to a life in freedom
 Under the cool breeze of the Zimbabwean night sky, FOUR PAWS International and South Africa together with partners ZNSPCA and NSPCA has transferred a group of rescued elephants to the Hwange National Park. The nine animals had been caught illegally in the wild and kept under atrocious conditions for months. During weeks of rehabilitation, the elephants – who were ranging from two different herds originally – regrouped around pregnant 20-year-old elephant cow Mary and became a stable and sound herd of its own. In the evening of November 2, the animals were finally taken to their new habitat: the Hwange National Park, located in the north west of the country. As morning dawned, a long ordeal ended for the nine elephants as they all wandered off together into a new life in freedom.
Before the transfer the elephants were darted and sedated for their own safety. Split into three groups they were brought to a more accessible collection point with small trucks and loaded onto a bigger vehicle. FOUR PAWS vets and wildlife experts supervised every step of the procedure. Once on the transport cart all of the elephants received an antidote so they would experience their move consciously and awake. Mary, her son John, four-year-old Baby Girl and the others had stabilized to such an extent during the weeks with the FOUR PAWS team that they all remained calm and confident throughout the night, as the convoy headed south to its final destination, avoiding the heat of the day.
 A revitalized group
Most animals in this exceptionally young group had been severely traumatized during months of training for the tourism industry. Particularly Mancube had suffered severe beatings to the head, while six-year-old Emily had developed a level of aggression quite unusual for elephants. Dehydrated and starved out, the entire group had been undergoing a brutal training routine which had alienated them among each other. All of this became visibly better at a daily rate when the first FOUR PAWS unit had taken up the specially designed rehabilitation process. Three months at the ranch in southern Zimbabwe where the elephants were housed were were marked by logistic challenges and extreme working conditions, but it was all worth while in the end: Mary and her herd evolved into a healthy and socializing, intact family of elephants.
 Release at dawn
Upon arrival, Jack, Jessica, Emma and the others were led by their new leader Mary away from the FOUR PAWS trucks and into a new life as the sun began to rise. Mary carrying a GPS-Collar around her neck, so the herd can be monitored by FOUR PAWS experts over the next months. The Hwange National Park encompasses 14,600 square kilometers. It is a perfectly suited home for the group, a place where the afflicted animals can take the final steps back to a safe and species-appropriate life of their own. A relieved FOUR PAWS team watched the elephants, with which they had worked since July, disappear into the vastness of the Zimbabwean landscape.
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