Whether you wear a tutu, face paint, head bands or whatever your free style is feeling, what you wear is up to you. It's your chance to help Africa's elephants and all runners, joggers and walkers are welcome!
In yet more exciting news, we are excited to announce that our herd will be visiting Los Angeles on Sunday 17th September 2017!
Each day, close to 50 elephants are killed for their tusks ... threatening their future. At the current poaching rate, elephants will be extinct in the wild by 2025. Many elephants targeted by poachers have milk dependent calves, and without family or a mother, a baby elephant has little chance of survival. Through the dedication and hard work of the DSWT, rescued orphaned baby elephants now have a second chance at life in the wild.
To join our Freestyle herd in Los Angeles and for more information about this brand new event, please visit our website at www.enormouselephantrun.com/freestyle.
Ex-orphan Icholta gave birth to her first wild born baby, a little boy who we have named Inca. He's a growing tiny baby and we are happy to share that mum and baby are doing very well.
Rescued as a new born calf in 1999 and hand-raised by The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT), orphan Icholta barely knew her mum. But now she has the joy of becoming a mother herself!
This little boy is just one reason why we're donning our elephants suits in 2016... To give Inca and other wild born babies a future free from threat. Through the funds we raise through The Enormous Elephant Run, The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust can work to keep this precious family safe and promise the same future for the dependent orphan elephants still in their care.
It costs £55 a day to fund a DSWT/KWS Anti-Poaching Team for a day. There are 9 teams, and they each patrol on the front line keeping elephants like Inca and Icholta safe from poaching and human-wildlife conflict.
If every one of our runners raised £55 today, we could fund patrols for 500 days! Kick start your fundraising and start today!
Two of our Manchester Runners have shared with us this fantastic film they made from our Run at Heaton Park on Saturday 6th June!
On Saturday 6th June, 292 of our amazing supporters joined us in London for the DSWT’s second ever Enormous Elephant Run, raising an incredible £50,000! A run with a difference, all the participants were dressed as elephants and it was a sight to behold, to see so many elephants running, dancing and playing.
All were running for the orphaned elephants we care for and the threatened herds we protect. It is a sad reality that presently, due to the ivory trade and the rampant poaching of Africa’s elephants, to see close to 300 elephants together in Africa is becoming a rare sight and that’s why we were running for them in London.
With the sunshine beating down, all the ‘elephants’ joined in our fantastic warm up led by the ladies from Red Hot Yoga, before a group photo to try for a ‘Guinness World Record for the Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Elephants’.
It wasn’t long before our first 10k runners set off, and were soon followed by our 5k runners, walkers and joggers. Remembering why we are running for elephants, all our runners finished with big smiles and wore their finisher’s medals with pride after!
Says Rob Brandford, Executive Director of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (UK): "I was humbled and delighted to see so many of our incredible supporters join us on the day and help spread the word. Even more so, because through their hard work fundraising, our elephant runners have already raised a staggering £50,000 for elephant protection, which is simply amazing."
We’d like to say an enormous thank you to all the participants for making the London run such a success for elephants, and a jumbo sized thank you to our 40+ volunteers and marshals, without who we simply couldn’t host an event of this nature. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Williamson Tea for supporting us on the day, accompanied by their gorgeous tea caddies, and Sainsburys for supplying the limitless number of bananas!
For those of you excited by the idea of dressing as an elephant and running for the species, there is an Enormous Elephant Run in Manchester, UK on the 25th July 2015. We’ll also soon be sharing exciting news about how you can run for elephants where ever you live!
We’re already looking forward to London’s EER 2016! You can sign up to be the first to know about next year's Run here.
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