Stews 4 Elephants

08/26/2026

🌿 New Mini-Series Alert: Wildlife Wednesday: The Hump Day Hideaway! 🦒

Let's conquer the midweek slump by diving into the heart of Zululand at Thula Thula Private Game Reserve! Today, you’re the field scientist on a population survey mission. 🔍

Mission: Can you spot how many giraffes are blending into the trees? 🌳👀

Real Science: You’d think a 16-foot giraffe would stand out, but their star-shaped patches provide perfect camouflage in the South African bushveld!

Fun fact: Each giraffe's pattern is as unique as a human fingerprint! Researchers use photo-identification software to track and protect them—no tags or collars needed.

Drop your official population count in the comments below! 👇

08/24/2026

🌿🐘 Myth Monday: Busting the Elephant Diet Myth! 🐘🌿

Did you think elephants only munch on fruit? 🍉 Nope! While they do enjoy a sweet treat, these gentle giants have a much more diverse menu. Here's the scoop on what really fuels these colossal creatures:

🍽️ Elephant Eats:🌱🪾🌳

→Grasses & Sedges: Their go-to during the lush, green wet season.
→Tree Bark: Crunchy and packed with essential calcium and minerals.
→Roots & Tubers: Dug up with their impressive tusks and feet during dry spells.
→Twigs & Branches: Perfect for a nutrient boost and jaw workout.
→Leaves & Shrubs: They reach the high spots that others can’t!

⚙️ Feeding & Digesting Facts:

→Hefty Appetite: An adult elephant chows down on 300-450 lbs of food daily! That’s a lot of salad! 🥗
→Trunk Tricks: With 40,000 muscles, it's the ultimate multi-tool for plucking, digging, and more! 💪
→Digestive Dilemma: Only about 40% of what they eat is digested, so they spend up to 18 hours a day on the job. Talk about dedication!

Check out Stews 4 Elephants & Friends for more elephant truths and tag a friend who loves these magnificent creatures! 🐘❤️

08/20/2026

📸 THROWBACK THURSDAY: Looking back at an incredible trip! 🐘✨

Last August, our amazing S4E Global volunteers headed out to the Thula Thula Volunteers Academy for a life-changing conservation experience! 🌍👇

From living in the heart of the African wilderness to working alongside highly skilled local field teams, our crew got their hands dirty with crucial daily efforts, including:

🐾 Elephant impact and behavior monitoring
🛡️ Snare sweeping and anti-poaching patrols
🌱 Invasive vegetation control and habitat restoration
🏥 Supporting wildlife rescue at the rehabilitation center

Every single day, these volunteers proved that one person can make a massive difference in protecting these gentle giants and their habitats.

💚🔗 Want to make your own impact? Head to the link in our bio to donate, support our 100% pass-through mission, or learn how you can join future S4E Global field projects!

08/17/2026

🌟 Myth Monday🌟

Did you know? Elephants do more than just trumpet! 🎺 They're communicators, using their feet, body language, and scents to chat. 🐘💬

🔍 Here’s how these gentle giants communicate:

🌍 Seismic Communication:

→Earth-shaking rumbles: Elephants create rumbles that travel through the ground for up to 30 miles! 🌐
→Footpad magic: Their feet have receptors that pick up these vibrations. 🦶✨
→Bone conduction: Vibrations travel through their leg bones, helping them feel and hear simultaneously! 🔊
→Listening stance: Elephants freeze or lean to catch distant signals. 🤔

🎭 Body Language & Senses:

→Expressive postures: Ears, heads, tusks, and tails tell stories of anger, play, or submission. 🐘💃
→Trunk talk: Trunks are for greeting, comforting, and guiding family members. 🤗
→Scent signals: Smells from urine, dung, and glands help track friends, spot danger, or find a mate. 👃

So, next time you hear an elephant trumpet, remember—they’ve got a whole language of their own! 🐘❤️

08/12/2026

Today is World Elephant Day, a day of joyous thoughts of how far we have come in celebrating elephants, but also a stark reminder of how far we need to go, 2026 has been a mixed bag. On the one hand we celebrate the news in Nepal regarding elephant welfare improving, the Bronz Zoo is contemplating having Patty move to Sanctuary in Tennessee, Baby found a new home in Brazil at GSE, ASHA was moved to sanctuary, Hawaii Supreme court have agreed to hear the case surrounding the elephants and their rights at the Honolulu Zoo.
On the other hand, Happy died in solitary confinement at the Bronx Zoo, after decades of being alone, Betty still suffers at the hands of circus. In Thailand, more elephants are in captivity under atrocious conditions than live in the wild, India is struggling with Human-Elephant conflict, and Sri Lanka seems to be going more backward than forward in its elephant care. Elephants are still being slaughtered for their ivory.

Today, S4E wants to say a huge thank you to all those who are speaking up for elephants. If not for each voice, loud and strong, many elephants would be dead or still imprisoned without knowing a bit of care. Many more elephants would be slaughtered for ivory, or captured to be slaves in captivity. Without your voices, change would not have happened… and for that S4E is incredibly thankful for all you so!

08/10/2026

🌿 Myth Monday: Are Elephants Really Safe? 🌍

Think elephants aren't endangered? Think again! Both Asian and African elephants are at risk of extinction, according to the IUCN Red List. Despite their frequent appearances in media and zoos, wild populations are dwindling fast.

🔍 The Numbers:

→ A century ago, Africa had 12 million elephants. Today, only 415,000 remain.
→ Wild Asian elephants number less than 50,000.
→ African forest elephants have seen a shocking 86% population drop in just 31 years due to poaching.

🏞️ The Captivity Dilemma:

→ Many elephants live in captivity, especially in Asia, where their ecological role as "ecosystem engineers" is lost. They struggle to reproduce in these environments, further threatening their survival.

🌟 How We Can Help:

→ Support Conservation Efforts: Donate to organizations working to protect elephant habitats and combat poaching.
→ Promote Ethical Tourism: Choose wildlife-friendly tourism that respects elephants in their natural environments.
→ Raise Awareness: Share information about the plight of elephants to educate others and inspire action.
→ Advocate for Policy Change: Encourage governments to enforce stronger anti-poaching laws and habitat protection measures.

Let’s spread awareness and protect these majestic giants! 🐘✨

08/03/2026

🐘 Myth Monday Alert: "Elephant ivory trade is no longer a problem."

🌍 Fact: Despite bans, over 20,000 elephants are still killed annually to satisfy the ivory demand in some countries.

🔍 The Hidden Scale of the Crisis:

→The Numbers: Approximately 20,000 African elephants are illegally poached each year, meaning one elephant is killed every 26 minutes.

→The Drivers: Ivory remains a luxury status symbol and art material, primarily flowing through underground networks into parts of Asia.

→The Reality of the Bans: Although major markets like China have closed their domestic trade, cross-border smuggling and weak enforcement continue to fuel illegal trade.

Let's spread awareness and work towards protecting these majestic creatures!

🐘💔

08/01/2026

GSE explains it perfectly why ethical projects do not breed. Besides being traumatic for the elephants, It continues the cycle of captivity

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1588536876638645&id=100064470441359

With the arrival of Baby, the sanctuary’s second youngest elephant resident, we have received a few questions about whether or not she would be able to have a calf of her own, and if the girls here are physically able to have their own children. While we understand the curiosity and know that the idea of our sanctuary elephants being mothers sounds wonderful and cute, we want to make sure to educate about why the elephants here at the sanctuary will never be bred.

The gestation period of a baby elephant is around 22 months–the longest of any mammal. Most mammals have only one corpus luteum, which is a temporary gland that controls hormone levels during pregnancy; elephants have as many as 11. Without getting into the exact details of pregnancy in elephants, it can be simply stated that the physical toll that carrying a child has on the body of any female elephant is extreme, even in the healthiest of elephants.

Female elephants can give birth at approximately four to five-year intervals and have been documented as having up to 12 offspring per lifetime. Most females give birth for the first time between 14 and 15 years old in African elephants, and slightly later for Asian elephants. The ability to become pregnant remains fairly consistent between the ages of 16 and 40, and then declines slightly, though some females over 60 have shown through hormone testing that they are still having menstrual cycles. Most of the elephants at sanctuary are considered geriatric and over the age of 49 so, aside from Baby and Guillermina, none of them are an appropriate age to carry a full-term pregnancy.

The physical and psychological toll that the elephants at sanctuary have been through is far beyond what we can understand. Their years in captivity are something that only they will ever know and the greatest thing that we can provide for them is the ability to heal–physically, emotionally, and mentally. To put them in a situation to be bred or to carry a pregnancy for 22 months is not appropriate for their age, their physical condition, or something that the sanctuary supports in general. Additionally, our accrediting body, the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries believes that true sanctuary does not engage in intentional breeding.

Although we are lucky enough to witness the healing of these animals every day and have the privilege to share it with all of our supporters, sanctuary is still captivity. It is the best that captivity has to offer, but the species truly cannot be saved here; that needs to happen in their home range. Bringing babies into the circumstances of sanctuary would not give them the lives that they deserve. While we understand the charm of a baby elephant and what it could do to the herd dynamic, our greatest mission is to provide a healthy home to elephants who are already stuck in the circle of captivity as a result of human desires. We do not believe it’s ethical or appropriate to continue that cycle by introducing breeding. Our goal is to provide a space for these elephants to live out the rest of their lives focusing on themselves, their healing, and their relationships with each other, and we will dedicate our days to doing so in any way we can.

Photo of Guille

07/30/2026