Our Blog - Ways to help animals

 
 
 
Welcome to our blog which will will have all sorts of news, stories, appeals and more!   

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  1.  

    The 18th October is World Opaki Day and a great chance to celebrate the opaki and to find out more about the species!

    The 18th October is #WorldOpakiDay

    #WorldOkapiDay
    #WOD2022
    #OkapiConservation 

    Opakis are found deep in the heart of Africa, right in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

    Threats to the opaki are many, despite the protected status the opaki received in 1933

    • slash-and-burn agriculture
    • illegal goal mining
    • bush-meat poaching

    Since the opaki is found in deep, dense jungles, it acts as a flagship species to protect the forest ecosystem in which it lives.

    The day is a chance to people to celebrate and find out more about the endangered opaki.  The Opaki Conservation Project has a social media toolkit to help you celebrate and share the day – it will be a great way to raise awareness of the opaki.

    Ways you can help the opaki on World Opaki Day:

    1. Find out all about the opaki – the Opaki Conservation Project has lots of information

    2. Find out about the Opaki Conservation Project and share the work they do

    3. Learn about the Opaki Wildlife Reserve which helps to protect the habitat of the opaki, and preserve rare plant and animal life, and also the lifestyle and culture of indigenous people.  Encompassing 13,700 square kilometres, it is one of the most important centres of plant and animal diversity in Africa.

    4. You could donate to the project or become an opaki guardian!


    Protecting the opaki’s home on the reserve means also protecting the homes of opaki, forest elephants, chimpanzees, leopard, primates, forest buffalo, bongo antelope and water chevrotain.  There’s also an incredible range of birds and insects.

    Please share all about it on social media.  Here are the hashtags:

    Facebook: @OkapiConservationProject 

    Instagram: @OkapiConservation 

    Twitter: @OkapiProject 

  2. There’s a programme on BBC2 on 26th August and 2nd September 2022 at 8pm that you must just not miss!

    It’s called Bears About the House. #BearsAbouttheHouse

    Conservationist Giles Clark (Big Cats About the House) is off on his biggest mission to date:  he’s taking on the illegal wildlife trade and helping to build a pioneering new bear sanctuary in Laos, South East Asia.

    Enter Matt Hunt, CEO of Free the Bears.  Free the Bears is an amazing charity which rescues moon and sun bears and cares for them in bear sanctuaries in Cambodia, Vietnam and Cambodia.  And Matt asked Giles Clark to help for 12 months. 

    Visit Free the Bears' website
    Please donate if you can and/or spread the word.
    Thank you! 

    Before long, Giles was needed to step forward and help Mary, a 5 month old sun bear who was rescued after her mother was killed in the wild.  Fragile and malnourished, she needed care at home, and that's what she got.



    Visit Free the Bears here to find out more
    Thank you

    We wish everyone at Free the Bears all the best with the programme, thinking of you
    and thank you for all you're doing

    DONATE TO FREE THE BEARS
    Thank you

    Don’t miss it – and if you can make a donation, please donate.

    Bears across Asia are sold as trophy pets.  They are used for their body parts in restaurants and processed for traditional Asian medicine. 

    The most valued part of a bear is their gallbladder.  It stores bile, a digestive fluid which is thought to have medical qualities. Many bears across Asia are kept in bear farms – this enables their bile to be extracted as needed. 

    Giles and the team want to stop this.  They are working with the government to shut these bear bile farms down.

    It’s a constant effort, and Free the Bears need your help.  Donations in whatever form will help rescue more bears in need of rescue, and care for those who have been rescued, and who need food, care and enrichment activities.

    Ways to help


    Visit Free the Bears' website

     

  3. March 2024:  Looking at Paul O'Grady's Great Elephant Adventure? 
    Take a look here for the elephant sanctuaries featured on the programmme.

    Date for your diary:  12 August 
    It's World Elephant Day. 

    Find out more here

    It's back! Don't miss this on Channel 5 on Tuesday 14 June 2022.

    The programme is called Elephant Hospital and it's the world's largest elephant hospital nestled in the forests of Thailand in Lampang. It's open 24/7 and is a sort of NHS for elephants. The team of highly skilled and very dedicated staff never know what sort of problems the elephants will be arriving with but they all do their very best to help them.  

    Paul O'Donoghue and Katheirne Connor head back to the hospital for this new series (four parts).  It cares for over 100 sick, injured or neglected animals every year.  And if the elephants can't come to the hospital, the vets go to the elephants!

    This is a heart-warming series with uplifting and unexpected stories, be they treating an elephant with cancer or a baby elephant being fed with a giant milk bottle!  There's an elephant with severe diarrhoea, and a male elephant who has been attacked by another bull elephant.  It's all go, as the incredible team try to help each elephant as best they can. 

    Find out more from Channel 5

    I am looking for ways to donate to this hospital - watch this space

    It's supported by Friends of the Asian Elephant and here is their Facebook page.

    Their website is here.

    #ElephantHospital 

    THANK YOU to everyone at the hospital for all you do for these wonderful elephants. 

    The World Elephant Day website has LOTS of information about ways to help elephants, whatever day of the year it is so please take a look at it here.

    See our list of elephant conservation charities here

    How about an elephant conservation holiday?  Take a look at the range of choices with Responsible Travel
    How about an elephant conservation holiday? 
    Take a look at the range of choices 
    with Responsible Travel

    You could adopt an orphan elephant from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
    You could adopt an orphan elephant
    from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
    Image ©David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust