Our Partners
Kids' Tusk Force UK is blessed to be supported by individuals who are passionate about Africa and its wildlife and habitat......most of whom have lived and breathed the great Continent whilst experiencing both the beauty and plight of these majestic creatures.....Elephants.....the giants of the African plains.
"We at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust are thrilled to have the fantastic and committed support of Kids’ Tusk Force UK in helping to raise awareness of the threats facing elephants. The future of elephants is in our hands and only by working with the younger generation can we inspire a better future, for wildlife and humans. Please consider becoming part of this brilliant initiative and help ensure we can be there for every orphaned baby elephant in need."
Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
"Two Million Tusks is hugely supportive of the wonderful initiative - Kids’ Tusk Force UK. It's vitally important children are introduced to and become involved in the environment and wildlife from a very young age. If they feel part of nature, they are far more likely to want to preserve and save it for the future. Elephants are an endangered keystone species in a desperate fight for survival, because of continued poaching for their ivory. They are such an iconic majestic animal, which every child can relate to. It is inspiring to see schoolchildren with such motivation helping raise funds for young orphaned elephants at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya.
Like Kids’ Tusk Force UK, Two Million Tusks was formed in 2016. While both are young organisations we have already improved the elephants chances of survival. In October 2017 we published our detailed, evidence based report Ivory: The Grey Areas (www.twomilliontusks.org) exposing the UK’s immense and unregulated ivory trade, while providing the British Government with their first ever evaluation of trading within UK auction houses. The results were shocking and our evidence has helped influence and shape the government’s UK ivory ban.
We wish Kids’ Tusk Force UK many continued trumpeting successes with their mini herds of fundraisers around the UK.❤️ "
Two Million Tusks
"To see groups of children in the UK fired up and passionate enough about the plight of the world’s elephants to take matters into their own hands and incite change is wonderful. Congratulations to the Kids Tusk Force for getting your fund raising projects off the ground. It will give welcome respite to elephants at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in
Kenya. "
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
"Young people are the future, so we welcome the efforts of Kids’ Tusk Force UK in supporting the pioneering work of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Working with the Sheldrick team on the BBC’s Elephant Diaries was a huge privilege and we continue to visit the orphan elephants in the Nairobi Park just 10 minutes from our home overlooking the beautiful Ngong Hills in Langata. Our grandson Michael is a sponsor of one of the Sheldrick Trust’s orphan elephants. He is only three but loves to go on safari and can roar like a lion and grunt like a hippo!
Safeguarding a future for people and wildlife is close to our hearts. It is unthinkable to imagine a world without elephants and lions. It is up to all of us to ensure that never happens. "
Jonathan and Angela Scott, The Big Cat people.
"A few years ago I was on safari in Kenya with the amazing Jonathan Scott of ‘Big Cat Diary’ fame. His love of Africa is totally infectious! To see the elephants there is one of the most wonderful sights in the world! They are such gentle creatures and my one wish is that they should still be roaming the plains of Africa in all their majesty for many generations to come. Two of my grandchildren saw elephants on safari last year. Let us hope and pray that their children and grandchildren will see the elephants as we do today.
I remember one especially magical moment a couple of years ago. We saw a pack of wild dogs hunting Impala and while they were feeding at the end of a successful hunt a herd of elephants appeared from around the corner, and with a great flapping of ears and with very loud trumpeting from one of the baby elephants, they chased the wild dogs away! They are truly the kings of the African plains! "
David White, Wiltshire Farmer and Exceptional Wildlife Photographer.
"‘Kids’ Tusk Force UK’ is the latest voice to shout out against the callous destruction of our wildlife heritage on the plains and in the forests of Africa. Children at Great Bedwyn School have initiated a new challenge to counter the brutal greed of ivory poachers. They will wage a determined crusade to harness the power of the UK’s schoolchildren to protect and nurture one of the world’s noblest and magnificent gifts – the elephant. "
Bear Grylls
"With a name like Elinor, I was inevitably called ''Ellie the elephant'' by other little girls at school. I rather resented it as I wasn't very big, and it implied I was clumsy. But in the wild elephants are far from clumsy. They are eminently well suited to their environment and seem almost part of it. I first saw them in India - padding almost silently through a tea plantation, in height order, as if lining up to go on Noah's Ark, their ears flapping in time with their huge feet. In Botswana, I saw a more menacing side of them - waking up in my tent to hear them crashing in the trees nearby. In the morning there was barely a tree left whole...and branches were strewn on the ground. It was as if the elephants had been trying to re-claim the bush for themselves."
"Then in South Africa, I witnessed the gentler side of them as they went down to the river to drink in family groups. What struck me was the way they look out for each other - not just for their own offspring but for others in the group. That makes it all the sadder that they are hunted for their tusks. Watching the stars one night, a lone bull came trumpeting out of the bush. To have shot him for his tusks would have seemed like an act of sacrilege. For rich businessmen from overseas to have shot him as a trophy would have seemed as bad.
"
Elinor Goodman. Radio 4 Presenter and Journalist.
"Anyone, such as myself, who has been lucky enough to come across elephants in the wild can not help but be deeply moved by the site and their majesty; a word that almost belongs to them. Some years ago I took a six month sabbatical between jobs, to go to Zimbabwe; there whilst wandering through the bush I came upon a small family group of elephants who eyed me up with a certain amount of circumspection before continuing on their way, their ears slowly flapping with their progress, trunks testing the environment around them.
Later that year when I was in Bulawayo, the train came lumbering in from South Africa. There was a group of wild dogs evidently at their leisure. As the train arrived it blew it’s whistle to be answered by a cacophony of wild trumpeting from a herd of elephants that came charging out of the bush scattering the calm of the dogs who also took flight. These are memories that I will carry with me until the end of my days. Through the work of naturalists and photographers, I have since come to further appreciate their intelligence, compassion and deep family ties.
The heart wrenching emotional loss of an orphaned elephant that wont leave the side of it’s mother, ruthlessly slaughtered by poachers for the greed of people far away, is something that we all instantaneously recognise and understand.
The work that the Sheldrick Trust does to look after these orphans, and to stop poaching is a true act of humanity. I am therefore honoured to support Kids Tusk Force UK, to mobilise the passion, and enthusiasm of our young people, in the cause of raising awareness and funds for the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust."
David Prince, B.Vet.Med. M.R.C.V.S. PGCertSAS Senior Veterinary Surgeon, Drove Vets
"Elephants once dominated almost everywhere on Earth, except Australasia. Here, in Britain and Europe, we live among ghost ecosystems, shaped by elephants. Our trees evolved to survive the vast straight-tusked elephant, Elephas antiquus. This is why they coppice and pollard, why it is possible to lay a hedge and why smaller, understorey trees like holly, yew and box, have tougher roots and branches than the big canopy trees like oak, beech and ash. Elephants are not ornaments of the ecosystem; they are its most essential components, affecting every aspect of how it functions, greatly enriching its diversity. When they go, they leave a vast gap that nothing else can fill. That is the state the rest of the world has fallen into. In the few small enclaves in which they still exist, we should do all we can to protect them."
George Monbiot. Environmental campaigner, journalist and Guardian columnist
Acknowledgements
Kids' Tusk Force UK wishes to acknowledge the contribution made to the website by David White (African photography), Lucy Charman (photography), Hilary Stock (photography), Alison Colley (logo design) and Stuart Crees (website designer). Our most grateful thanks to you all. Your kindness and generosity is very much appreciated.
