Anti-Ivory Club Members Visit Ruaha National Park

Students Learn More about Protecting Elephants

Earlier this month twenty six students from SEGA’s Anti-Ivory Club visited Ruaha National Park. Ruaha is Tanzania’s largest national park and is home to nearly 8,000-10,000 elephants, the highest concentration of elephants in eastern Africa. The goal of the trip was to see elephants in their natural habitat and to learn more about the harmful effects of poaching and the ivory trade. The girls went on a safari where they learned about elephants’ behavior and environment. Park Guides also taught the students about the Wildlife Conservation Society’s new initiative to protect elephants from poachers: the park has begun to train dogs to detect ivory, so that they can catch poachers, or others who are transporting ivory out of the park. SEGA students were the very first Tanzanian students to see these dogs in action and to learn first-hand about the program.

Nusura, one of the attending students, reflected, “My favorite part of this trip was seeing a lot of elephants in just a short period of time.. Elephants are the most amazing animals. I like the way they live. I like that a female elephant is the one to lead the family.”

Overall the trip was a great success and the girls learned a lot about elephants and the way that Ruaha is trying to protect their elephants and deter poaching.