26 May 2022

Elephant Havens has donated 100 goats to 10 Ghabamocha and Nxanxana settlement farmers to raise and produce milk to feed orphaned baby elephants at the sanctuary.

Located about 45 kilometres from Maun in Ghabamocha settlement, Elephant Havens is a habitat for orphaned young elephants.

The sanctuary is home to nine baby elephants that have been subjected to some form of suffering when their mothers were killed by poachers or abandoned in the wildness. They were rescued and rehabilitated to be released when much older.

Speaking at the handing over ceremony on Tuesday, Elephant Havens Co-Founder and Director, Mr Boago Poloko said each farmer would get nine female goats and a buck. The goats are of different breeds such as Tswana, Boer, British Alpine and Saanen.

He stated that the model was adopted from Retete Elephant Orphanage in Kenya where farmers within the locality were gifted with goats to produce milk to be consumed by baby elephants.

Mr Poloko explained that the arrangement was such that the 10 farmers would each produce milk to supply Elephant Havens on a daily basis for free until the value of the milk they supply would be equivalent to the purchase value of the goats.

He said once the value of the goats has been reached, Elephant Havens would then start buying milk from the farmers.

Mr Poloko said currently it cost close to P2 000 a day to feed the baby elephants with formula.

He highlighted they would like to have more Saanen breed as it was capable of  producing four litres a day compared to 500ml from Tswana breed.

Mr Poloko stated that their endeavour was to protect and preserve wildlife, adding that they hoped that in future, they would be able to proudly say, ‘the milk that was produced by Ghabamocha and Nxanxana communities has helped us raise baby elephants that were successfully released back into the wild.’’

He urged the farmers to be fulfil the agreement and supply goat milk only, as failure to do so couldresult in the elephants’ death.

“Please do not cheat and supply us with cow milk or mix with water because cow milk has high concentration of lactose and it will completely destroy the digestive system of the elephants and wipe them out,” he warned.

Mr Poloko thanked his co-founders: Ms Debra Stevens and Mr Scott Jackson for flying from the USA to be part of the donation.

A Department of Animal Production official, Mr Eric Mesho stated that goats were easy to manage and multiply as one goat could give birth to twins or triplets.

He said the birth-rate of a Tswana breed was 120 per cent as some could produce twins, while a Kalahari Red or Boer breed had a 150-200 per cent birth-rate as they birthed triplets.

He informed the farmers that the goats had a lot of potential to multiply and be able to meet the Elephant Havens obligation to supply milk.

However, he warned that goats needed close monitoring and vaccination as failure to do so may lead to high mortality.

He said the farmers should consider themselves blessed.

One of the farmers, Ms Ketshotse Mainga assured Elephant Havens that they would take good care of the goats so that they could  multiply.

She said this was a very unique gift that challenged them to be devoted, as it was for the greater good of protecting and preserving elephants.

Ms Mainga thanked Elephant Havens for the goats, promising that they would deliver on the milk supply. BOPA