Tourvest Accommodation and Activities (TAA) will end its elephant-back safaris and elephant interaction activities at Sun City Resort from the end of August in order to rehabilitate the elephants.
TAA Chief Executive, Gary Elmes, said that, after 12 years of educating and enriching the lives of countless visitors to Sun City, it was time to enter the next planned phase in the elephants’ lives, which was to release them back into the wild.
Gavin Reynolds, CEO of Mankwe Gametrackers, which merged with TAA in May, said it had not yet been decided where the elephants would go because, although Pilanesberg National Park would be first prize because of its closeness to Sun City, it did not have an elephant management plan. Mankwe Gametrackers is looking into a number of potential options.
Reynolds said once the elephants had been placed in a park, there were plans to fully integrate them and rehabilitate them into the wild.
