MEET THULA THE ELEPHANT: OUR NEW ANIMALSTONE PENDANT

AnimalStone’s Thula the Elephant Pendant.

Wild Tomorrow Fund is delighted to announce the addition of the Thula the Elephant pendant to our growing partnership with AnimalStone, an animal-inspired luxury jewelry company headquartered in Canada. For each sale of AnimalStone’s sterling silver Thula the Elephant, $15 Canadian dollars (CAD) will be donated in support of Wild Tomorrow Fund’s wildlife conservation work.

“Thula” means peace in the Zulu language. Or if said in a loud, insistent voice, “Thula!” asks us to ‘be quiet!’. It’s a beautiful name for a majestic African elephant, the world’s largest land mammal, who can walk quietly and unheard through forests and open savannah, or if threatened, can stomp and trumpet in loud alarm.

Although elephants are one of the most beloved animals on our planet, their future is threatened across their range from poaching, human-wildlife conflict and habitat-loss. It was two years ago that an aerial count was conducted to find out how many elephants remain in Africa. Spotter planes for the Great Elephant Census took to the skies, flying above all known elephant ranges, covering 18 countries over a two year period. In 1979, it was conservatively estimated that 1.3 million elephants lived in Africa. The results of the census found only 352,271 elephants left alive, a devastating decline.

The poaching of elephants for their ivory tusks remains an urgent problem today for the most shallow reason: ivory is a mere white trinket, a carved item on a shelf to impress others. This cold, white tusk belongs on an elephant, not dead on the shelves of collectors and the wealthy elite. According to the Great Elephant Census, in the very recent seven year period from 2007 to 2014, elephant populations were violently reduced by 144,000 individuals, each individual killed brutally, tusks removed, face hacked apart. That's 56 elephants killed every day, two every hour, driven by the destructive desire for ivory. Their tusks were torn from the wild, likely transported raw to Asia, where they were carved into trinkets before being shipped again to markets across the world. A gaudy display of death that reduced a living, breathing, feeling elephant to a cold, dusty artifact.

Rambo, a beautiful bull elephant resident at Bayete Zulu Reserve, in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa.

Let’s turn this horrible story around. Let’s protect elephants together. An item of jewelry need not be a symbol of death, but of hope. Thula the Elephant connects its wearer to the quiet grace, strength and wisdom of elephants, and our compassion for them, while giving back to help keep them and their homes safe.

Thula the elephant joins Rosco the Rhino and Cecil the Lion in the lineup of African wildlife pendants designed by AnimalStone, with proceeds donated to Wild Tomorrow Fund’s wildlife conservation work. AnimalStone believe that “a symbiotic relationship is needed between us and nature, humans and animals, in order to conserve our shared place here.” This desire to connect animals to people led them to create their unique, life-like animal charms, including a series of African animals, and to reach out to like-minded organizations like Wild Tomorrow Fund.

“Our vision is for our AnimalStone charms to serve as physical reminders of our connection to the animals, the planet and all living things.” said Claire, “Our ethos is one of connection, and through our relationship with Wild Tomorrow Fund, we hope to help bridge a gap and connect more animal lovers to rhinos regardless of the physical distance.”

Read more about Wild Tomorrow Fund’s elephant protection work here, and click on the button below to purchase your Thula the Elephant charm, supporting our elephant protection work.

AnimalStone has made it their mission to create timeless wearable art that pays homage to each animal by giving texture and life to each and every piece. The company was founded on the principal that animals have shared this planet with us since time immemorial. It is their sincere hope that their jewellery serves as a constant reminder of the profound majesty of our animal kingdom, of our place within it and most importantly, that the natural world is fine art in and of itself. www.animalstone.com