If you’ve been out in the city throughout the last month or so then you’ve undoubtably found yourself face to face with a brightly coloured baby elephant or two. The Elephant Parade hit the streets and parks of London throughout the summer of 2010 in a bid to raise money and awareness for the conservation of the Asian elephant.
The highlight of the summer so far, the elephants lit up the city with bedazzling colour. 250 of the little guys were dotted all over central London and thanks to a recent auction night and online auction, the elephants have raised the princely sum of more than £1.8m.
Unfortunately, all of the trunked wonders have now been sold, but you can still grab a keepsake and give a little to the course with miniature elephants and the official art book available at Selfridges until the end of July 2010 (on a slightly related tangent, my favourite shop in Cardiff is a place called Sell Fridges, that does what it says on the tin… genius!).
The Asian elephant’s population has declined by 90% in the past 100 years, and their habitat has shrunk by around 95% over the same time, according to The Elephant Family’s website – www.elephantfamily.org. With the success of the Elephant parade, hopefully The Elephant Family will have a very successful year of conservation. I can’t wait for their next big footed charge.
