r/babyelephantgifs • u/holdenwook • Jun 09 '14
Hey baby elephant fans! It's time to talk about the elephant in the room.
It has been a wild ride here at /r/babyelephantgifs in the three months of our existence. From 10,000 subscribers in the first 10 days, to 20,000 within the first month—I think it's safe to say that baby elephants hit a soft spot with the reddit community!
As we approach 40,000 subscribers, we have decided that it is time to give back. As most of you are aware, elephants have never faced a greater threat of extinction than they do today. Between poaching, loss of habitat, mistreatment in captivity, and other threats, both Asian and African elephants are in jeopardy.
That is where we come in. Today I am pleased to announce a fundraising program through which we can play a small role in the global effort to protect elephants. We are calling it the Elephant in the Room Challenge.
Here's how it works:
Step 1:
Pick any organization that interests you and donate! Your donation can be as big or small as you would like it to be, and there are many organizations to choose from. Any donations from June 1, 2014 and beyond will count towards our goal. A few examples of organizations:
David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust – you can foster a baby elephant or rhino here!
These are just a few examples, but there are many more. A comprehensive list has been compiled by World Elephant Day, and it can be found here.
Step 2:
Send a screenshot of your email receipt to this link. All information will be kept confidential, and you may black it out if you wish, but please leave the amount donated visible. If you’re not sure how to black out information, you can do it on imgur!
Step 3:
We will be checking for new messages daily and adjusting the elephant meter in the sidebar as we approach our goal! We have decided to start with a goal of $2,000 based on the number of people who have already donated. It may be too big and it may be too small, but we’re excited to see what happens!
Step 4:
Receive a golden elephant trophy next to your username in the sub!
If you have any questions, post them here or feel free to message me personally. I have donated to several of these organizations and I may be able to help if you have any concerns.
Hopefully this works! Either way, you guys continue to make this one of the best places on reddit, and I hope it stays that way for a long time to come. Cheers!
UPDATE 6/10: Due to a huge turnout in the first 24 hours, we have decided to increase our goal to $8,000. The elephant meter has been adjusted accordingly. Golden elephant trophies are going out as donations come in, and the elephant meter will be adjusted at the end of each day!
UPDATE 7/8: Please remember to send a screenshot of your email receipt to this link if you would like your donation to count towards our goal. The best way to do this is to upload your screenshot to imgur, and then send us a link to the image.
UPDATE 8/12: The fundraiser was a success! We crossed the $8,000 mark this morning, which just happens to be World Elephant Day! In total, $8,170.32 raised for elephant charities. Details can be found here.
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u/CharitableBetsMod Jun 09 '14
I just found this post on /r/all and would like to make a pledge similar to formats we've seen in a subreddit I moderate called /r/CharitableBets...
The Ivory Coast national football team is nicknamed Les Éléphants (The Elephants) - so for every goal they score in the upcoming World Cup, I will donate $3 to Save the Elephants.
I'll also make sure that the donation is at least $15, purely on the basis that this subreddit is cool and this idea is wonderful. Not a huge amount, but I hope it helps :)
Cheers.
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u/Motha_Effin_Kitty_Yo Jun 09 '14
Every bit helps and that is a super neat idea! In fact, if every subscriber donated just 5 cents today we would reach our goal of $2,000! As it is, donations are going great and we are getting anything from a few dollars to hundreds! Every little bit counts, and its all going to a wonderful cause, so thanks again! :)
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u/CharitableBetsMod Jun 09 '14
Best of luck with it all. We've raised nearly $5000 so far and hope to continue doing so!
Feel free to come check it out, if you're into sports (or anything else that can be bet on!).
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u/Phasechange Jun 09 '14
They fascinate me and have brought me so much joy and wonder. And so has this subreddit. /u/holdenwook , as if it wasn't enough for you to have given my friends and myself so many reasons to smile just by posting delightful little gifs, it's incredibly gratifying to see you directing the attention your efforts have generated towards a really positive outcome. I thank you for the gifs, for inspiring the other wonderful contributors (shout out for /u/love_the_heat !), and finally for this.
I am but a starving student, yet I can hardly hold back from this meagre contribution, and may this help get the ball rolling, as it were.
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Jun 09 '14 edited Jun 11 '14
I love this.
Edit: Thanks for the gold! With this plus my elephant trophy I feel like a queen!
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u/turtlechef Jun 10 '14
How does this have so many downvotes? We're all donating to elephants... what's there to hate about that?
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u/lillyrose2489 Jun 09 '14
Aw, i would love to participate but I already did $50 to The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust this year. I'd like to do more but can't really justify donating more than once right now. Since it was before June 1, it doesn't count for this but I just wanted to say that it's a great organization! I fostered a baby elephant and I get updated on what all the babies are up to via email. :)
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u/ChemicalZebra Jun 09 '14
Oooh I definitely want to foster an elephant! Will definitely donate on my next pay day :)
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u/_sword Jun 09 '14
I'll be looking into which one(s) to send donations! Would anyone know how efficiently these organizations donate money? I'll be looking this up since I want my donation to mostly go towards helping the animals, not office supplies and salaries.
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u/Motha_Effin_Kitty_Yo Jun 09 '14
Thats one of the reasons we didn't collect the funds and donate them to a single group. We wanted you guys to be able to decide which organization best met your qualifications!
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u/Alas_poor_Yorrick Jun 09 '14
I looked through them and decided on The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. They seem pretty hands on.
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u/holdenwook Jun 09 '14
I highly recommend the DSWT youtube channel if you haven't checked it out yet. They put out a ton of videos. Basically any elephant or rhino that you can adopt has its own set of videos detailing its rescue and care.
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u/Alas_poor_Yorrick Jun 09 '14
Yeah, I watched a bunch. Ultimately they made me decide on sponsoring Zongoloni. That, and her cool name.
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u/restricteddata Jun 10 '14
This. And separately, which of these has the least chance of selling my info to every other animal charity on the planet? There's nothing more depressing than later regretting having donated to an organization because they inundate me with junk mail and suddenly I start getting junk mail and phone calls from other "related" organizations.aa
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Jun 09 '14
When I get paid, I'm sponsoring Ololoo for a year.
I found this video of him and two other orphans arriving at a national park and being greeted by wild elephants.
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u/justmie Jun 09 '14
Great idea! I had never heard of the David Sheldrick Trust before today, now I'm happy to announce that I fostered a little elephant. Thank you for starting this!
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u/justmie Jun 10 '14
Gold?! Wow, thanks! (!!!!!!!)
Consider me speechless (and that's a rare sight)! :)
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Jun 10 '14
What's your elephant's name?
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u/justmie Jun 10 '14
I fostered Mbegu.
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u/justmie Jun 10 '14
Absolutely! :)
Her story is really sad, but I hope she will continue to get better and live a great life.
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u/flamingflipflop Jun 09 '14
Will donate later! I get the amazing opportunity to travel to Thailand and work in an elephant sanctuary for 4 weeks. I'll have to post pictures when I come back :D (although I still have to save up some more money. I'm thinking it will be late 2015 early 2016.) BUT STILL IM EXCITED
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u/tinapa Jun 09 '14
Meeting and playing with a baby elephant is the highlight of my life so far. Big bundles of joy and energy, just really really great creatures. Enjoy!!!
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u/Top_rattata Jul 16 '14
is there anywhere i can play with them just for the day, like feed them and stuff or do i have to do a course?
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u/tinapa Jul 16 '14
I met the baby elephant in Chiang Mai zoo in Thailand. I don't know if they have a permanent baby elephant + mommy elephant in one of the areas there, but there was when we went there. We were able to feed, touch, and just take photos with the baby elephant and her mom.
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u/Top_rattata Jul 16 '14
Do most of the zoos/ reserves have elephants in thailand? Im not to sure about sanctuarys yet because i keep hearing horrible stories about the way they treat them.
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u/Phasechange Jul 16 '14
There are also horrible stories about how most zoos treat their elephants. I know how hard it is to come to a conclusion based on reading people's reviews because there really are bad reviews for just about everywhere.
For what it's worth, this very much includes Chiang Mai zoo, which has a lot of negative reviews, yet these were mostly not supported by what I saw of it during my two visits.
The difference between the worst stories I've read and what I've experienced tempts me to suspect that the elephant sanctuaries too are not as bad as the worse reviews imply.
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u/Top_rattata Jul 16 '14
I think ill plan a trip to thailand then! just out of curiosity: was there much else to do there other than the zoo?
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u/Phasechange Jul 17 '14
Well there's 300 temples in the 2km square of the Old City, there's a place nearby where you can play with tigers, it has the nicest people of anywhere we went in Thailand (and that's saying something), it's a vibrant student city with a million people and many universities with rather sharp delineation between the tourist areas and the rest, so you get to decide whether to spend time in places where they speak relatively good English and are accustomed to tourists or to have a slightly more challenging time and see more authentic Thai culture, there is active night-life, we ate even better there than we did in Bangkok and for far less, so... I guess "Yes" is the answer you're looking for. Hell, I'd like to live there. Chiang Mai is freaking incredible.
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u/Patricia_Bateman Jun 09 '14
Are you going to volunteer at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai? I just got back from there last month. I can't wait to go back.
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u/flamingflipflop Jun 11 '14
this one? http://www.volunteerthailand.org/projects/elephant-camp/
or this one? http://www.globalvolunteernetwork.org/thailand/
They are both in Chiang Mai. If you actually used one of those organizations i would love a review of what you liked that most and disliked the most of the actual organization.
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u/Patricia_Bateman Jun 11 '14
It was this one: http://www.saveelephant.org
I can't speak to the two places that you linked, but the Save Elephant Foundation is doing amazing work and it was an incredible experience. I loved every minute that I had there, and my only dislike was the lack of A/C in the sleeping quarters, but that's just me being a princess.
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Jun 09 '14
I have been donating to WWF for a while now, around a year. It's a wonderful charity, I highly recommend everyone does it! For your donation, you get a certificate, information on the animal you're adopting, newsletters... and of course an adorable toy. :) http://imgur.com/sufw9Fn
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u/turtlechef Jun 10 '14
I absolutely love the fact that you're utilizing this sub to help the elephants. You know what, I'm going to donate to support this cause.
EDIT: Done. 30 bucks to the cause!
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u/kataish Jun 09 '14
I love this. Thank you for doing this. Must wait until pay day but I am definitely in.
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u/seasicksquid Jun 09 '14
I will be fostering an elephant! I'll send confirmation when I get a chance to pick an elephant and do everything! I love to see how many locals are doing the work in the videos, too! It seems like it not only supports the elephants, but also the local economy and people. I dig.
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u/CoolMachine Jun 10 '14
Hooray! Best idea ever, in the whole world!!!
I am donating to the African Wildlife Foundation, which has a 4-star Charity Navigator rating. I am earmarking the donation for their Zambezi Elephant Conservation project. They have lots of other elephant and non-elephant initiatives, I hope you check 'em out :-)
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u/holdenwook Jun 10 '14
You're the best! AWF is one of the places I have donated to in the past. They do amazing things!
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u/takerone Jul 08 '14 edited Jul 08 '14
Not exactly a baby elephant, but here's this article about an elephant being rescued after 50 years of abuse.
And the organization which made this possible is of course accepting donations. I checked, they are not on the list in the sidebar, maybe put them on. http://www.wildlifesos.org/
Edit: I already have a golden elephant trophy, so just to set a good example... :-)
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u/xtfftc Jun 09 '14
Does anyone know if there's a foundation that I can donate to using Bitcoin or some other alternative method? I would rather avoid Paypal and the likes of it if I could.
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u/PatBabyParty Jun 09 '14
You are a fucking wonderful human being. I get paid Friday and can't wait to give back some, thank you for doing this.
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u/miraj753 Jun 14 '14
Just donated to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Fund!
So happy to be doing something to help :) :) :)
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u/myfirstnameisdanger Jul 27 '14
I come to this subreddit when I'm sad and I think I'm going to donate money to elephant charities to feel better. I just gave to Save the Elephants in honor of the elephant I adopted and I hope she somehow knows that I love her.
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u/hairheads3 Jun 09 '14
This is a great idea. I donate to quite a few animal charity organizations but I am always afraid of being scammed so I checked out the tax return and visited and volunteered at all the local charities I donate to - just to be sure. Obviously I can't due that sort of checking with a foreign charity. So, I would appreciate it if anyone has experience with any of the charities listed above. It would be awesome if anyone had actually visited an elephant sanctuary to give me some first hand knowledge. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
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Jun 09 '14
What a lovely idea, I'm definitely going to donate! Pretty broke right now, but I'll give what I can!
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u/queenatstormsend Jun 10 '14
I will donate on payday! Thank you so much for setting this up. Elephants are such beautiful animals, and this sub makes me smile every single day.
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u/latinluzy Jun 11 '14
Just saw this today and thought of how intelligent they are Watch "Elephant plays a friendly game of catch" on YouTube Elephant plays a friendly game of catch: http://youtu.be/ckPMuyD1QTw
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u/YoloCowboy Jun 09 '14
I just fostered a baby female named Kamok as a gift to my SO of 4 years. They do a really great thing for these babies.
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u/totes_meta_bot Aug 12 '14
This thread has been linked to from elsewhere on reddit.
- [/r/conservation] Today is World Elephant Day. Help these beautiful, intelligent creatures escape extinction.
If you follow any of the above links, respect the rules of reddit and don't vote or comment. Questions? Abuse? Message me here.
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Jun 09 '14 edited May 14 '23
[deleted]
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u/holdenwook Jun 09 '14
I always thought african elephants were far off from extinction
They are in better standing overall than Asian elephants, but they are still considered a vulnerable (VU) species by the IUCN.
actually being pests in some area
You're not wrong, but this is not the result of a soaring elephant population. This is a result of increasing loss of habitat for African elephants. When their former ranges become agricultural or heavily populated, they are forced to forage for what they can, and this puts them at odds with humans.
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u/sebzilla Jun 09 '14 edited May 15 '17
deleted What is this?