Elephants weighing 25 tonnes to be flown from Kent to Kenya in world first

A herd of elephants living in a Kent zoo are to be flown more than 7,000 miles on a Boeing 747 to Kenya in a world-first rewilding project.

The breeding group of 13 elephants, including three calves, weigh 25 tonnes in total. Most of them were raised on an 8-acre enclosure at Howletts Wild Animal Park near Canterbury.

Conservation charity the Aspinall Foundation, which will work with the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and Kenya Wildlife Services to return the herd to their ancestral homelands, says it believes “these animals belong in the wild, and that no elephants belong in captivity.”