Neither in Botswana nor Zimbabwe. The country that is breaking the mold when it comes to protecting African elephants is Spain. More specifically, Penagos, a municipality in Cantabria. Cabárceno Natural Park is located here; Cantur is a public community area and, in a sense, is somewhere between a normal zoo and a natural park. And there, on 750 hectares of land occupied by a former open-pit mining operation, a miracle occurred: a worldwide milestone in the captive breeding of this large threatened species.

So much so that the Government boasts of its leadership in an area that apparently has nothing to do with Cantabria: elephant breeding.

“We broke the statistics”. The comment comes from Santiago Borragán, the park’s veterinary services coordinator, who shared some of the keys to Cabárceno’s success a few days ago. Impressed by the Cantabrian region’s pachyderm breeding numbers, he also did this for the CNN network. “Let’s say we completely break down the statistics on the difficulty of breeding African elephants in captivity,” he says.

But… What do the numbers say? The Cabárceno park has been particularly successful in breeding this giant pachyderm, often associated with Zimbabwe, Tanzania and especially Botswana, where around 130,000 elephants are believed to live and which recently threatened Germany with sending 20,000 elephants away if it restricted its controlled breeding. hunting. The population figures of Cantabria are, of course, much more modest, but still allow it to stand out on the map of Europe and especially the breeding of these animals in captivity.

Borragán recalls that only a dozen African elephants were born in Europe in 1992, when the first elephants arrived in Cabárceno. The veterinarian emphasizes this “throughout all history.” The Cantabrian park has since destroyed this sign. In March last year, the conservation celebrated the birth of its 23rd specimen, and just a month later its managers welcomed the 24th African elephant born on their premises.

Cantabria, “world leader”. When announcing the birth of this new specimen on April 6 last year, the Cantabrian Government boasted about the community’s achievements in preserving the species. He emphasized that some achievements made him stand out far beyond the borders of Spain and even Europe. “The Cantabrian park is the facility with the largest number of elephants born in captivity in the world and also holds the record for having the largest specimen family of this species outside Africa,” Executive said.

“The 90 kg female calf represents a new milestone in the world leadership of the Cabárceno breeding programme,” he celebrated in his statement, in which the regional government repeatedly emphasized the message of “world leadership in captivity”. reproduction of species. In case there is any doubt, remember that Cabárceno gave birth to 13 second-generation elephants in the park.

Click on the image to go to the tweet.

In Cantabria as in Africa. According to Borragán, the key to this success lies in the functioning of the park and, above all, in how the animals live. All in all, they have an area of ​​approximately 25 hectares, consisting of a natural area, more than 1,000 square meters of stables and a swimming pool with a capacity of more than five million liters of water. The veterinarian assumes that they are benefiting from conditions that have little to do with those they find in controlled environments or other areas where they live in captivity.

“The elephants lived in very small enclosures and slept chained at night. When they arrived at the park, we released them into this 25-hectare area, which is definitely larger than the entire zoo they came from,” Borragán said. . In this new context, experts began to see signs they were not expecting, and the data soon showed that they had hit the nail on the head.

From data… and signals. “They were happy to be free, and we began to observe things that we had not read about in books. Reproduction is a secondary character. If the animal is stressed, overwhelmed, not well-fed, if it cannot develop to its full potential, it is difficult to reproduce, and vice versa, if it can develop to its full potential, it will reward you with reproduction,” he thinks.

The park has also become a collaborator of the European Program for the Conservation of Endangered Species, facilitating exchanges and transfers to other centers to facilitate the breeding of these species and “avoid inbreeding problems”.

“As natural as possible”. “Life in the park develops in the most natural environment possible for the animals living in it. Except for the food provided to them, all other activities are almost entirely driven by freedom and instinct. Almost all of them are triggered by fights and fights during the mating season for control of the females and, of course, the instinct for survival.” Besides, the rest of their senses are just as wild as in their habitat,” Cabárceno emphasizes.

Elephants and much more. Although its success in elephant breeding has made it stand out worldwide, Cabárceno is not only home to these large mammals. There are 132 animal species spread across 750 hectares, and the park participates in more than thirty research projects focusing on endangered species. The list of animals includes species such as capri buffalo, mouflon, Fathom monkey, cheetah, deer, gaur or baboon, among others.

Pictures | Alba L. (Flickr) and Cantabrian Government Communications Office

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