Our Inspiration

Rory Hensman grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe, surrounded by both wild and domestic animals. As a father, he wanted his children to experience nature the same way he did, so he converted one of his agricultural farms into a game reserve. During the culling operations in Zimbabwe, he received two young elephants which, due to their young age, had to be hand-reared. It was during this period that Rory realized how smart and willing to please these animals were. Soon, the Hensman farm became known for its work with elephants and people began bringing orphaned and problem elephants to Rory.

He soon ended up with a herd of twelve elephants on the farm and began to use them to help with simple farm chores such as herding the cattle, checking fence lines and anti-poaching patrols in his game reserve. Rory even trained elephants to track human scent and intended to use them to conduct anti-poaching patrols in the National Parks in the Zambezi Valley in the late 1990’s to help stop poaching of Rhinos (Zimbabwe lost 33,000+ rhino in 18 years). Rory then transferred to tourism, hoping to reach a wide and varied audience and use his elephants as educational ambassadors to teach people about the value of these animals. In 2002, Rory and his family were forced to leave Zimbabwe and they began their elephant operations in South Africa.

In 2003, he started Elephants for Africa Forever, an organization that took in problem elephants due to be culled and instead tamed and trained them to connect with humans to educate and inspire people to think more about elephants and their conservation in a changing Africa. In 2010, Adventures with Elephants, the home base of RHCRU, was established. Sadly, Rory passed in 2013, but his legacy and passion for elephants live on through the Rory Hensman Conservation and Research Unit.

Founded in 2016, the Rory Hensman Conservation and Research Unit continue Rory’s vision of giving value to elephants through education and research efforts. RHCRU focuses on all aspects of elephant research and welfare, believing that the best approach to conservation is a holistic perspective. RHCRU aims to deliver workable solutions to those on the ground directly involved with wildlife and to engage their help in creating intelligent, effective, and simple solutions.

Inspired by the RHCRU story and possessing decades of experience in animal research and community engagement, a team of US-based professionals and scientists formed RHCRU-US in 2020. The intent was to create an entity within which passionate individuals and companies could continue the original vision of Rory Hensman through US-based operations. The entirety of the RHCRU-US Board of Directors has worked closely with RHCRU and AWE for years and is excited to now engage with an international audience to promote the vision of
a Southern Africa where people value living in cooperation with wildlife!