Brett Mitchell: The Man Who Freed the Elephants
Species Unite
elizabeth novogratz
5.0 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"It just makes everything worthwhile with what we did. It just highlights how flexible elephants are and how adaptable they are from captivity to wild, and that when given the chance, they will choose freedom. And they will choose autonomy." - Brett Mitchell
For nearly thirty years, Brett Mitchell has lived alongside elephants — first in captivity, then, eventually, in the wild. His story begins in the mid-1990s, when he managed elephant-back safaris in Zimbabwe and South Africa. But as the captive industry grew more commercialized — and cruel — Brett found himself on the front lines, witnessing wild elephants being taken from their herds and funneled into tourism and entertainment. It was a tipping point.
Instead of accepting that reality, Brett made a decision that no one in South Africa had ever attempted at scale: he would return a full group of long-captive elephants back to the wild.
What followed was a decade-long experiment in patience, trust, and determination. Brett developed a gentle, step-by-step "soft release" process — walking with the elephants each day, letting them choose their waterholes, teaching them how to be wild again, and slowly removing himself from their world until one morning… they simply walked away.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Species. |
| 0:07.0 | Species. |
| 0:09.0 | Unite. |
| 0:10.0 | Unite. |
| 0:11.0 | It just makes everything worthwhile with what we did. |
| 0:18.0 | It just highlights what, how flexible elephants are, how adaptable they are from captivity |
| 0:25.6 | to wild and that when given the chance, they will choose freedom and they will, and they |
| 0:33.1 | choose autonomy. |
| 0:45.5 | Hi, I'm Elizabeth Novogratz. |
| 0:47.0 | This is Species Unite. |
| 0:58.1 | For close to 30 years, Brett Mitchell has lived alongside elephants, first in captivity, |
| 1:04.6 | then eventually in the wild. His story begins in the mid-90s when he managed elephant-backed safaris in Zimbabwe and South Africa. But as the captive industry grew more commercialized |
| 1:10.4 | and more cruel, Brett found himself on the |
| 1:13.3 | front lines, witnessing wild elephants being taken from their herds and funneled into tourism |
| 1:18.9 | and entertainment. It was a tipping point. Instead of accepting that reality, Brett made a decision |
| 1:25.5 | that no one in South Africa had ever attempted at scale. |
| 1:29.6 | He would return a full group of long captive elephants back to the wild. And what followed was a |
| 1:36.4 | decade-long experiment in patience, trust, and a kind of hope that borders unradical. |
| 1:42.8 | Brett developed a gentle, step-by-step, soft-release process, |
| 1:47.1 | walking with the elephants each day, |
| 1:48.9 | letting them choose their waterholes and teaching them how to be wild again, |
| 1:53.4 | and slowly removing himself from their world |
... |
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