Shannon Elizabeth Foundation, Los Angeles, CA (2026)

Conserving habitat and biodiversity through community partnerships, education & sustainable opportunity.

09/07/2026

Today, we’re celebrating the woman who started it all.

A woman whose life is dedicated to protecting wildlife, showing up for animals, and advocating for them wherever she can.

Shannon leads with her heart as much as her head, bringing compassion, determination, and an unwavering belief that every animal deserves a second chance to everything she does.

That belief is at the heart of the Shannon Elizabeth Foundation. It inspires us to create safe places for wildlife, support the people working tirelessly to protect them, and give a voice to the animals who cannot speak for themselves.

From Munu, the first to call our sanctuary home, to rangers working every day to protect wildlife in the field, Shannon’s heart is in all of it.

But today isn’t just about the work. It’s about celebrating Shannon, her incredible heart, her passion, her kindness, and the difference she continues to make through her dedication to animals and the natural world.

We wish our founder, Shannon Elizabeth, a very happy birthday filled with joy, love, and all the happiness she deserves. 💐

Thank you, Shannon, for continuing to turn compassion into action and for inspiring all of us to do more for the animals who need us most.

Please join us in wishing Shannon a very happy birthday in the comments below. 👇

09/04/2026

🦂 Sometimes, the smallest creatures have the most fascinating stories.

The Sideclaw Burrowing Scorpion is one of those species. From building its own underground home to its unusual courtship dance, there is so much to discover about this fascinating little creature.

And this is why learning about wildlife, however small, unfamiliar, or unexpected, matters. There are countless fascinating facts waiting to be discovered, from the way scorpions use digestive enzymes to break down their prey before consuming it, to the incredible adaptations that help them survive in their environment.

Every species is part of the natural world, whether we notice it or not. Conservation isn't only about protecting the animals we already know and love. It's also about understanding the incredible diversity of life around us, including the species that may initially make us look twice.

Being a little afraid of wildlife isn't necessarily a bad thing, either. A healthy respect reminds us to give wild animals the space they need. A scorpion may sting if it feels threatened, but that is simply its way of protecting itself.

Want to follow along with our Wildlife Wonders series? Sign up for the SEF newsletter and discover more species with us, one at a time:

👉 https://bit.ly/SEF_Newsletter

08/28/2026

🦌 Something new is coming to your feed.

Welcome to Wildlife Wonders, our new weekly series exploring the incredible animals around us, including the species that call Khusela home.

And we're starting with the Nyala. 🌿 There's more to this striking antelope than meets the eye.

There is much to discover when we take the time to look beyond what we already know about the animals we share this world with. How they live, how they interact with their surroundings, and the little details that make each species unique; every animal has a story worth knowing.

For instance, the first slide is a male, while the remaining slides feature females and young. The visual differences are remarkable! You could almost mistake them for separate species. 🦌
This is known as sexual dimorphism, which exists across a wide variety of species!

👀 Can you guess what animal we'll be discovering next?
Or better yet: what animal would YOU like to see featured? Tell us in the comments! 👇

Curious to know more? 🦌 Each week's Wildlife Wonder gets its own deeper dive in our newsletter, because there is always more to discover than we can fit into a carousel.

📩 Sign up through the link in our bio, or here: https://bit.ly/SEF_Newsletter

One animal. One story. One more reason to care. 🌍

08/12/2026

Every August 12, people around the world pause to mark World Elephant Day, a day founded in 2012 to bring attention to what elephants face: poaching, the ivory trade, shrinking habitat, and the conflict that comes with it. It's a day of awareness. But awareness on its own has never been enough.

Elephant herds are led by a matriarch, usually the oldest female, who carries decades of memory on where to find water, food, and safety, and passes that knowledge down through generations. They communicate through rumbles too low for us to hear, felt more than heard, traveling for miles between family members out of sight of each other. They grieve. They return to the bones of herd members who have died and touch them gently with their trunks, a behavior we still don't fully understand. And they shape entire landscapes just by moving through them, opening paths, carrying seeds, and creating the waterholes that other species depend on.

But this day carries something more personal for our founder, Shannon Elizabeth.

It started with a video on Instagram. A ranger, scanning the field, his voice quiet and heartbroken: "This poor baby's been out here all night suffering." And then you see it, a trunk, off to the side, an elephant face, barely visible. And then...
she moves.

That was the moment Shannon couldn't unsee, and couldn't unfeel. It led her to South Africa. It led her to build something real on the ground, not just give from a distance. And eventually, it led her to Munu, a connection that became the inspiration for founding her sanctuary.

Some African elephant species are now considered threatened. For instance, savanna elephant numbers have fallen an estimated 60 to 70 percent over the last fifty years. Those aren't distant statistics to us. They're the reason this foundation exists, and the reason the work continues long after the hashtags fade.

Every animal leaves an imprint. That's what keeps us going, today and every day.

Swipe through for a closer look at the giants who shape the world around them. 🐘

08/09/2026

Every year on August 9, South Africa marks National Women's Day, honoring the women who marched on the Union Buildings in 1956 and the generations who've carried that spirit forward since. This year, we wanted to celebrate it by turning the spotlight on some of the women who make SEF's work in conservation possible.

Four different paths, one shared commitment to protecting wildlife in South Africa. To them, and to every woman doing this work often without recognition, we see you, and we're proud to stand alongside you.

SHANNON ELIZABETH, our founder, whose encounter with a video of a poached elephant on Instagram became a defining moment, inspiring a lifelong commitment to wildlife conservation. Since founding SEF in 2018, she has supported ranger teams and anti-poaching efforts, championed conservation research, and established the Khusela Endangered Wildlife Sanctuary in the Eastern Cape.

Dr. Marietta Hopley, one of our trustees, brings a background in business governance, community engagement, and strategic fundraising, shaped by co-owning three South African businesses, a global board directorship, and her service in the South African Air Force leading large-scale public-private partnerships. That experience now guides how she steers SEF's community initiatives and sanctuary expansion in the Eastern Cape, all in service of a simple goal: leaving a better world behind for her daughter, Mia-Rae, and the generations after her.

Dr. Jana Pretorius, a long-time advisor to SEF, has spent over 15 years as a wildlife veterinarian, leading rhino capture and relocation efforts across Southern Africa and representing the South African Veterinary Council at the National Rhino Summit. She continues to focus on rhino rehabilitation, while expanding her impact into plasma arc technology, turning waste into energy, to help create a cleaner world while generating sustainable funding for conservation.

Merlyn Nomsa Nkomo, supported by SEF and One Woman's Legacy, is completing her PhD this year after presenting her research internationally and winning best presentation at the Oppenheimer Research C

06/28/2026

Tonight is the night! 🦏

The 2nd Annual Rhino Rumble Poker Championship is here, and we could not be more excited to bring this community together for one incredible evening.

5 hours to go, and the silent auction closes tonight. This is your last chance to bid on some truly amazing experiences and one-of-a-kind items, all in support of the animals that need us most.

Tickets are still available: link in the Shannon Elizabeth Foundation bio, or grab yours at the door tonight.

We can't wait to have you with us.
Come for poker. Win for wildlife.

📍 The Stirling Club, Las Vegas

Address

Los Angeles, CA
91364

Telephone

+18189321088

Website

https://direct.me/sef

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