Grazing at a Wildlife Fund-Raiser : Morton’s Caters Benefit for Tanzania Game Reserve

Few parties have animal mascots. But this being Los Angeles, and Los Angeles being what it is, a baby elephant named Malaika was the unofficial mascot at a fund-raiser for the Mkomazi Game Reserve Sunday night.

The 3-year-old African elephant (courtesy of Animal Actors of Hollywood) dined on hay as guests ate smoked salmon hors d’oeuvres passed on trays by white-jacketed waiters at Morton’s, where the elite eat. She was oblivious to the flashbulbs of the paparazzi who waited to catch Ali MacGraw, David Niven Jr., Kennedy progeny Anthony Shriver, director Bob Rafelson, cosmetics purveyor Gale Hayman, former senator John Tunney, sculptor Robert Graham and others as they de-BMW’d.

The $175-per-person dinner was to drum up support for Mkomazi, a 1,300-square-mile game reserve in northern Tanzania, bordering Kenya. Tony Fitzjohn and George Adamson (the latter the inspiration for “Born Free”) have been a team since the mid-1970s, avid conservationists living in Kenya who now want to rehabilitate land that’s been ravaged by overgrazing from livestock, as well as protect endangered species.

Their first priorities are increasing the populations of the African wild dog and the cheetah by species re-introduction. Fitzjohn and companion Kim Ellis are making the rounds at parties and interviews in major cities around the country, trying to raise the $500,000 they say it will take to restore the land and repopulate the animals.

Fitzjohn spoke calmly but forcefully of the destruction of the animals and the land. “The tragedy of the last decade--there has been no comparison,” he said, as elephants and rhinos have been brutally killed “for living room clutter. I do what I do because I love these animals, and I believe they need to be perpetuated. They are a treasure that must be saved for future generations.”

‘Tremendous Response’

Lord Antony Rufus Isaacs, president of the Tony Fitzjohn/George Adamson African Wildlife Preservation Trust, said he had received a “tremendous response” to his plea for help. “People are always very committed to wildlife,” said Isaacs, who is also a film and television producer.

“Unless you look after the planet you’re not going to get anywhere,” he said. “Some 70,000 elephants are killed every year, and (their hides and tusks) are coming to America illegally. I first went to Africa in ’58 when I was very young, and I’ve been back many, many times. You become very conscious of the decline.”

As the sun set and Malaika the elephant reclined on the red brick patio, guests sat down to dinner (grilled chicken or steamed vegetables, a nod to diet-conscious vegetarians) and a short video about the reserve put together by Ellis, associate director of Mkomazi.

Ali MacGraw, chairman of the Wildlife Preservation Trust, then made her pitch.

“I’ve been given the blunt job of asking you all for money,” she said. “This is not a rare, far-away little game reserve. (What’s happening to the animals is symbolic) of the whole way we’ve been treating this planet. If we let the elephant and the rhino and the cheetah die off, we would alter life on this planet forever. It’s essential not to wear fur coats and ivory, but we’ve got to do more than that.”

And although she apologized once again for being so “gauche” about her request, it didn’t fall on deaf ears--at least $100,000 was netted (Morton’s owner Peter Morton donated the dinner).

Sometimes it pays to be gauche.