Herd of animal puppets treks from Africa to Europe in climate action

KINSHASA: A wildebeest, a gorilla and a giraffe were among the life-size puppets to begin a 20,000-kilometre (12,400-mile) trek across the globe Wednesday from the DR Congo capital, to raise awareness about migration due to climate change.

The animals are part of The Herds project and aim to have crossed around 10 countries between central Africa and the Arctic by August.

Their journey will take them through Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, France and Norway, among other countries.

"This project tries to give the public a powerful emotional sense of what's happening to the planet," project producer David Lan told AFP in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The trek includes "now 20, later 40, later 70 animals from all over west Africa, Morocco, Europe who are travelling to escape from the damage done to their ecosystem," he added.

It is financed by several European countries as well as private foundations.

The puppets are made of mostly recycled materials: cardboard for the skin and rubber for the joints, according to Siphokazi Mpofu, of the South African collective, Ukwanda Puppets, which created the first puppets.

"Some animals will die on the way," due to high humidity for instance, "just like in real life", Mpofu said.

As it travels, the herd will be joined by new puppets representing local species, such as vervet monkeys in Nigeria, wolves and red deer in Europe, and reindeer in Norway.