On August 18th 2006 the Chyulu desnaring team from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust during a routine patrol, found a five month old elephant calf stuck in the mud of a drying out watering hole. This waterhole is often frequented by elephants in the dry season and therefore very atractive to poachers.
There was indeed a carcass of a female elephant found about ten days before and the assumption is that she was this calf's mother. Although very skinny she had nevertheless remained quite strong. Without putting up much of a resistance she let herself be taken and took to the bottle of rehydration fluids immediately. When she arrived in the nursery she was soon calmed by the influence of the other little orphans who came to welcome her.
The next morning she went out with them as if she had never done anything else. To everyone's amazement she played in the mudbath in front of all the visiting tourists during the open hour at the nursery. This has been one of the easiest rescues in the history of the Trust.
When her swabs came to Amsterdam it was soon clear that she was a very healthy and strong little elephant and she was she was one of the first who could soon be without any medication.
No comments:
Post a Comment