I hate people as the people who speared this calf most likely killed his parents as well..
Go to the website: http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/html/july212004.html
and read the whole story and adopt an Elephant!
At around 11 a.m. on the 21st July we were alerted of an orphaned young elephant calf suffering from spear wounds in Amboseli National Park. The l8 month old baby bull calf had been seen fleeing from hyena who was circling him, and calling for others that would have undoubtedly killed him had an old bull buffalo not emerged from the Pelican swamp to chase the hyena off and save his life. Thereafter the young elephant sought shelter deep in the swamp, and that is where he was when the Rescue Plane landed, and our three elephant Keepers, (Julius, Patrick and Dismas) came to fetch him and bring him to the safety of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Nairobi Elephant Nursery in Nairobi.
On that day, it was the Keepers that proved their courage. Without hesitation they waded in where angels fear to tread in order to reach the calf.; shoulder deep into the Pelican Swamp which is also home to hippos and crocs It was 40 minutes before they managed to get him out, and once on dry land, he took to his heels, scattering herds of grazing herbivores at the swamp edge. By this time our Mobile Veterinary Unit (funded by the Austrian NGO Vier Pfoten) had arrived and Dr. David Ndeerah managed to fire a dart into the fleeing elephant, which brought him to a halt within 4 minutes. As the drug took affect, and he was going down, the circular elephant rescue tarpaulin was gently eased beneath him and once his wounds had been cleaned, and a long-acting antibiotic administered, he was loaded into a pickup truck and taken to the Chartered Caravan plane that was waiting at the Airstrip to bring him to the Trust’s Nairobi Elephant Nursery.
The flight to Nairobi lasted 35 minutes, and by 6 p.m. the drugged elephant was safely inside the Stockade that had been prepared for him. He was immediately revived, and given a sedative before waking up, since we expected an elephant of his age to prove a handful, quite capable of crushing a man, and with no reason whatsoever to feel kindly towards humans. Whilst still drowsy he took some milk, but when the affects of the sedative wore off, he wanted to kill all in sight. The presence of the other orphans who were brought along to meet him visibly calmed him, and by the next morning he was sufficiently docile to take food and homeopathic remedies from an extended hand, though not yet sufficiently calm to clean out his very sceptic wounds again. He was thin, so had obviously been without his mother and milk for at least l0 days; had been subjected to untold stress, probably having to remain overnight in the swamp to evade the hyenas. With a background like this, we feared the onset of the dreaded pneumonia, and sure enough, in the morning of 23rd, he was unable to get up, his legs rigid and the tip of his trunk damp. (Elephants cannot cough and by the time fluid comes from the trunk, they are usually too far gone to save).
Dieter Rottcher, our Nairobi Veterinarian was summonsed, but by now the calf was in a coma, his breathing very laboured and sporadic, fluid coming from both the trunk and the mouth. Dieter feared that deep-seated septicaemia had also set in and we all knew deep in our hearts that there was little hope of being able to save this baby. Nevertheless, we gave it our best shot. Little Ol Tukai, as he had been named to signify his Amboseli origin, died at 2 p.m. the 23rd July.
Most Sincerely,
Dr. Daphne Sheldrick M.B.E.
http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org