My disclaimer:
I know I don’t cut the elephant stories.
It was Sunday 15th August, a phone call from our De-Snaring Team Leader in Voi alerted us to the fact that a young female elephant had been rescued near the Galana river, about 10 miles from the Sala Gate on the Eastern boundary of Tsavo National Park. She was approximately 1 year old, and had been found all alone in a patch of thick salt-bush bordering the river by some visitors, who happened to spot a small foot poking out. There were no other elephants nearby, but there was a pride of 5 lions not far away. The calf had made a tiny den within the salt bush, where she was hiding. The visitors alerted the KWS personnel at Sala Gate, who got in touch with our Mobile Veterinary Unit, which was soon on the scene, with some of our De-Snaring personnel. The calf was captured, and transported to our Elephant Night Stockades at Voi. She was weak and therefore easily restrained without the need for sedation for the l hour journey, squeezed into the back of the Mobile Veterinary Unit vehicle, to the Elephant Stockades in Voi, where the baby received a rapturous welcome from the other orphans. They surrounded her and comforted her, whilst our De-Snaring Team Leader made the phone call to Nairobi, advising us that the elephant was fragile and weak and should be air-lifted to the Nairobi Nursery, being still milk dependent and orphaned at a difficult age.
A plane was hurriedly scrambled in Nairobi aboard which were all the necessities for an air rescue; three men, the milk, and the circular carrying tarpaulin, headed for Voi, to where the larger Caravan aircraft (on another charter) would be diverted on its return journey to meet them and bring the elephant back to Nairobi. The new orphan arrived in the Nursery at 3 p.m., again without having to be sedated for the flight but instead manually restrained with legs tied.
The calf did not appear to be in a critical condition of emaciation, but had obviously been without a mother for sometime. She was obviously thin, her skin parched rather than supple and cheekbones prominent – always a tell-tale indication of poor physical condition. We estimated the age at about 14 months, since she had no tusks, but was a large calf about the size of Selengai and taller than the other four Nursery inmates. We named her Galana. So far there is no news of what became of her mother and her elephant family but one thing we learnt later from a tour Operator who had also seen her earlier than the visitors, and that was that a pride of 15 lions were also close by, so she is very lucky to still be alive and could not have lasted much longer! She owes her life to the kind visitors that found her, and took the trouble to report her plight to the authorities.
To read a more detailed report about Galana?s atory along with the photographs of her rescue please click on this link:
http://sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/html/elephant_orphan_profile_GALANA.html
To foster Galana please click on this link:
http://sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/asp/fostering.asp?G=2&N=62