Please help the elephant
sad
NARRIPI
There is a place, near the Tanzanian border, where the Maasai tribesmen have dug
a shallow well to water their herds. It is known as “Narripi” which in the Maa
dialect means “Male Guide” In the early morning of 29th August 2005, when a
Maasai Warrior who is, indeed, a male guide, happened to be passing, and spotted
a tiny elephant calf trapped deep inside the hole. The ground around the hole
was well and truly churned up, indicative of the herds’ desperate attempts to
haul the baby out, but in the end, fearful of humans, they had to leave,
abandoning all hope of being able to save this very precious new member of the
family, who was just 3 weeks old. It was evident too that the hyenas had also
found the trapped baby, and bit off the end of his trunk, as it waved helplessly
in the air searching for help and his mother.
The Warrior then walked to the Amboseli Park Headquarters, where he reported the
fact to both the Amboseli research unit and also to the Kenya Wildlife Trust
Amboseli Park authorities. The calf was extracted from the hole and then left in
the area under observation in the hope that his family would return. By
nightfall he was taken back to the safety of the National Park headquarters, but
it was too dark for the rescue aircraft to leave Nairobi’s Wilson Airport, so
the Warden, who had phoned us, was advised how to proceed for the night and to
let us know first thing in the morning if the calf was still alive. He said that
the baby was very weak and exhausted so we told him to put a blanket over it to
keep it warm, to have someone in physical contact with it throughout the night
and to feed it water, but no milk, and as much water or rehydration fluid that
it would take. On his own initiative, he also had a small charcoal brazier
burning nearby to heat the room, which was very thoughtful, for the cold season
is still upon us and the snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro are not far off.
Sure enough, at first light the phone call came telling us that the calf had
survived the night, that it had taken water and was a good deal stronger. He
asked that it be named “Narripi” so that it would grow up to indeed become, a
“Male Guide” amongst its peers.
The rescue plane set off immediately, and by 9.30 a.m. on the 30th August,
little “Narripi” arrived at the elephant Nursery, having been fed a bottle of
weak milk mixture by our Keepers before leaving Amboseli. Upon arrival, he was
given all the homeopathic pillules for his injuries and his trauma, and soon
afterwards, the Vet arrived to administer the injectible antibiotic which
hopefully will stave off both pneumonia and septicaemia.
Although in good body shape, this poor little baby’s trunk is in a mess, the
entire tip missing with deep bites further up as well so the pain of this wound
will be intense and inhibit feeding, since a newborn elephant’s trunk has to
feel comfortable against the body of the mother before it will suckle – in our
case, a hung blanket, or the Keepers cheek or elbow. It will obviously be too
tender to be able to do this. Being a mud victim, he will be at risk from the
dreaded pneumonia and, of course, having eaten copious quantities of mud and
dirty water, we can expect a battle with his tummy as well. However, he is too
young to feel fear, or to grieve deeply for his lost elephant family, since the
hind side of his ears is still as soft as a petal, and the delicate pink of a
newborn. His eyes have needed attention as well, being caked in mud, and
possibly later dead tissue will have to be cut away under local anaesthesia. All
this presents us with the usual tough emotional challenge, but we will do our
utmost to save the life of this little bull “guide” named “Narripi”, who owes
his life to the compassion of a Maasai Warrior, who, instead of walking away,
walked 10 miles on foot to alert the Amboseli authorities of his presence.
To view the photographs from Narripi’s rescue please click on this link:
see the poor elephant!