Aching muscles all over!

I was at the watch tower when I saw a little Elephant come running towards the waterhole from behind Kocha Tent.

"What is he doing here all by himself", I said. One second later I knew that something is badly wrong for this little guy. He was far too small to be alone out in the wild. It was a male, around three months old, and amazingly strong as I found out 30 minutes later.

There was a group drinking at the waterhole with an old female and lots of other different mixed age and sex - 14 members. The little guy went straight for them, while at this moment the big female was somehow in the middle of the Group. As the little one was coming closer all members of the group put up their trunks and flapped the ears. The nearest member, a 5-6 Year old male, pushed the little one away. The little one didn’t know what to do and would walk a few steps away and back again. Now the big female came quickly walking towards him pushing him off with her tusks, not with her trunk. I was screaming,” hey why are you doing this"? This is when it all got a bit hectic.

While all this was happening, the whole group was always very alert with trunks up and ears out acting as one individual and bunched very close together. And that’s how they left the waterhole - running like they were scared of something. I have never seen anything like it, and I am still wondering what it was all about, that to me was all very strange behavior to such a little elephant.

Now the little elephant was standing alone at the waterhole. I told the Askari to watch him because I went to call David the veterinarian from “vier Pfoten” and KWS but without any luck connecting with them. So I went back towards the Waterhole. In the meantime Dennis the lion guy, had arrived and he was looking to see if there were other elephants around, maybe looking for the little elephant - who now came running towards the Camp.

I knew by then that I had to catch him and take him to Voi to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust stockades.

I had a few waiters standing around and askari, so I said lets go, we're going to catch him" - and then the running began. We went through the Camp and out again where then two guys got hold of him by his tail. Quickly Dennis was there putting his shirt over the baby's head (covering his eyes) and more employees approached to help to hold him. I was running off to get the lorry, water, blanket and a mattress, and went back to help the Guys holding this surprisingly very strong little Guy in one place. He was giving it to us with all the power he had in his stumpy little legs and always trying to pull off the shirt from his face with his trunk. I then put my Kikoi around his head and knotted it down, which helped for some time.

After what seemed to me ages, the lorry came. We put some rope around him to pull from the bridge of the lorry, and the rest of the men were pushing and giving it their all from all sides, and he was on the friggen Lorry in no time - where a new fight was going on to get a rope around his legs, so he was laid down on the mattress and covered with a wet blanket. The trip to KWS HQ could start.

I run back to the Office to make more phone calls and got Mr. Maina (KWS) who promised me to get people organised in Voi to wait for the baby elephant so they could do the necessary things.

Then David (vier Pfoten veterinarian) rang, asking "what’s up"? I told him, and he said “don’t worry” we're going be there when he arrives. "Good Man", I said, much relieved to know that all will be under control, whatever that means in Kenya.

Same day in the evening I called David again to find out what has happened to the baby elephant.

He told me "all is fine and the little Guy is already in Nairobi". He was flown out immediately because he was too small to stay in Voi as he needed more care (including regular milk and supplements) provided by the Nairobi Sheldrick Trust.

Interesting story - any news of what happened to the mother elephant?
Baby elephants do not wonder far away from their mothers and they are able to squeel loudly which will be heard by the mother even from far away...!

Thanks, once again, Jan for your immediate posting of this ground-level/in-the-trenches involvement to save this little ele...

Kudos to the Manager and staff at Satao Camp, KWS, the vet, and of course Sheldrick's for sparing no efforts to get this precious being to safety.

In the last year or so, the elephants and other wildlife in Tsavo are falling prey to poachers at an alarming rate (as I suspect the mother of this little elephant was)....where are the stepped up efforts of KWS to monitor and track down the poachers? Where is the international community on the unsustainable loss of these magnificient beings!

Who can foster an international campaign to save this wildlife from extinction?

Cody and Kat: I'm sure all the drivers and guides who daily travel all over Tsavo will be on the alert for a carcass or soaring vultures. As you stated, babies this young don't usually stray far from their mothers. Older orphans will often follow another family who might protect them, but will not feed them. Thus one assumes that the mother's carcass is fairly close by.

I read in the Nation yesterday that cattle are again back in the park. Thus with cattle will be a Somali/
Kenyan or Tanzanian herder. One doesn't know what these herders are doing beside herding their cattle.
Could they be poaching?

Unfortunately, the rumor I've heard is that KWS has no money (since their largest ticket take was from Amboseli and that was given to the Maasai). If indeed money is the problem, it seems a hopeless situation. I'm afraid we will be hearing of more wildlife suffering.

Brilliant rescue, Jan! I too am releived that everyone teamed together in saving the little one. Poor mum... I hope someone is able to find both her and the culprits.

I know Born Free were recently out there on a snare collection - they're certainly pulling their part:

http://bornfree.wildlifedirect.org/2009/02/19/tsavo-bravely-borne/

KWS have plently of rangers, from what I hear... There somehow always seems to be a 'new' reason why they 'don't have very much money right now'.

I certainly hope the cattle invasion will also take a turn... two researchers working in the Tsavo E. / Rukinga region, recently emailed me that they are literally seeing more cattle than elephant herds. These cattle are suspected to come from recent, rather violent, cattle raids in the Samburu area. They were likely stolen.

Clarification: Though this report was written in the first person, I was not a participant. The story was from an email I received this morning from Bobby, the manager of Satao Camp.

Tsavocheetah: Daphne Sheldrick's group has seven desnaring teams in Tsavo and they can't keep on top of all the snares being laid. They do a herculean and thankless (except from us wildlife lovers) job.

Dumb question. If some of these cattle were from cattle raids in Samburu, how did they get all the way south to Tsavo? Are they trucked down there? It would be an approximately 14 hour vehicle drive - 6 hours Tsavo to Nairobi and another 7 - 8 from Nairobi to Samburu. I would doubt they could be driven/
walked that far. Just wondering.