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Four
more Nursery Orphans ready to begin their next adventure having
completed their infancy in our little Nairobi Orphaned Elephant
Nursery. Seeing them as they are today, it is difficult to
recall them as they were when they came in - Thoma,
a tiny battered and beaten baby of just two months old, victim
of her herd having strayed into human croplands, and the
pathetic recipient of tribal anger - Burra,
tragically wounded, emaciated and starving, a 6 month old victim
of the brutal bushmeat trade, found snared by a steel cable that
was so tight around his neck that it had cut a deep groove into
his back, sliced one ear almost into two separate halves and so
constricted his throat that he had been unable to suckle his
mother. He came to us in the back of the lorry that
had transported Mweya and Sweet Sally to Tsavo, more dead than
alive with horrendous injuries that were sceptic, suppurating
and stinking.  Then, Sosian,
a calf of just over two years old with tiny tusks, who arrived
at nightfall sedated by plane from Sosian Ranch in Laikipia,
where he had been hobbled and held for some time, probably
destined for training as a lucrative riding elephant, but spared
because K.W.S. refused his captors the permission they sought.
Having regained consciousness, he wanted just one thing - to
kill every human in sight (and was quite capable of doing so),
his feet swollen and painful, his hatred of humans very plain.
Little Solango
was too young to harbour any hatred when he was helicoptered in,
happy only to have been saved from the deep water filled chasm
in which he would have drowned had he not had another dead calf
upon which to stand. This happened in far away Shaba and it was
the same rock chasm that claimed Seraa a few days before.
Today,
all are plump, happy, healthy babies, who love the human family
that replaced their lost elephant one with deeply demonstrative
affection, as they are poised on the brink of a new and natural
life where they rightly belong, amongst the wild elephant
population of Kenya's greatest "Elephant Park" - Tsavo
East. Today Thoma is 15 months old, Burra 16 months,
Solango 14 months and Sosian a large over 2 year old.
 Two
large Safari Trucks were needed for this translocation from the
Nursery, mainly because of the size of Sosian and the fact that
elephants suffer from claustrophobia when crowded.
As always, the vehicles were parked against the Loading Ramp at
the Nursery for several days prior to departure, and within a
day or two, all but Burra were comfortable going in with their
Keepers to take their milk. However, Burra would
have none of it. Obviously, he could recall his
journey up as a painful and unpleasant ordeal that he associated
with the truck. Nothing, (not even his bottle of
milk) could persuade him to go in!
Monday
9th December was departure date and as always, the
action started early at 5.30 a.m., the excitement of the Keepers
transmitted to their charges, who all began to bellow.
Mpala, Seraa and little Wendi were left in their Night Stables
whilst the others were taken for loading, and they objected
strongly, Mpala trying to scale the stable door in a desperate
attempt to be a part of the action. Seraa bellowed
loudly, sensing that things were remiss and little Wendi, now
just over 2 months old, was too young to comprehend, and apart
from two little ears out like saucers, was happy sucking her
blanket. |
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 Roy
Carr-Hartley, the father of Daphne's son-in-law Robert, who is a
seasoned Wild Animal Trapper and Handler was on hand to give
Burra the shove he needed to propel him into the back of
the truck once Solango was safely ensconced inside. Thoma and Sosian went into the second truck, and then the back
doors could be closed, before the Keepers climbed in up a small
ladder at the front end to take their position on the elevated
seats in the front of the elephants in order to be with them for
the 200 mile journey. Then the trucks moved slowly off -
always an emotional moment for those of us left behind, both
human and elephant.
We
knew that Mweya and Sweet Sally would be at the other end to
welcome Thoma and Solango, whom they would remember from their
Nursery days. Sosian and Burra who were orphaned old
enough to remember their elephant family clearly would be
delighted to be reunited into a veritable herd again. Matriarch Emily and Nannie Aitong, would welcome the
newcomers gladly, as always, and all the other females as
aspiring smaller "mothers" would similarly be
overjoyed to receive more babies into the Orphaned Family. The little boys would have two newcomers to spar and test their
dominance against, whilst Burra and Sosian would be able to
reinforce each other. Hence, our concerns turned
mainly to Seraa and Mpala, because they would feel the absence
of their friends sorely, and think that they had lost yet
another elephant family.
That
morning, out in the bush, Seraa and Mpala cried a great deal as
they searched for the others. Then, the presence of
little Wendi proved a welcome diversion, especially for Seraa,
who adores the baby, and was delighted to become a tiny
"mother". (We had deliberately been
keeping Wendi away from Thoma and Seraa, because we did not want
Thoma to become too fond of the baby before moving, and we
wanted to be able to give Seraa this tiny miracle when Thoma
left.) Mpala, who is a self sufficient character and
as a bull, not as maternal, is happy to cling to his Keepers in
the absence of his male friends. That night, our
three remaining orphans were put in stables next door to one
another and they settled well, but the following morning there
was more "crying" from Seraa, mainly because it was
too cold and wet for Wendi to be able to be out with her.
However, once the weather had cleared and Wendi could join her,
all was well. Today, the third day, has been quiet
and more relaxed.
At
the other end, the trucks arrived at The Elephant Stockades in
Tsavo by 11.30 a.m. and as soon as the four newcomers were
unloaded, Mweya, Sweet Sally and the other junior set rushed up
to greet them. The reunion between Mweya, Sally,
Thoma and Solango was extremely touching and joyful.
There was absolutely no doubt that they recognized each other
instantly, having been in the Nursery together and they were
delighted to be together again. Sally rushed around
trumpeting shrilly whilst Mweya fondled Thoma lovingly.
Sosian and Burra were, of course, strangers to Mweya and Sally,
so they busied themselves exploring their new surroundings and
all the exciting elephant smells around them. Then,
the older orphans, led by Emily and Aitong, arrived in a rush,
and warmly welcomed the four newcomers into the fold, receiving
them with gentleness and tenderness to make them feel
"belonging". Welcoming new babies into the
Orphaned Family has become a common occurrence for Emily and
Aitong, so the welcomes lack the wild exuberance of earlier
days, but the excitement is still intense and the joy tangible.
 Having
been orphaned at an age when they could recall their elephant
family, Burra and Sosian were overjoyed to find themselves in a
herd of older elephants again. Burra, especially,
wanted to be amongst the older set, repeatedly leaving Mweya's
"Baby Group" to join the larger orphans, and
repeatedly escorted back to the baby set by Emily, who obviously
was convinced that is where he should be for now!
That
night, it was Solango who cried a lot throughout the night, but
the next morning, he forgot his anguish, and was very much part
of the gang as all the orphans happily left their Night
Stockades for another day of adventures out in the wild expanse
of Tsavo, overseen by Emily and Aitong and surrounded by the
compassion of so many large female elephant hearts.
Now their reintegration back into the wild system is set to
begin, and with every passing day, there will be encounters with
other wild animals, and with the resident wild elephant herds of
that great Park. They will be accompanied, not only
by a herd of elephants, but also their Keepers, who are there
for them until they are sufficiently confident to live life
without them. Their genetic memory will now become
exercised, their wild instincts honed by exposure to Nature and
a wild system. Their fragile Nursery period is over,
and now begins another life - a life filled with promise, but
still fraught due to a burgeoning human population that makes
more and more demands on space and an International Convention
of bureaucrats called CITES, who have sanctioned the easing of
the ban on the trading of their ivory teeth.
However, the future of our orphans is interlocked with that of
the wild community, but they, and we, would not want it any
other way. Elephants need s p a c e and they need
each other for they can never be truly happy without these two
vital ingredients.
Tsavo
is lush and green after rain that has been abundant, so at the
moment both food and water are plentiful. The Tsavo
mudbath currently is more than the muddy patch of the Nursery.
It is a bountiful rain-filled natural waterhole where an
elephant can submerge itself to cool off and bathe with just the
tip of a trunk showing above the surface. Our
Nursery elephants will feel the heat to begin with and will have
to become accustomed to a very different way of life, learning
how to cope with Tsavo's arid terrain as the tough dry season
replaces the season of plenty. But, there they will
have the space they need, and a large and loving elephant
family, as well as a human family when in need.
Right now it is the festive elephant season when socializing and
happiness over-ride the serious business of survival.
For
Burra, there is the chance of perhaps becoming reunited with his
natural elephant mother and family again, because he originates
from the Tsavo population. What a joy that would be.
He will recognise his mother and she will undoubtedly know her
child - the child she so trustingly allowed humans to take
without interference when he was near death, understanding that
in so doing, lay his only chance of survival. Should this
reunion ever take place, it would make his human family very
proud and happy to have been able to play a part in it, for what
began as a heartbreaking elephant tragedy would finally end in a
joyful reunion between mother and son!
It is
rewarding for us to have been able to be a player in this
ongoing elephant saga and the foster-parents of our orphans who
through their support have enabled us to heal and return four
more elephant orphans and offer them a second chance of a
natural and normal life, must also feel that they
truly have made a difference, a difference we could not have
made without their help. |
