ORPHAN PROFILE FOR: YATTA (foster now)

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A female calf estimated to have been born towards the end of September 1999 and therefore 1 month old when rescued. This little female calf is a poaching victim, her mother found dead minus her tusks in the Tsavo/Athi triangle of Tsavo East National Park below the Yatta Plateau.

The calf's bellowing was heard by a labour gang working nearby, who went to investigate and came upon her not far the her dead mother. They walked across the Mtito tributary, loaded her onto the back of an old Landrover and drove her across the crocodile infested Athi river to the nearest Airfield at Tsavo Tsafari Camp, from whence she was flown to Nairobi.

For a long time Yatta was troubled by a strange condition that puzzled all the Vets – weakness, periodic stiff joints and sometimes complete collapse. After massive doses of colloidal silver, glands in her neck became inflamed, then subsided, and a huge hard abscess developed on the side of her face, which was unusually not tender to the touch. In time this softened and burst, after which the wound healed cleanly, and her problem vanished! Whilst in the Nursery she also suffered from a sluggish metabolism, as, indeed did Emily when young, so she was moved to Tsavo along with Kinna and Mukwaju in February 2001 following unseasonal rains in January.