The following is information on the Elephant Orphan named: BURRA  (foster now)

Latest Updates on BURRA:

• 10/19/2008 - Fulfilling a dream
• 4/26/2008 - Update on the Voi Unit Orphans
• 12/23/2007 - Mweiga
• 1/10/2005 - A visit from one of our 'Big Boys' Edo, Echo's nephew.
• 6/18/2003 - SERAA, MPALA & MORANI GRADUATE FROM THE NAIROBI NURSERY
• 8/2/2002 - United Nations Security Council, Mr. Jeremy Greenstock and Burra
• 5/27/2002 - Mweya and Sweet Sally leave the Nursery

View to Location map for BURRA (opens a new window)

Most Recent Keeper's Diary Entry: (view all the latest entries for BURRA)

12/22/2007 - It was a fateful day for the Keepers, who could not hold back their tears upon seeing Mweiga collapse on the way back to the Stockades in the evening. She had a very successful feeding day accompanied by Burra, without showing any noticeable sign of weakness. She took a normal rest under a tree in the afternoon. When she fell, the Keepers thought that her legs must have become entangled in a creeper, so rushed to assist her, but noticed that she was too weak to help herself in getting up. The situation was engulfed in confusion and disbelief for 15 minutes before she died. Burra was watching closely, and returned to the Stockades with the Keepers, before raising his trunk, and running towards the Eastern side of Mazinga Hill where he joined Natumi’s group. He never returned to the Stockades that night.

The Two Latest Photos of BURRA: (view gallery of pictures for BURRA)
 

Burra and Solango approaching the mudwallow photo taken on 10/15/2004	Burra smelling the air photo taken on 5/1/2003

ORPHAN PROFILE FOR: BURRA (foster now)

Zoom / Enlarge There is a migration route, that the elephants have used down millennia, linking the population of Tsavo West to that of Tsavo East National Park, which now passes through dense human settlement and a tribe that has long been prone to setting wire snares to capture whoever passes, caught in a noose around the leg, the neck, the trunk, or whatever part of the body triggers the loop knot concealed on a game path. Burra was caught in a thick steel cable around the neck and behind one ear. The cable bit deep into the tender flesh around his throat, behind the back of his neck, trapping one ear, the noose tightening as his mother pulled him free, leaving him almost throttled, unable to lift his head, unable to feed, but still desperate to, somehow, try and live. His family were en route through the human habitation, desperate to meet up with others in the sanctity of Tsavo East National Park. They never made it, because they were driven back by Helicopter and gunshots, and this eight month old calf was, by now, too weak to keep abreast of his terrified, fleeing family. He fell behind, and it was clear that he had a problem, so those in the Helicopter landed, captured him, and saw the extent of the problem, and the reason for it - a snare that had almost severed three quarters of his ear, cut the back of his neck, and his throat, inhibiting his feeding. He was emaciated, starving and weakened by the time he was found. The snare was removed, though not without difficulty, (and a great deal of pain), and he was taken to the Sheldrick Trust Orphans' Night Stockades in Tsavo East National Park, and later bought up to the Sheldrick Trust nursery in Nairobi National Park.

Please see the resources above for more information on BURRA

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