In the month of Feb we received two unfortunate elephant orphans, one rescued from the Tsavo ecosystem, found on Kulalu Ranch just beyond the Sala Gate.  She was a suspected poaching victim, and had obviously been without Mum for a long time as she was totally emaciated and put up little resistance when Richard Moller and the Voi Elephant Keepers, KWS and Kulalu scouts captured her. 

 

The second calf came from the Mount Elgon region, a tiny new born, petal pink behind the ears with her umbilical cord still very much evident. She had fallen down a cliff face and the herd had tried long and hard to rescue her. The disturbance and panic generated from the herd was noticed by community scouts working in the Kongit area, who later went to rescue the calf once the herd had moved away, and they became aware of the reason for all the commotion. They then returned the calf to where the herd was last seen in a desperate effort to reunite her with her mother and family, but despite a long cold night alone, the herd never came back to retrieve her. The next day she was taken to the KWS authorities who alerted the Trust of the rescue and a rescue plane with the Keepers flew to the Kitale airstrip to collect her. Sadly she had been fed cows milk which meant that from the outset we were unable to get control of her stomach, as baby elephants cannot tolerate the fat of cow’s milk in any shape or form. Sadly despite our best efforts both Kulalu and Kongit, named after the areas they were found, died a couple of days after their arrival at the nursery.