Keepers' Diaries, March 2013

Nairobi Nursery Unit

Four more elephant Rescues during the month - first a yearling female named “Laragai” from Borana Ranch in Laikipia, first seen alone on the 28th February, and flown to the Nursery on the 2nd March. Next came the yearling bull named “Danissa” from Galana Ranch on the 12th, who had to be on intravenous life support for the flight. He was too far gone for us to be able to retrieve, and developed uncontrolled diarrheoa with no reserves left to cope. He died during the early hours of the morning of the 15th. The third newcomer was another “albino” Amboseli calf, obviously fathered by the same Albino Big Bull as Faraja. He was named “Jasiri” (the Swahili word for “brave”) and was born in December 2011 to “Jemima”, the Matriarch of the Researchers JB Study Group who was found dead in December 2012, suspected to have been gunned down by poachers. “Jasiri” was flown to the Nursery on the 27th, the first albino calf documented in Amboseli during their 40 years of study, older than Faraja but probably fathered by the same albino Bull. He had not been seen since the death of his mother, and being a milk dependent candidate, was presumed dead, so the Amboseli Researchers were amazed to suddenly come across him again 3 months later, much enfeebled due to milk deprivation, alone but still alive. (Jemima’s daughter, Jalila, and grand daughter, Jasiri’s age-mate have never been seen again.) The fourth rescue was on the 29th - a tiny calf just days old from the Imenti Forest found abandoned near a waterhole, the previous day, and held overnight at the Meru Park Headquarters where, unfortunately, he had been fed cows’ milk overnight, which is death to baby elephants. Having been rescued by a member of the Orma tribe, he was named “Bosha” meaning “God’s Creation” in the Orma dialect, but the survival of this tiny calf hangs in the balance.