Has fully embraced his wild life in Tsavo East National Park
Current age
36 years old
Gender
Male
Rescued date
15 October 1988
Rescue location
Tsavo Ecosystem, Taita Ranches
Date of birth (estimate)
1 August 1988
Reason orphaned
Poaching
Age at rescue
2 months old (approx)
Current location
Living Wild
During this process, the herd ran into a hail of gunfire from armed Somali poachers, who at that period of time, were involved in perpetrating the wholesale slaughter of elephants for their Ivory, an elephant holocaust that reduced the Tsavo ecosystem’s elephant population from 45,000 (utilizing a home range double the size of the Park, i.e. 16,000 square miles) to just 5 – 6,000 terrified and traumatised survivors.
This terrible tragedy that overtook the elephants during 3 decades of rampant and uncontrolled poaching, was mirrored in the demeanor of the calf we named Dika. He became an orphan when just 3 months old, and arrived in the Nairobi Nursery more like a porcupine than an elephant, his skin pierced by countless protruding long Acacia thorns. This was indicative of the fact that the herd had been stampeded through an Acacia thicket, and he had obviously tried to follow his mother through this thorny barrier. She lay dead within this thicket, one of several elephants from that herd that died in a hail of bullets on that fateful day that left Dika an orphan.
During this process, the herd ran into a hail of gunfire from armed Somali poachers, who at that period of time, were involved in perpetrating the wholesale slaughter of elephants for their Ivory, an elephant holocaust that reduced the Tsavo ecosystem’s elephant population from 45,000 (utilizing a home range double the size of the Park, i.e. 16,000 square miles) to just 5 – 6,000 terrified and traumatised survivors.
View diary updates from across all our orphan units as written by the Keepers
Sagala was found alone on the vast plains of Southern Tsavo during the height of the drought by our Works Manager on a routine inspection of our boreholes in September 2017. Severely malnourished and with a pride of lions nearby, our field teams immediately coordinated their activities to bring this calf to safety before it was too late and she succumbed to starvation or was made a meal of.
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