Gender
Female
Rescued date
9 August 2014
Rescue location
Maasai Mara, Mara Triangle
Date of birth (estimate)
6 February 2014
Reason orphaned
Unknown
Age at rescue
6 months old (approx)
Date of passing
19 August 2019
The community found the elephant calf near a boma without her mother and alerted the Mara Elephant Project. The MEP rapid response team then brought her to Kichwa for collection. The flight from Nairobi to the Masai Mara is forty five minutes and the team came well prepared with milk and all the paraphernalia required for transporting the calf efficiently and effectively. In no time she was prepared for the journey to the Nairobi Nursery.
The reason for her being orphaned remains a mystery as a carcass had not been located in this area for over two months, and she could not have possibly survived that time without a mother at just five to six months old as a very much milk dependent calf.
We named her Dupotto after the area where she was found. Once she arrived at the Nairobi Nursery she settled and began feeding well from the outset, and very fortunately did not struggle to assimilate the new milk formula. Her road has been relatively smooth physically, but Dupotto’s scars are emotional ones. She has behaved very strangely, clearly suffering psychologically from events that befell her by being excessively restless and agitated. While she was part of the junior herd she fast became a disruptive member in the group. Then she discovered Embu, rescued four days before, an older orphan of approximately 18 months old who was retrieved from the forested slopes of Mount Kenya on the Embu side of the mountain by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Dupotto immediately became emotionally dependent on Embu, sharing their grief both have been able to impart comfort and understanding to each other. To this day they remain firm friends. Dupotto is settling and her strange restless behavior is now much improved.
The community found the elephant calf near a boma without her mother and alerted the Mara Elephant Project. The MEP rapid response team then brought her to Kichwa for collection. The flight from Nairobi to the Masai Mara is forty five minutes and the team came well prepared with milk and all the paraphernalia required for transporting the calf efficiently and effectively. In no time she was prepared for the journey to the Nairobi Nursery.
View diary updates from across all our orphan units as written by the Keepers
We are extremely sad to report that our fight to heal Dupotto has come to an end and she died on Monday evening, 19th August, just before 7.00pm. Having yesterday informed Dupotto’s foster parents of her passing, so that they might have a moment to process this most difficult news, we now wish to inform our wider supporter family.