A colourful character who enjoys clambering atop every prone elephant he comes across
Current age
3 years old
Gender
Male
Rescued date
21 August 2022
Rescue location
Tsavo Ecosystem, Tsavo East NP
Date of birth (estimate)
19 November 2021
Reason orphaned
Stuck in mud
Age at rescue
9 months old (approx)
Current location
Nairobi Nursery
They raised the alarm with KWS, who greenlit a rescue. Our Voi Team, based nearby, rushed to the scene. They arrived not a minute too late: A calf so small would not have survived the night on his own with the number of predators in the area. He had clearly been abandoned to his muddy fate, as there were no other elephants anywhere nearby. We will never know exactly what twist of fate robbed Shujaa of his family, but in times of drought herds are forced to move and travel great distances in search of food, so while there was evidence his family tried desperately to save him they had eventually been forced to give up in the best interests of the whole herd. His life so very nearly ended in that muddy quagmire.
By this point, it was pitch black. Shujaa was plucked from the mud and whisked off to our Voi Reintegration Unit, where the Keepers cleaned him up, before he spent the night in a cosy stockade. However, he was far too small to grow up at Voi, so the following morning, the SWT helicopter flew him to our Nairobi Nursery.
We were quite worried about Shujaa. Prolonged time in mud can be disastrous for a young elephant, causing all sorts of internal lung and stomach issues. However, our little hero defied the odds and thrived from day one. He was immediately scooped up into the baby elephant ‘blanket brigade’, joining Mzinga, Nyambeni, and Mageno on forays around the forest.
The Keepers report that Shujaa is a reserved chap, who loves to watch the action from the sidelines. His favourite activity is to take a relaxed dust bath in the sun, preferring the dust to mud understandably.
They raised the alarm with KWS, who greenlit a rescue. Our Voi Team, based nearby, rushed to the scene. They arrived not a minute too late: A calf so small would not have survived the night on his own with the number of predators in the area. He had clearly been abandoned to his muddy fate, as there were no other elephants anywhere nearby. We will never know exactly what twist of fate robbed Shujaa of his family, but in times of drought herds are forced to move and travel great distances in search of food, so while there was evidence his family tried desperately to save him they had eventually been forced to give up in the best interests of the whole herd. His life so very nearly ended in that muddy quagmire.
View diary updates from across all our orphan units as written by the Keepers
The Nursery is a place of firsts: It is where newly rescued orphans begin their journey with us, putting into a motion a multi-year process that will culminate in their reintegration back into the wild. It is where they have their inaugural bottle of milk, develop formative friendships with fellow orphans, and learn the foundational lessons that will help them thrive in their wild lives.
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