Elephant attack on murran

I went out to collect forms from Lion Guardians as part of my end of week work. I met Melubo and Ritei and we had some talk about their work, and had a look at their forms where they write down their weekly observations. I started heading back to camp but before I got to Olbili, where Guardian Koikai works, it started raining. The only way to camp became flooded and the area has black cotton soil, very sticky. I was forced to spend a night at Olbili. In the morning I got some reports that a murran had been attacked by an elephant at Oltiasika community. I know the area very well, so I knew that they have only one car and it is broken down, so they have no means to take him to the clinic.

I got on my bike and headed to Oltiasika see if I could help. The murran was lying on the ground, helpless. I offered to put him on my bike but he could not sit, he had to lie down and his right leg was so bad that he couldn’t bend it.

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He suffered injuries on his right leg, arm and chin.

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Later the game scout came with a car and helped him to the clinic. I wish I had a car, he would not have had to wait for long to be taken to the clinic. The community seems fine and they were not going to revenge by killing elephants. Earlier in the year several elephants were speared around Amboseli in a revenge attack. Here in Kenya lions attack people very rarely. In other places, like Tanzania, lion attacks on humans are increasing (http://www.lionresearch.org/main.html) but here we are not worried about being attacked by lions and we try our best to conserve them. If you can, please help us to continue to conserve our lions. Thank you to Peter P E and an anonymous donor for their kind donations which will help us to do this. Here is a photo of a real warrior, Lion Guardian Melubo.

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5 Comments

  • Christine C. says:

    Antony — What happened that the elephant attacked the Murran…anything in particular?

  • sauwah says:

    does any one know what caused such aggression by the elephant? hope the young man is okay and his leg will heal perfectly.

  • Very sorry about this young man, I hope he heals quickly, both physically and emotionally. Just a reminder wild animals are, just that, unpredictable. Again, Antony, thank you for your efforts to help him. You are a special person.

  • No one knows what caused the elephant to be so aggressive and attack the murran. All I know is that they were walking home from Olbili and they met the elephants just a few metres before they got to the boma they were going to. When I met him he was not able to speak so could not tell me exactly what had happened. We hope he gets better soon. As far as I know there are no plans by the community to harm the elephant in a revenge attack. You are right Theresa, wild animals are very unpredictable. Thank you for your comments.

  • Joanne - UK says:

    I hope he gets better soon. I wonder if they elephants maybe had a baby with them. Usually that is when a lot of animals attack if they think their babies are threatened.

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