Yesterday we were called to the scene of an injured elephant, which had been spotted limping badly close to our camp in Ol Donyo Wuas. The elephant had been speared in the foot because he had been raiding farms in search of food and water.
KWS/Sheldrick Trust vets from Tsavo West National Park were called to the scene, and eventually he was in a good position to dart. Everything went well, and the vets treated the spear wound on his leg.
Game scouts from the Maasailand Preservation Trust were on hand to make sure he was kept cool with water.
When the vets were happy that the wound was treated fully, they made some final checks before rousing him from the anaesthesia.
Here he is, waking up, and moving off into the bush. We are told he will be just fine! Thank goodness for a successful outcome to this potentially tragic story!
We’ll keep you posted if we hear any developments about how he is doing.
Sorry for the slight hiccup on posts for the last few days. I think it is what is called a technical fault, which has now been rectified! It does mean that any comments you made about Antony’s new home in England have been lost though. Sorry about that!
Won’t the poor guy just keep raiding farms?
Sure, he’ll keep raiding farms to survive as long as human overpopulation continues to push into his natural habitat and continues to cause global warming droughts and famines.
s.
sheryl, you are so right. not only the predators like lions and leopards suffer the consequences of conflicts with people, wildlife like grass eaters like elephants too suffer. we must keep in mind that farming is only recently introduced and encouraged by the NGO’s . now the scientists have discovered the fact that nomadic herding is the best for both livestock and the environment ( wildlife to i assume). the kenyan and tanzanian government should take this fact into serious consideration when matters like wildlife, tourism, community development, etc..
Thanks to everyone involved in giving this guy a 2nd chance to live his life and for the rest of us to try and push for the underlying issues to be understood and acted up on as mentioned above……
Well done guys, Its always a good day when an elephant is rescued.
Poor fellow….I hope he stays away from the people who can potentially kill him…….sad they are having to raid farms to compete with humans for food!