In the News: Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage

[Artist unknown]

Bull Elephant Rescue

Last year I was privileged to visit the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi Kenya.  Not only take they care of orphaned elephant babies but read the incredible survival story of the injured elephant bull.  Their work is remarkable.  Elephants in Africa are under attack from poachers for their ivory - in very high demand in China.  



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A Unique Survival; A Tsavo Elephant beats all odds - 11/9/2012

On the 6th of November a tour operator reported seeing an elephant with what looked like a wound to the front right leg in the Sala area. The DSWT Tsavo Vet Unit was alerted and waited on standby until the specific location of the elephant was reported. Vague reports continued to come in about the elephant, which was stuck in deep mud, yet no reports could clearly verify the location. The following day, early in the morning, the DSWT aircraft was deployed to locate the elephant from the air. Initially nothing could be seen and after landing at several tented camps in the area there was still no further information. Yet one last check of a remote waterhole proved successful and in the middle of the water laid a lone elephant, almost fully submerged. The elephant had obviously fallen in a waterhole, only managing to breath through its trunk.




Immediately the mobile DSWT Vet Unit was on its way and half an hour later they met with a KWS team and headed to the waterhole, finding the elephant still in the middle of the water, with its head still fully submerged. At this point it was not clear if the animal was still alive. They had a challenge on their hands with how best to proceed but action had to be taken urgently.
  


One of the KWS rangers volunteered to go in and see whether the elephant was indeed still alive. He pulled its tail and pulled harder and suddenly the sleeping giant erupted out of the water sending the 'tail puller' into rapid retreat. Miraculously the elephant rose to its feet, which was a huge relief as no treatment could have been given to it while it lay in the water. Slowly the KWS team 'herded' it out of the waterhole, whilst it tried to charge at the rescue teams, but with its front leg in such a bad way it could do no more than a few frustrated limps.
  

  


Eventually it stood far enough away from the water - if the elephant was darted and returned to the water it would have been a disaster. The DSWT vet prepared his dart and quietly crept up behind the animal, and fired the tranquilizer into its left flank. Within five minutes the animal crumpled to the ground and work began. A bush obstructing its breathing had to be removed first, whilst one person was given the duty of cooling the elephant with water. Others collected a tree stump on which to prop the injured leg, whilst the vet went to work, sweating in the heat, being assisted by the KWS team. It was now mid-afternoon and intensely hot.
  




A deep single wound on the ankle which is believed to have been caused by a poisoned arrow, was soon cleaned out and treated. This took about twenty minutes whilst the elephant snored in deep sleep. Antibiotics were injected into the muscle tissue before another small injection into a vein in the ear was given to finally revive the patient. Within minutes he struggled to get up but with a bit of persuasion he finally rose to his feet and stood motionless accessing the situation. His trunk sniffed his ankle, wondering what the new feelings were and the foreign smells of the medication. Finally he stared at the team of onlookers in an almost thankful way and turned to hobble off into the bush.


  


He will be monitored over the next few days and should he continue to struggle, a follow-up treatment will be carried out, but hopefully he will soon return to health, put weight back on his foot and carry on to wander the plains of Tsavo.

Through your support and the support of Vier Pfoten the treatment of this elephant was made possible. The DSWT is hugely grateful and hopes that through your continued support more lives can be saved.

Reported by:  http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/updates/updates.asp?ID=468
https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/is/donate_now.asp  

The Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage is a truly incredible organization - can they save the elephants from extinction?

Til next time,
Meggi

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The M. Raeder-Photography list of 2013 Photo Opportunities and  Workshops is here - don't delay to check it out and sign up!  Questions?  You can always reach me at mraeder33@gmail.com.

I just photographed with Jon Paul from the Jon Paul Gallery in Tahoe last weekend 

and he is a great photographer and teacher.

Copyrigth M. Raeder-Photography

See Tahoe Through the Eyes of Renowned Fine Art Photographer Jon Paul Spring is a beautiful time in Tahoe and Hope Valley – Explore Tahoe’s hidden places with renowned Tahoe Fine Art Photographer Jon Paul, owner of the Jon Paul Gallery and Wildlife Photographer Meggi Raeder. Date: May 3-6, 2013 Early Bird Registration til Jan 15, 2013 Pl see all details here.

Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage

A Sanctuary for Elephant Orphans 

where they can grow up strong and ready for release into the wild.

This is such a heart-warming story/video that I had to share it. 

 

When I was in Africa last year, I visited the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi – a wonderful compassionate place for orphaned elephant babies and youngsters that are rehabilitated to be released into the wild into an established herd in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya.  I visited an adjacent park, Amboseli, on my safari and experienced for the first time elephants in the wild, big herds of adults, youngsters and babies – a precious sight to see.

 

 

http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/

 

 

Elephants.sanctuary - Supporters of Elephant Sanctuaries Page

At Sheldrick's, wild born 8 mo old Mwende head butts wheelbarrow & kicks the keeper, feisty as a happy baby should be.

Published on Jul 5, 2012 by dswtkenya

On the 7th of November 2011 the Sheldrick Trust's ex-orphan Mulika gave birth to her 1st wild born calf. The calf was a female and named 'Mwende'. This clip shows baby Mwende's progress as she thrives and continues to lead a unique wild life amongst the ex-orphans and wild elephants alike.

To read more about this story visit our website:
https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/updates/updates.asp?ID=433

Elephant Orphans at Kenya's Renowned Sheldrick Orphanage

Since over 25 years, David and Daphne Sheldrick pioneered the successful hand-rearing and complicated strategy of successful rehabilitation back into established elephant communities in the wild.  Daphne Sheldrick was the first person in the entire world to successfully hand rear newborn fully milk dependent African Elephant orphans, something that spanned 28 years of trial and error to achieve. By the year 2008 the Sheldrick Trust had successfully saved and hand-reared over 82 infant African Elephant calves, two from the day of birth. Currently, over 40 of the Trust’s hand-reared elephants are fully established and living free amongst their wild peers in Tsavo, some returning with wild born young to show their erstwhile human family. Based at two established Elephant Rehabilitation Centers within Tsavo East National Park others are still in the gradual process of re-integration with yet others in early infancy at the Trust’s Nairobi National Park Elephant Nursery. The Trust has trained a team of competent Elephant Keeper who replace the orphans’ lost elephant family until such time as the transition to the wild herds has been accomplished, something that can take up to l0 years, since elephant calves duplicate their human counterparts in terms of development through age progression. Those that were orphaned too young to recall their elephant family remain dependent longer, but all the Trust’s orphans eventually take their rightful place amongst their wild counterparts, including those orphaned on the day they were born.

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Looking for some fun photography opportunity to capture tiny birds, check this out: 

• Fast Action Photography at its best:  Hummingbirds in the Santa Cruz Mountains - come and photograph these tiny colorful birds. Dates:  September 16 and 23, 2012
  
  
  

Travel TidBits: Africa

The Journey Start!

After a long flight, we (Lynda and I) arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday evening, 11 Jan 11.  I am finally in Africa!  After so much planning and anticipation, my African journey has begun.  I am in Nairobi, Kenya, currently and will go on to Amboseli National Park tomorrow.  But today I saw my first wildlife:  baby elephants, giraffes, gazelles and warthogs – a very funny looking animal and the thought comes to mind that only a mother can love these creatures.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  Just to give you an idea where I am and where I am going over the next 2 months, the arrow on the map point to the places that I will visit.





After a good night’s sleep, the breakfast at the hotel terrace on Wednesday morning was great with delicious Kenyan coffee and all the trimmings one can think about.   The temperatures were mild and a breeze made the leisurely breakfast a great start of our journey.  We had arrived a day early to settle into the new diurnal rhythm (besides having an optimal airfare  J).   Mid morning, we ventured out into the downtown area of Nairobi.  The streets everywhere were crowded and the roads almost impossible to cross.  Traffic is on the ‘wrong’ (left) side and it takes some getting used to reprogramming the mind.  Although not quite as congested, it reminded me of the streets of Kathmandu without the horse buggies.  We found a crafts market and entered to be ‘ambushed’ by the owners of small stalls selling carvings, paintings, local jewelry, all wanting to pull us in:  Jambo, Mama!  Just look!  Everything was a bit dusty, but there were the typical giraffe and animal carvings that we see imported into the US.  There were paintings with bamboo leaves, intricate patterns of lighter and darker leaves put together in a skillful way.  Batik and canvas paintings peaked out interest.  The abstract, somewhat stylistic way of paining is quite attractive and in the end, we each bought a small one after a bit of price negotiation!  We continued walking downtown, amazed at the myriad of cell phone stores, electronic stores offering the latest in gadgets.  Shoes and outerwear stores offered somewhat outdated clothes and window displays all were a bit tired looking to do dusty display.  On the street, we were approached by the typical touts that we had read about all wanting to sell us safaris, and other attractions.  “Please, Jambo, Mama, come and see the Masai craft market – very unique!  You can see how we make the beautiful carvings”.   Initially making eye contact encouraged them to follow us and to talk, entice, persuade.  So we learned fast just to ignore them and walk away.  All of this was done with a smile and in a friendly manner, not too aggressive.  There were very few – almost none actually – white faces in the sea of dark.  Men predominantly wearing Western style clothes with some long-shirt, flowing to the ankle, clad men.  Young women stylish in Western clothes as well as totally shrouded, mostly black-clothed Muslim women, with a few that covered the whole face with eye-slits only in the black head-dress.  Since the Norfolk is located just at the edge of downtown, we walked for about 2 hours looking at store fronts, browsing a little bit, and then returning to the hotel thirsty. 



Today we saw our first wildlife as we visited the Sheldrick elephant ‘orphanage’.  It is so sad that poaching is still continuing in the wildlife areas of Kenya leaving the tiniest of elephants helpless and orphaned.  The Sheldrick Elephant center has 17 orphaned elephants form the youngest of 4 months old to a couple of ~2year old elephants.  These beautiful animals are being cared for 24/7 by caretakers that are around these babies day and night – and even sleep with the elephants in their night enclosures.  Elephants live in a matriarchal family group of adult female elephants and their young.  The baby elephants are born after a 22 months gestation time and nurse with their mothers for 3 years.  In the family unit, mothers, aunties, sisters and grandmothers care for these tiny little creatures and if an elephant baby is orphaned it can’t survive beyond a couple of days.  Here in the orphan center, the other young elephants substitute for the family group and their natural instinct prevails and even the 2-year old females exert matriarchal traits already.  The goal is to release the elephants to the wild at the Tsavo National Park.  Around 2 years old, the youngsters are transferred to a rehabilitation center in Tsavo and are integrated into the family groups of older elephants.  So far, the success of releasing orphaned elephants into the wild has been greater than 60%.

We watched the elephants frolicking in a mud hole and it was delightful to see them rolling in the mud, interacting with each other and as you can see, they were covered from head to toe in the reddish mud. What a wonderful sight to see!

Since the area is part of the Nairobi National Park, we saw our first warthogs – a whole family with 4 tiny little warthogs, some gazelles and some giraffes.

 

Well, after a glorious day, dinner is calling.  I don't know when I will have Internet access again, but if I do, I'll share more of my adventure with you.

Until then,

Meggi

Thursday, 13 January 2011