Cape Karen
Okay, so I need to 'get a life' ~ I know that. . . but, since I can't travel too far, being unable to fly because of a previously ruptured eardrum, I'll have to be content living vicariously through the Travel Channel, the Discovery channel, Animal Planet, and the History Channel. It's the only way I can now "visit" far-away places around the world.
This week, I discovered, viá The Animal Planet, a wonderful organization that I had never heard of before ~ the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust; an organization in Africa that rescues baby elephants who have been abandoned and/or injured and left to die. Some babies are the abandoned victims of poachers ~ who kill the adult family elephants for their ivory tusks and teeth and sell them on the black market. Some have been left behind due to an injury; they had to be abandoned by their family herd, who sadly had to move on in order to survive the always lurking poachers, or to seek necessary food and water.
To see all the baby elephants being cared for and loved back to health was awe-inspiring. Their "Keepers" become their surrogate parents; first by giving them necessary injections to rehydrate them and protect them from viruses, then they tend to them by feeding them their much-needed milk in huge baby bottles, and they will even sleep beside them until they are well-past the trauma of being abandoned and/or injured.
The new arrivals are always greeted with great love and concern by the other rescued elephants in residence, who will approach them and wrap their trunks all around them, as if to say: "We are here for you, too." Elephants have emotions much like humans, and when these other elephants surround the newcomers it's often the happy turning-point of a difficult recovery.
They say that elephants never forget, and from what these folks have observed - that's really true! Even after they have been re-released into the wild, to continue living as elephants should and must live, they often return to the park compound to visit. Sometimes they return with ther own babies in tow ~ to show them off. Sometimes they return when they are newly pregnant; it seems they to want their former keepers to know they are "expecting." It's just remarkable. 
So, anyway, I'm now a smitten-kitten and I have "adopted" a baby elephant at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. It only requires a minimal donation of $50.00 a year to sponsor one of them, and the trust makes sure that the funds go to the care of the abandoned baby elephants, and to nothing else. I have looked over the list of available babies who need sponsors, I have read the story of how each one came to be rescued, and I have chosen to foster baby elephant, "Lualeni."
Here's part of her story:
"She was seen sleeping under the shade of a tree, all alone, in Hilton Hotels
Taita Hills Sanctuary, with no other elephants nearby. Since she was
only about 4 months old, she was obviously an orphan doomed to die, with no
chance of survival without her mother’s milk, in a wild situation.
Our Elephant Keepers and Mobile Veterinary Unit were mobilized, and little
Lualeni was rescued in the evening of Saturday 27th November, without a
struggle, simply happy to be offered rehydration and a bottle of milk. She
was loaded into the back of the Trust’s pickup and was taken to the Voi
Stockades for the night, since it was too late to fly her to the Nursery.
At the Stockades, she was immediately welcomed by the older
orphans, Icholta and Natumi, who became her 'little mothers' for the night.
And so, little Lualeni spent the night cosseted by the older group, and was
flown to the Nairobi Nursery the following day, arriving at lunch time. She
seemed to show no resistence from the onset, and was happy to take milk from
a bottle, following the Keepers as she would her mother. However, she
was very tired, and slept a lot that first day and night. The next morning,
the eight Nursery elephants came in a group to meet her, and immediately
Sunyei decided that this was going to be her special baby.
However, despite the best efforts from all the other orphans, it took Lualeni
many months to begin to play and become a happy elephant again. In fact,
she was dull for so long we worried that she was slightly brain-damaged.
The transformation came overnight about four months after her rescue.
She suddenly began to have a bounce in her step and began to play and mix
normally with the others. Finally, she seemed able to move past the horrendous
circumstances and trauma of becoming an orphan."
(Her parents were killed right in front of her, by poachers who shot them.)
Somehow, I could relate to little Lualeni ~ the part where ". . .she was dull for so long," and so I decided this would be 'my' foster baby elephant. (and, such a pretty name, too!)
If you would like to read more about the wonderful work being done at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, or if you'd like to foster a baby elephant, please go to:
http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org
Posted by Karen at March 7, 2006 2:26 PM