The baby elephant had been found
wandering, alone, in the wild. His chances of survival without help were
dismal, at best. He reminded me of our sweet Mr. 'Wiggles', as this
orphaned baby looked into the camera's eye. I was riveted to his
adoring 'pink' face, with its simple message of love and hope. Sadly,
the baby was unaware that momma was dead, nearby, as he struggled
to get her to stand. The story of overwhelming sadness and hope
held me in its grip.
The story begins in Nairobi, Kenya, at
the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust sanctuary, in Nairobi National Park. The program profiles
the plight of one 3-month-old baby elephant named Sities, having been
rescued from imminent death when his momma was felled by an ivory
poacher's bullet. I was in awe of the devotion shown these infant
mammals by their male keepers. It was above and beyond anything I had
ever known.
The stroke of death in the cruel world of ivory poaching
made Sities an orphan, hours away from certain death. I was saddened and hypnotized by the plight of Sities and other baby
elephants, not realizing how grave the situation was for them, the
black rhinos and many other endangered species on the planet.
Sities had hours
maybe a day to live. He was
captured, without sedation, as this emergency 'travelling' medical procedure can prove
fatal, then brought to the elephant nursery and paired
immediately with a male keeper, his soon-to-be surrogate mom. ...
This gentle human lives with Sities, in a 'house' built for two, in a bonding arrangement that can last for two years. Baby elephants grieve over loss and can literally starve themselves
to death during this stressful period of mourning. Several male
keepers are involved in his 'revolving' life care, reducing the
elephant baby's dependency upon a sole gatekeeper in his life, a
threat to his long term survival, later.
Elephants are loving, caring, gentle
creatures much like us, yet unlike us, in the ways that are unseemly.
The species creates cohesive, nurturing bonds within the strong elephant
family structure. The human male keeper's role is to nurture and care
for the elephant infants so that they may rejoin other members of
their species, in the wild, by the age of two. The hope is that an adult female elephant will claim one orphan baby as her own and assume the role of 'mom', when these juveniles are
introduced to other members of the elephant herd in daily outings to the 'park'.
Re-integration into the species is the sanctuary's goal for all orphan elephants.
Elephant babies are totally helpless,
fragile beings, requiring a human or elephant 'element' in the critical bonding experience necessary, from birth, for their survival. I was in awe of the shared
commitment of the many dedicated male keepers hired to raise these elephant babies. The human male keepers had families of their own yet their
strong faith in what they were doing brought them to this world
renown elephant sanctuary to save orphaned elephant babies. ...
Human
infants feed every 3-4 hours; baby elephants, every few minutes, for
a little bit, round the clock, a nearly two year commitment! The male
keepers of these orphaned elephants must feed and teach these babies how to drink and bathe, too. The continual touching and
handling of the infant mammals and their trunks helps teach these
tiny elephants basic life skills that must be learned for survival
outside the safety of the animal sanctuary.
There was a time when it was thought
that baby elephants could tolerate cow's milk. Many died as a result
of this error, unable to digest fully the protein in cow's milk formula,
the 'perfect' food everyone thought. At the Nairobi nursery, an 'elephant' formula, 28
years in development, now contains coconut milk and fat, the
ingredients most like elephant milk. (Over time, elephant plant food is introduced during the weaning process). But Sities does not know how to
drink but is learning and will be taught this life-saving skill by
his male keeper over a period of months. The male keepers are
routinely rotated, creating change in the elephant's daily routine
thus reducing separation anxiety, later, when the 'teen' elephant rejoins his
herd.
Following is a passage written by
Jessamy Calkin, Feb. 24/2012 that explains the helplessness of
orphaned elephants.
"We must do more and be ever so grateful and
'supportive' to those who have spent their lives, through much
anguish and pain, saving elephants and other species from perilous
extinction. Into the eyes of innocence we see the future. Eradicating
poaching and restoring habitat are just a beginning to the story of elephants and other endangered species."
“ It is an extraordinary feeling,
being surrounded by little elephants. Some of them approach
curiously, frisking me with their trunks and nuzzling, gently, as I
stroke the tops of their whiskery heads. Their skin is rough but
sensitive; the backs of their ears, soft and velvety. They like to
wind their trunks around your arm and draw your hand into their
mouths to suck your fingers. They look up at you through eyelashes
that are ridiculously long and iridescent in the sunlight, as if they
are wearing green mascara. It feels very luxurious to be among them.”
_ J.Calkin. Feb. 24/2012
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