Elephants are among the most intelligent of the creatures with whom we share the planet with complex consciousness that are capable of strong emotions across Africa. They’ve inspired respect from the people that share the landscape with them, giving them a strong cultural significance as icons of the continent. Elephants are tourism magnets, attracting funding that helps protect wilderness areas. They are also Keystone species, playing an important role in maintaining the biodiversity of the ecosystems in which they live. During the dry season, elephants use their tusks to dig for water.
This not only allows the elephants to survive in dry
Environments and when droughts strike, but also provides water for other animals that share harsh habitats. When forest elephants eat, they create gaps in the vegetation. These gaps allow new plants to grow and create pathways for other smaller animals to use. They’re also one of the major ways in which trees disperse their seeds. Some species rely entirely upon elephants for seed dispersal on the savannas, elephants feeding on trees, sprouts and shrubs help to keep the Plains open and able to support the plane game that inhabits these ecosystems.
The 40-year-old elephant had gotten stuck in some mud, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get himself out. Earlier this week, team members from Big Life Foundation, a wildlife conservation group, saw the elephant near an outpost they used to monitor wildlife and look out for illegal poaching activities in Kaboko, Kenya. They weren’t sure how the elephant had gotten stuck in the mud, but they suspected he’d been trying to have a bath. Elephants of all ages will bathe in mud to coat their skin to protect it against the sun and as a form of insect repellent.
Rob Branford, executive director of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, DSWT, an organization that saves elephants in need, told the Dodo.
The team at Big Life Foundation knew they couldn’t help
The elephant on their own, so they joined forces with the Kenya Wildlife Services and DSWT, as well as the local community. Working together. They tried pulling the elephant out with the force of heavy vehicles, but it was extremely difficult. The mud formed a kind of glue around the elephant’s body, keeping him fixed in the mud, and the longer the elephant stayed in the mud, the greater danger he was in. The biggest issue is not being able to eat or drink, which is made worse by the animal’s effort to extract itself, using up its energy and becoming weaker, Bradford said.
Additionally, this elephant was unable to get into the shade to stay cool, and neither could he use his ears for that purpose. Being stuck as they were, teams were able to create a makeshift water pipe from tubing to at least get some water into the elephant. During the operation, the team worked tirelessly to help the elephant, and at one point they even pulled him out with two large trucks. But overnight the elephant somehow managed to slip back into the mud and get stuck again. After three days of trying, the team had almost started to lose hope.
By day three, they were growing concerns given the difficulty
In getting vehicles into the right position to be able to pull him out without causing him injury, Branford said. There was a treacherous train with vehicles constantly getting stuck. However, with those concerns came a growing resolve from all involved to succeed. The team managed to pull the elephant out a second time by attaching his body to three land cruisers with heavy straps. This time the elephant managed to stay on dry land once he was pulled out, although he seemed a little bewildered after the long process.
At first, he did little. He was exhausted from the ordeal and had been without food in the sun for such a long period of time, Branford said. However, with intravenous fluids provided by DSWT and administered by the KWS Vet, he regained his strength and rose to his feet. The elephant was a Bull, so he was traveling by himself and didn’t belong to a family or herd. However, the Rangers at Big Life Foundation have since spotted him several miles from the rescue site, and they report that he’s doing really well to Bradford.
The most uplifting part of the rescue is simply seeing him up on his feet
After three days, it was anything but simple to get him in this position where that was possible, and there was certainly a delight and sense of achievement from all involved that the hard work and long days had paid off for this beautiful ball, Branford said. Despite several intensive hours of difficult rescue work, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, BIGLIFE foundation, and Kenya Wildlife Service are thrilled at the success of their collaborative efforts. We would like to express our sincere thanks to all involved, says the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust website, and to our supporters whose contributions ensure us that we have the necessary equipment to attend to these difficult cases where wildlife is dependent on us.
Elephants have strong individual personalities, so it’s impossible to predict exactly what any of them would do with 100% accuracy.
They didn’t read the human-written book Elephant Behavior, but overall, there seems to be no inherent prejudice or bigotry between elephants or different species or subspecies. They aren’t humans after all. Again with another Bull elephant at the Nanopa Conservancy in Northern Kenya, a Bull elephant is caught sinking in the mud at the edge of a dam. A herder spots it and immediately goes to find a community Ranger, the Ranger, notifies his control room. The Ranger mobilizes with support from Voiceaba Conservancy and the Northern Rangers Trust, including Kieran Avery, whose work I’ve been documenting.
He’s the one seen digging it out
The elephant, now exhausted and severely dehydrated, is part dugout and partly dragged out of the mud. That would surely have been his grave. Then, having washed down, it got up, gave itself a good shake, and wandered off for a spot of browsing. The point here is not only that the elephant is now alive and well, but that all these organizations, although operating in extraordinarily remote parts of Kenya, are able to communicate, plan, support and action.
The rescue of this incredible creature, it’s been a herculean task to get to this point. The point is that it takes money to do this and to maintain the infrastructure to support it without income from tourism in this part of the world, this is going to get increasingly difficult to replicate. It’s vital. We keep supporting those who support them on elephants do not, generally speaking, work with humans because they think the humans are bigger or stronger. They consider themselves to be part of the herd, the humans part of the herd, and they’re smart enough to see that the humans are tiny and weak, but clever.
They are cooperating, not obeying if they hit you, it’s because you’ve managed to piss them off, and that’s generally not as easy as it seems because again, they understand that you’re ignorant and make allowances. They also understand that you’re outlandishly fragile and can pull their punches if they have to hit you. They aren’t experts at this, though, because they don’t spend too much time hitting humans. It’s too dangerous for humans. And no human who doesn’t understand this would really be within reach of an elephant in the first place.
The other guy said, nonsense
You just have to make or do it. Picked up the prod, which is sort of like a fireplace and iron, but which is really essentially meaningless for her as far as the threat goes, and gave her a tug to get her moving. Mind you, he wasn’t doing anything I hadn’t done a dozen times. He wasn’t trying to attack her or anything.
He just thought he could make her do something, whereas when I did it, it was because this is how he communicated. However, this family of elephants faces a difficult life. A family of African elephants made a lucky escape after they became stuck in a muddy pool in Kenya. Dr. Kira Avery, aged 34, was part of a small team that made a dramatic rescue of three elephants after they became stuck in the mud near a dam reservoir.
The veterinary surgeon and conservationist who has previous experience of freeing elephants from similar situations led the complicated rescue of the three animals after receiving a call from the community. The doctors said it took the team 2 hours to free the stuck elephants at Alden Euro Community Conservancy Isiolo County in Kenya and required careful planning from the team. Dr. Avery said the process involves positioning the straps in a way that will allow the tractor to pull them out and ensuring that an elephant doesn’t grab anyone with a trunk, which would result in serious injury to the team.
He added, we suspect that the mum or one of the youngsters fell in first, and then the others went in to see if they could help because they’re so loyal to each other but ended up getting stuck as well.
Luckily, none were injured
They were just exhausted in particularly the middle-aged one. It required a big effort to move them all at the same time because you can’t move one at a time, the others will grab you. We had to be very coordinated and very efficient. They were all moved out at the same time and woken up at the same time.
The smallest of the group stood up right away. It was easy for it to stand up. The middle-aged one took ten minutes to stand up and the mom took even longer, like 20 to 25 minutes. The two younger ones walked off together and the mum followed about 15 minutes later. They would have met up very quickly.
They can communicate over big distances, all in all, a really successful mission. One thing to really emphasize is the team effort of this from a whole host of organizations with different assets and skills. It’s really positive that the communities who own the elephants report when they’re stuck like this rather than just putting them down really shows the promise of community conservation. Here in Kenya last month, a single female elephant got stuck in the mud in the same place in Kenya, with Dr. Avery also coming to the rescue with his team using the same tried and tested methods.