Elephant babies stay with their mothers for up to four years, gradually weaning themselves from mother’s milk to forage full- time with their clan. The first four years are a time of nurturing and teaching, and it will take a baby all four years to become independent. Moms teach their babies what is safe to eat, how to knock the dirt off plant roots by smashing plants against their legs, and if the baby is a female, she may also be groomed to take over as matriarch of the clan.
That is why it is particularly distressing when a calf is orphaned. On October 31, 2019, Conservation South Luangwa came upon a mother elephant caught around the neck in a poacher’s snare and bearing three life-threatening gunshot wounds. Her one-year-old calf stood under the mother’s chin terrorized from being shot at and running for their lives. The baby calf’s mother was too injured to be saved.
The terrified little calf was darted with a sedative and carefully moved with the help of
Conservation South Luangwa
and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife to
Chipembele Wildlife Education Trust
,
a long-term first response for orphaned elephants and other wildlife in need. Saving this baby was a group effort. Game Rangers International helped stabilize the calf, and everyone worked to relocate her safely to the Lillayi Elephant Nursery, where she will live with other young elephants. As with others in her situation, this little calf will have nightmares for weeks after such trauma, but being in a secure environment with other elephants and keepers who know how to comfort her means that someday she will be released back into the wild, and perhaps have a calf of her own.
