Rescued elephant calf adopted (South Africa)

Author(s)

Melissa Reitz, Bulawayo24 News

Date Published

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An orphaned baby elephant has been fully accepted into a semi-wild elephant herd at Camp Jabulani outside Hoedspruit in a rare success story.

The baby elephant, Timisa, which means courageous in Xitsonga, who was rescued in November last year at Umbabat Reserve near Kruger National Park by Elephants Alive, is thriving under the care of her adoptive family.  

The tiny female elephant, extremely dehydrated when found, was the calf seen a few weeks earlier trying to suckle from her dying mother. Since there were lions in the area and the calf had little chance of surviving, permission was granted to move the calf to a safer area.

After a first night spent under the warmth of heating lamps, the traumatised baby elephant was introduced to her new family which immediately accepted her in a manner unusual of typical elephant behaviour.

Human emotions ran high as the matriarch, Tokwe, allowed the calf to comfort feed while the rest of the herd greeted her eagerly with streaming temporal glands and loud trumpeting.