Mphamvu's Progress

One of the major things that have happened while I have been offline, is how well the youngest orphan Mphamvu has been doing. When I last updated he was just starting to socialise with the other orphans free-contact style (with no barriers between) in the outer boma.  I have summed up a few of his major developments here:

Walks outside the outer boma with keeper (mid November 2014):

Mphamvu had been enjoying socialising with the other elephants at lunch time and during the evening, but he was not quite strong enough to go out on the long walks with the other orphans. However, it is important that he could have bit of variety in his environment, to graze in different vegetation and to be able to mud wallow in new area. So after the other orphans set out on their morning walk, Keeper Eldridge coaxed him outside the boma using his milk bottle and led him to the Ox-Bow just outside the outer boma. He soon realised this new area was very interesting and enthusiastically began grazing on the soft fresh grass by the water. He then spent a few hours in this area, coming back into the boma peacefully with the other elephants at lunch time. His condition improved further and gaining strength every day.

Here Mphamvu is being coaxed out of the boma with his milk bottle and enjoying the variety of grazing at the water

Meet Mphamvu: the latest addition to the orphans!

A few days after my last post, we rescued a little two and a half year old baby elephant, and this feisty little thing has taken up most of my time since! (Hence the lack of days off… and blog posts!)

Meet Mphamvu...

We heard reports of a lone calf wandering for a few days near Ngoma (in the South of Kafue National Park), but attempts had failed to track it down.  However, on the 17th September, The Kafue Research Project team spotted 2.5 year old calf wandering alone in the open about 15km from the Kafue Release Facility.

Reality of Rescue

"Don't count your chickens…" was the cautionary message send out to our WhatsApp group when there was excited chatter about the future of a baby elephant that had just been rescued. 

Theo's first rescue with the Elephant Orphanage Project happened while I was visiting family back in the UK, so all I had to keep up with events was the group. With a few fuzzy photos, the story unfolded... A baby (around 18 months old) had been spotted by local villagers,  wandering around without a herd. As she had been spotted a few times they contacted ZAWA (Zambian Wildlife Authority), and so contacted GRI and the EOP.  After Theo and the team got to her, they saw she was severely emaciated and dehydrated, and had likely been without a herd for some time. She was rescued and brought back to the Kafue Release Facility.