Just days ago, we were alerted to a baby elephant in Zimbabwe with a wire snare wound tightly around the top of its leg. The swelling was so severe, veterinarians worried the calf would lose its leg if the snare wasn’t removed soon enough. The only option we had to save this baby elephant was to charter a helicopter, dart the elephant from the sky and send in a team of experts to treat it as quickly as possible.
It was a race against time to save the baby elephant!
A nail-biting two days passed while waiting for the flight plan to be approved by all the relevant authorities, as a team of Zimbabwe National Parks Rangers kept a vigilant eye on the herd.
But early yesterday morning, the team took to the sky. They quickly located the herd and darted the baby from the helicopter. The ground team of vets and rangers worked fast to clean and treat the wound, administer antibiotics and reverse the immobilizing drugs, while the expert helicopter pilot kept the mother elephant at bay for the team’s safety.
Once the baby elephant (who the vets discovered is a girl!) started to wake up, the helicopter pilot herded the mother back to her baby. The team watched as they reunited with the rest of the herd and moved off together.
This baby elephant is expected to make a full recovery, but something MUST be done to prevent this from happening again!
The snare had cut deeply into the elephant’s leg, but treatment came just in time, and she is expected to make a full recovery. This, however, is not always the case and that is why ASI is committed to ending the use of snares. Snares are horrific devices that torture and kill animals indiscriminately; not even elephants are safe from their cruelty.
Thanks to your support, ASI was able to make a generous donation to the Kariba Animal Welfare Fund Trust, which will sponsor regular snare sweeps in the area. We will do everything we can to prevent this from happening to another animal!
