6/4/2011 Report of Incident 2 Elephants shot by PAC in Plateau Dr Clay Wilson
I was called by parks on 2 occasions. One was a farmer in Panda that has a baby Roan antelope that he would like to raise. He thinks it was separated by his mother by lions in the fence. I advised him to try and find the herd and reintroduce him if possible. I talked to Chili and made him aware of situation.
In the afternoon I was called to assist in capture of a baby elephant. The story as I understand it is that elephants were in Plateau towns people live and a Cow elephant charged a woman that was walking by. She dropped her handbag and elephant trampled it.
Problem animal control arrived on scene and went in to the bush were the elephant had ran to. Unfortunately the Cow charged out and attacked wardens that were on foot so they had no choice but to shoot her.
When I arrived on scene the mother elephant had already been butchered and there was a juvenile approximately 8 years old that a huge crowd of meat hungry villagers were just beginning to butcher. I have no idea how this second juvenile was killed. One report is that wardens in morning had hit it by mistake while shooting at the mother.
There was a baby elephant not 6 months old that witnessed the shooting of its mother and brother and was being chased by various citizens and children apparently all day long. The crowds of onlookers were out of hand and I’m surprised that no one was seriously injured. The police on scene were asked to disperse the crowd but they were not effective. It was truly a scene of chaos and illustrated the ignorance and non respect and appreciation of the wildlife that supports this community. The poor baby elephant was in such a state of panic and distress I’m surprised it did not expire from a heart attack.
Baby elephant anesthesia is very difficult, with all the experts in the field saying they have very high mortalities. I approximated the dose of M99 at 5 mg and after an hour long chase thru the bush and attempting to get the children that were just out of school out of the way, I managed to dart baby elephant.
It succumbed to anesthesia within 5 minutes. Concerned that I had given too much I gave it a one third dose of antidote the baby started to wake up and I was forced to sit on it to restrain it and give it some more M99. After another 5 mg given in 3 separate injections it finally was sedated enough to load on the back of parks land cruiser. I rode in back holding it down with 3 other wardens for the trip too Sedudu valley.
We unloaded and I reversed the sedation and elephant revived 100%.
I’m hoping that the proximity to water so it can drink and presence of other elephants coming to that pond that it will be able to be adopted by another herd. Otherwise its chances of survival are slim.
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This was a very poor and sad expression of Kasane toward our wildlife heritage. I personally am disgusted
Baby Elephant Update April 7
We spent all day looking for baby elephant that we had to release because we don’t have a facility to keep such a needy animal. Hopefully soon we will be able to afford to build an orphanage. The official policy of Parks right now is to leave animals in the bush for nature to take its course. In Chobe with 160 000 elephants this is unfortunately a common occurrence. With patience, education and by example we have managed to slowly change the mindset and the cooperation of relevant authorities to be able to rehabilitate injured animals for re-release into the wild. This takes a lot of funding, time and commitment. As many of you know CWR has been working very hard to attain these goals. Many of my FB friends have stepped up to bat to make this all possible.
As for the baby elephant released we have found no sign of him. We have scoured an area of over 5 kilometers all day today. There have been no vultures spotted that would indicate a death and the area where he was released has no lions at the moment that would predate him.
People that rehabilitate elephants know that its chances of survival are slim in this harsh environment with no mother to suckle milk.
I have to believe in my heart that a herd of elephants has adopted him. Many experts will disagree this to be possible. I have spent countless hours observing and mingling with elephants over the past 4 years. One thing that I do now is that they are loving, compassionate, intelligent family oriented creatures. Not unlike what a humans should be. I have seen many things in the wild that surprise me even after a lifetime of experience in close contact. This baby was strong with a will to live and was not injured (certainly emotionally traumatized) and unlike other places in Africa there are hundreds of mother elephants suckling and caring for their youngsters that were sure to come to the waterhole where it was released.
Elephants communicate and interact continuously. I’m not an expert but i would hope that a compassionate mother would have recognized its distress and taken him under her care. Often mothers will have a series of children 2 years apart that remain in the family group for life. I have often seen sub adults up to 6 years still suckle from mom and then allow its baby brother to suckle.
As in my experience these social creature will show many human emotions it is my hope that this baby may have got lucky. I have to believe this. I don’t think many human mothers would bypass a screaming baby dumped in a trash can?
I have often been told that something is not possible and that’s not the nature of things. That is my queue to make it possible and make it happen. This is my personal experience
If he did die it would be best in the majesty of the African bush that in the village where he was being persecuted.
In our search we came across a young bull with an extremely swollen hind leg. On binocular inspection it appears to have a gunshot wound. We were unable to approach it due to the vehicle being unable to traverse the thick bush we were in fast enough to dart it.
We will be searching for both elephants all weekend.
Until a proper facility can be funded and built to accommodate and care for these orphans CWR will continue to treat and heal all wildlife in distress to the best of our ability in the field and in our back yard.
Prayers said for baby elephants everywhere, may you dream with the angels.
Dr Clay
April 9 2011
There has been a lot of upset on Fb about releasing the baby We searched in the morning and afternoon with no sign of him. Many herds of elephants passed thru in the night and day so I’m hoping they adopted him. There were no signs of scavengers and no vultures which would have been present if he died. I had no choice but to release it. It would not have done well in my yard with all the dogs and the zebra and it would have broken thru the fence. I had to get it away from the scene of its mother’s death and being harassed by the locals. I’m not an elephant expert as i can’t know it all, but they are extremely caring, intelligent and loving creatures. There are thousands of mothers with babies that are suckling in the vicinity of where I released him and I believe that there is a possibility that one will adopt it and nurse it. I’m hoping to get funding to open a rehab center were we can bring animals from all over Botswana as Sheldrick has. I will then recruit them to help me learn what they have over the years. The one saving grace for this baby is that it was healthy and strong not like many that are brought to these sanctuaries. I have to HOPE it has a chance of survival. These are situations that crop up and one has to do the best one can with limited resources ,funding and the time frame presented. I feel bad that it had to be out in the wild on its own and am very aware it needs milk and care. In fact it eats me up inside and I did not sleep 3 nand am veryights in a row and I am muscle sore from tracking it and holding it down. I’m one person in Chobe trying to heal the entire park and have expended all my personal life’s savings into wildlife. I rely on donations from my face book friends to survive and continue doing this work. Unfortunately they are no other elephant sanctuaries in Botswana that have the resources that are required. I have brought up this subject with Parks and they are very supportive of it. If you could raise $100 000.00 I can make this come true. For now it’s day by day, life by life and situation by situation. People that don’t live in Africa cannot understand the complexities of what we have to deal with to get anything done. As Chobe has half the elephants in the entire world here a rehab center is most needed. I have the passion, will and ability to set it up and run it. What I need is some serious funding. I was quoted P25 000.00 to build a temporary Boma ( holding area) in my back yard of my rented house. I can not afford that . Lets hope no similar incident occurs before we can fund an orphanage.
