A rare blue-eyed albino baby elephant was caught in a hunting snare recently and suffered severe injuries as she struggled to free herself causing the snare to tighten. It’s not known how many days she may have spent trapped.
The calf, estimated to be about 4 months old, was rescued and taken to Care for the Wild rhino sanctuary before being transferred to South Africa’s first elephant orphanage known as HERD (Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development).
The ellie has been named Khanyisa and she seems to have a fighting spirit and the will to survive. According to posts on HERD’s Instagram page, her wounds weren’t healing as fast as they’d hoped. Khanyisa has been communicating with the herd of elephants, her future family, on the other side of the fence. The herd had been described as ‘calm and peaceful’.
In the meantime she has a sheep called Lammie to keep her company.
In the most recent update, a video shows her playing with a young apple tree, ‘Yesterday was a good day for Khanyisa, she was very active and happy. She spent a long time playing in the dense foliage surrounding the orphanage, which she loves to do!’
‘Her wounds are mostly improving and she is becoming more playful and confident by the day. Her quality of sleep has improved and she drank more than the day before one of her favourite activities is to play with sand as well as tackling the small apple-leaf trees.’
She was given an iron injection by Dr Rogers who will return on Friday to stitch the wounds behind her ears.
The Hoedspruit orphanage is adjacent to the stables of the Jabulani Herd of elephants on the Kapama Private Game Reserve. This herd has an unusual family structure as most of these elephants are orphans too and so new arrivals are integrated into this herd to help ‘meet their emotional needs,’ according to HERD’s website.
The organisations states that it’s their mission ‘to care for and rehabilitate these orphaned elephants, to give them a new family, and a second chance of life with another herd.’
‘This little girl is so unbelievably brave. The odds of her survival have been stacked against her from birth; she was born as an albino, she then endured excruciating pain trapped in the jaws of a manmade snare, and left to fight for her fragile life for an unknown amount of days. We can only try to comprehend the amount of pain she felt, how scared she felt, was her herd with her when it happened, was she alone? And how hot and thirsty she must have been. How could she possibly survive?
It is clear to us now; it is her spirit; she is a fighter. Her spirit is strong.’
Donations towards her care can be made here: https://herd.org.za/product/donate/
Image: HERD Facebook
