Back in 2022, team members of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust rescued an “emaciated” elephant calf in Tsavo National Park, Kenya’s largest protected wildlife area.
During this time, a massive drought had swept across the park, which was devastating to elephants. The gentle giants require great quantities of vegetation to sustain themselves, rescuers from SWT explained, and as the drought killed plants, elephants struggled to survive.
“Older calves were particularly vulnerable, as they struggled to consume enough and then were unable to keep pace with the rest of the herd,” SWT explained in a press release earlier this month.
Ushindi. Courtesy of Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
That’s what experts believe happened to Ushindi, an orphaned female elephant calf their team spotted in the southern part of Tsavo East. The calf was all alone, though they watched as she attempted to join a new herd, to no avail.
SWT teams rescued her and said she was “in a state of collapse” when she arrived at the Voi stockades, where she would be hydrated and stabilized among other abandoned elephants.
In 2022 alone, the organization said, they rescued 33 orphaned elephants. While the goal is always rehabilitating the elephants to be released back into the wild, the need was vast following the drought.
Among the bunch of rescues in 2022, 13 elephants, including Usindi, formed something of a “found family,” and the team nicknamed the group “The Voi Kids.”
Ushindi plays in the dirt. Courtesy of Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
In the four years since her initial rescue, Ushindi — whose name means “victory” in Swahili — remains in the care of rescuers. They say she has “always been well-liked as a friendly and calm girl,” but now, she’s taken on the role of “nanny” among her rag-tag friends.
“She has adopted little Serenget as ‘her’ baby and diligently shadows her from sunup to sundown,” SWT shared in a recent Facebook post. “When Serenget emerges from her room, Ushindi is there to scoop her up; when she drinks her milk bottles, Ushindi stands guard; when she enjoys a mud bath, Ushindi splashes right beside her — and so on and so forth!”
This companionship among the elephants is an encouraging sign, considering, at first, “Ushindi’s survival was by no means certain,” SWT said.
“Now, our victorious young elephant will continue to grow up in the place she was born, raising her own family in the fullness of time — and perhaps even reuniting her natal herd.”
You may also like: Migrating elephants kept getting struck by high-speed trains. New radar sensors will bring trains to a halt to let them pass in peace
Featured Image: Sheldrick Wildlife Trust/Facebook
