Online update of Mutemwa and the Zambia Elephant Orphanage
Dear
Mrs Tooke, thank you for your recent letter asking about how
Mutemwa is doing now.
Just
to let you know she was discovered outside Sioma Ngwezi National Park along the
Zambezi River, bordering Angola and Namibia, by community members at
‘Mutemwa’ and thus that is how she acquired her lovely name!
After
a brief stay in a family home, she was transferred to the Zambia Wildlife
Authority HQ at Ngonyi Falls where officers cared for her around the clock
until the Elephant Orphanage Project (EOP) team arrived to help
stabilise her condition and assess whether she was strong enough to travel.
With help from supporters at Proflight Zambia, Mutemwa was transferred to the Lilayi Elephant Nursery via a two hour flight - cutting out what
would have been a grueling two day road trip.
Elephant
calves like Mutemwa, who was only three weeks old when she was found, are
incredibly vulnerable and being separated from her mother would have
caused her unimaginable distress, but so far she's doing well.
Her
energy levels and vital signs are good, although she is suffering from an
unsurprising bout of diarrhoea, something we can expect for some time until
her fragile system adapts to her new milk diet.
At
the Nursery little Mutemwa is being cared for around the clock by dedicated EOP
elephant keepers. So fingers crossed she'll continue to do well and only
improve with the wonderful help she's getting!
Highly trained keepers
spend time with the elephants around the clock in an effort to provide
stability and help with recovery from the emotional damage the elephant has
suffered, taking them out for daily walks, or sitting close by their stables at
night.
As
soon as the calves can be weaned from milk they're moved to the Kafue National
Park to join other older orphaned elephants at the EOP’s Kafue Release
Facility, where they are more independent of human support and spend most of
their time browsing freely in the park.
We
at IFAW invest a huge amount of energy to protecting elephants. As well as our
extensive work on the elimination of the ivory trade, from training
anti-poaching patrols, working with consumer markets to decrease demand and assisting governments and international organisations to change and enforce
laws to put a stop to this awful trade, we also secure protected areas for
elephants to reduce human-elephant conflict. We have also work on the
issue of live trade of elephants for entertainment in Asia, and help
rehabilitate orphaned elephants in Asia and Africa through partnerships such as
the Manas National Park in India.
As is evident, our work with elephants is borne out of a love for these beautiful creatures and is not exclusive to one area or project, we are an international organisation whose efforts to protect elephants span the every continent and region on earth .
As is evident, our work with elephants is borne out of a love for these beautiful creatures and is not exclusive to one area or project, we are an international organisation whose efforts to protect elephants span the every continent and region on earth .
I
do hope this has answered your question and once again thank you so much for
your interest in IFAW and our work.
Colin Grady
Information officer
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