Baby Elephant

In October 2003 my family was stationed in Italy and we had an opportunity to go on Safari in Kenya with an Italian tour company. I am so glad we went. This was our second trip to Africa, the first was to Egypt six months earlier. Going to Africa changed me, changed the way I see the world and people. I am searching to find the words to describe how these two trips changed me. I thought I would share a few of my stories and maybe that will help me to get my thoughts in order.

I first saw the herd of elephants on my first day in Kenya. I left my home in Italy at midnight and traveled by bus to Milan for four hours, by plane to Kenya for nine hours, and then by Jeep on dust dirt roads, filled with potholes larger than my house, for eight hours, finally on the last 15 minutes of the ride we saw some animals. They were the same animals I have seen in zoos and circuses my entire life, but after all the distance we went threw to see them in their natural habitat I tried to at least act excited, for my daughter’s sake. Most of the trip we spent on our hands and knees in the jeep trying to find the little tiny screw that popped out the frame of her glasses, which seemed to hold the entire frame together. I didn’t think we were going to find an eye glasses repair shop anywhere nearby as we drove the eight hours threw desserts, jungles and grasslands.

On our safari we would spend the mornings driving from one nature park to the next, eat, spend our afternoons driving around the reserve looking at the animals, have dinner and go to bed early. After being away for what seemed like days, we arrived in time for lunch. The family of elephants we had seen upon arrival, they had all ran along side our jeep, hiding behind the trees and popping out in front of us. It was like we were running in the middle of a giant herd. They came in all sizes and they were very friendly and seemed to have a sense of humor the way the were playing peek a boo with our jeep. It was amazing. We also so giraffes and hyenas, baboons, thousands of birds etc. Just like the Africa section of the local zoo.

So we had taken our showers, and we were sitting out on the deck of our hotel restaurant eating lunch. This first nature reserve we were in was a grasslands type area. There were a few scattered trees but very little underbrush. I hadn’t seen any water sources along the road. Here at the hotel, there was a man made pool of water. This attracted the animals so we tourists could sit drinking a glass of wine and enjoy the native wild life. Our hotel was built up on stilts, the floor was about 8 feet in the air so we were protected, or at least I hoped we were protected from the wildlife that came to drink from the pool. There were walkways, high in the air instead of hallways which lead from our room to the restaurant giving us the opportunity to see the wildlife even as we journeyed down to our buffet lunch.

As we were sitting at our table on a balcony overlooking the pool eating our lunch. We saw that the elephants we had seen on our drive in had been just a small fraction of the herd. Over the course of a half an hour there were probably 50 elephants surrounding the pool. It was amazing to watch them, they are very social animals. At a zoo I have never seen so many together or had the opportunity to see them socialize. They took turns drinking. The communicated with one another with stamping, yelling, and ear flapping. Some would flutter around like a social butterfly spreading gossip among the group. I was mesmerized. They began to shift their positions and the herd of elephants parted like the red sea as a couple came toward the pool. The others quickly closed in around the new couple, the seemed to be lined up like a fence now instead of just milling around in no discernable pattern.

My daughter saw it first, and pointed it out. Soon all the humans were on their feet peering over the edge of the balcony in hopes of getting a glimpse of the very new born baby elephant. He had shiny gray skin, while the others were a dull gray, even the other children. He was not even as tall as his mother’s knee. He emerged magically from between his mother’s legs and went head first into the pool. This being a man made pool instead of a lake there wasn’t the gradual deepening of the water, it was more like a swimming pool, edge and then water. The baby charged from between his mother’s legs and into the water before his parents knew what was happening.

The father elephant started stamping his feet and with his trunk high in the air he let out loud decisive trumpets. The other elephants which had been shielding the family all scattered to the edge of the tree line, about twenty feet from the pool. The mother was attempting to wrap her trunk around the submerged baby elephant who was in over his head. Every time the mother got her trunk around the baby and started to pull him toward the edge he would slip from her trunk. A wet baby elephant appeared to be too heavy and slippery for the mother to pick up. She was able to hold him up and he was still breathing, sputtering a bit, but alive. One of our friends began to film this event. After about a half an hour he stopped filming, we were all convinced that it was only a matter of time before the baby would drown. The mother had been trying for so long and each time she attempted to get him out he would slip under the water. The father elephant was pacing back and forth the entire time, screaming and stamping, shaking his enormous head. I wanted so badly to vault over the balcony and save the baby. I wondered why the Kenyan people who worked and owned the hotel didn’t save this baby. It was all their fault building such a deep pool. It was very dramatic. My daughter was in tears, I returned to the table, not wanted to see the drowning.

My daughter shouted to me to come back to the balcony railing, “look,” she shouted, “the mom is going in.” I raced back to the railing and saw the mother elephant gingerly stepping one foot into the pool, all the while keeping the baby’s head above water with her trunk. The mother elephant seemed to be very concerned about the slipping in the pool, I would imagine that a fall would most probably cause irreparable damage to an animal that enormous. She slowly stepped into the pool one foot at a time, first the front two, then she lowered herself to her knees, the front two knees, I am guessing for more stability while she stepped her back feet into the water. The water was only about half way up the mother elephants legs, which illustrates how small the little baby elephant was, with the water being over his head. So the mother was finally completely in the pool. She managed to keep her baby’s head above water the whole time.

Now the mother was able to position herself behind the baby elephant and use her trunk to push him to the edge of the pool. She push and pushed the baby with her trunk, but every time she got him about half way out of the pool he would tumble back into the water. She must have tried this pushing method a dozen times or more. No progress was made. The father came to help, he tried pulling the baby with his trunk while she was pushing with hers, but it just wasn’t working. The baby had no balance, and appeared to be very slippery. This trial and error went on for more than a half an hour. My friend who was video taping the ordeal put down his camera because he didn’t want to tape the baby drowning. We all began to lose hope that the elephants would be able to get the baby out. The baby was under water more and more. He was lifeless and unresponsive, no longer assisting his parents. I was so frustrated that no one working at the hotel was attempting to save the baby. After all they built this pool, they were responsible for the baby getting stuck, shouldn’t they assist the elephants in the rescue. I was so frustrated I left the railing and sat back down at the table. I really just wanted to go back to the room. I didn’t want to be around for the drowning. I didn’t want to see a dead baby elephant. My daughter wouldn’t leave the railing. She still had faith. It seemed that my daughter the only child present was the only one who still believed this baby elephant would live. My husband and I sat at the table, trying to squeeze another drop of coke threw our straws. Suddenly Mandy yelled for me to come quickly. I really didn’t want to go, but she insisted.

The mother elephant was somehow supporting the baby against the side of the pool. The baby had his trunk over the ledge. The mother was putting her feet up on the ledge, one at a time, and then lowering them back in the water. She appeared to be demonstrating to the baby what she wanted him to do. She would put her foot up on the edge of the pool and then nudge his foot to do the same, all the while supporting him against the side of the pool so he didn’t slip under the water. After just a few demonstrations the baby put one foot and then the other on the edge of the pool. At this point he had his trunk, head, and two feet on the edge of the pool and the mother gave him a swift shove from behind and he tumbled onto the embankment outside the pool. It was amazing. Everyone, all the humans, was so surprised and relieved an enormous roar came from the crowd. The mother elephant had travel up the embankment away from the pool so that at this point she was at eye level with us on the balcony of the hotel, she turned around and faced us, eye to eye, and lifted her trunk in the air and trumpeted a salute of gratitude.