Elephant calf adopted by the Jabulani herd
AN ELEPHANT calf has found his new home after he was successfully introduced to the Jabulani herd after being reared in the care of the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC) for the past 16 months.
Shawu was found wandering along the R40, between Klaserie and Hoedspruit in Limpopo, in November 2016.
He was taken to the HESC, where facilities and expertise of the highest standard are available.
Shawu arrived at HESC extremely distressed, hungry and thirsty, without any knowledge of the amount of time he had survived on his own.
The HESC team worked around the clock to ensure his survival, which entailed being bottle fed every two hours and 24-hour care, and his state of health improved rapidly.
“Although human intervention by qualified individuals is essential to his survival, our aim was always to reintroduce him to a herd of his own once again. Since elephants have a very strong sense of family and elephant calves are cared for by the entire herd, the decision was made to introduce Shawu to the Jabulani herd,” said Camp Jabulani owner Adine Roode.
Careful planning, consultations and scientific research was carried out extensively before the decision to introduce him to a herd was made.
The introduction was on April 7, when it was decided that the least stressful way of getting Shawu to the herd would be by foot, so that he would not experience unnecessary emotional stress from using transportation.
Preparations for the 18km walk from HESC to the Camp Jabulani included increasing his daily walking distance every day to get him physically ready. On the day, the group took numerous pit stops to drink, rest and enjoy a mud bath en-route too.
Once introduced to his new herd, Shawu initially bolted for the Jabulani stables.
“The herd followed his trail eagerly, excited to protect and welcome this young elephant to the family.
Tokwe (the matriarch) was the first elephant to approach Shawu directly, and placed her trunk protectively around him, in a hugging-like manner, as if to reassure him,” said Roode. – Staff Writer