Monday, October 22, 2012

The Mother and Child reunion is only a motion away


  
NAIROBI, Kenya 

How do you pull a baby elephant out of a deep, muddy hole? A rope and a Land Rover. Then the payoff: A frantic baby elephant sprint to mom.

A heartwarming video of the rescue of a baby elephant in a Kenyan national park that lies in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro gained a mass of viewers on Thursday. The video shows the rescuers' potentially dangerous faceoff with the mother elephant and their struggle to get her calf out of a 5-foot (1.5-meter) hole.

Vicki Fishlock of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants faced down the mother with her Land Rover, and made a high-pitched aye-aye-aye call to help drive the mother off. Thirty muddy minutes later, after two men struggle to get a rope around the 8-month-old calf, Fishlock put her SUV in reverse and pulled the animal out.

"Relief! Rescues where family members are around are stressful, and I'm always happy when everyone is safely back in the cars. And I have to admit that the reunions always bring a tear to my eye. The intensity of their affection for each other is one of the things that makes elephants so special," Fishlock said.


There is a video of the rescue and the rest of the story here.  It is definitely worthwhile watching the rescue, especially if you're an animal lover like me.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Oh, look Toto - we have visitors!