It was August 2009 when we received reports in the Masai Mara Game Reserve that a female elephant who had a calf was in a state of collapse, unable to move. By the time the Trusts Mobile Veterinary Unit arrived on the scene, the mother was in a pathetic condition, desperate, terrified and only able to move her front legs and her trunk, her baby close to her side fearful and confused. The KWS Vet attached to the Mobile Veterinary Unit, Dr. Dominic Mjele discovered that she had a shattered femur which had resulted in irreparable nerve damage, and that she therefore had no hope of recovery. It appeared that the injury had been caused by a bullet and it was obvious now that the mother would have to be euthenazed, and the calf rescued since it was only about one year old, and as such still milk dependent. He therefore alerted the Trust in Nairobi that a Rescue was on the cards, and the plane, with the Keepers and the necessary rescue paraphernalia aboard, set off from Wilson Airfield in Nairobi for Olkiombo airstrip in the Masai Mara where Dr. Dominic Mjele along with some KWS Rangers awaited them.
It was a heart wrenching scene that greeted them, the mother desperately attempting to protect her calf. With the assistance of the KWS Rangers, the Keepers managed to overpower the calf and once the baby was loaded and on its way to the waiting plane, the Vet euthenazed the mother and so end her unbearable suffering. The female calf was named Olare- the name of the area in which her mother died and from whence she was rescued.