On the 22nd October Richard Roberts from the Mara Elephant Project contacted us about the plight of a young milk dependent calf, approximately 10 months old, whose mother had been found dead on the plains of the Masai Mara that day. Closer inspection of the dead mother revealed that she had been poached and died from a poisoned spear wound on her cheek. She had been photographed by a visitor happily feeding with her little baby underfoot, both alive and well.
The next day the tragedy unfolded and the same visitor found a very different scenario with the baby confused by her dead mothers side, but in the company of the rest of the herd, trying to come to terms with it all. The little calf was then whisked away by the rest of the herd but not before she had said her painful goodbyes to her lifeless mother. As a milk dependent baby she would have little hope of survival without being rescued as a lactating mother in the herd would never have enough milk to satiate two calves. The tragedy was reported to the Mara Elephant Project and KWS. Everyone realized that her young milk dependent calf had little hope of survival without her Mum and that she needed to be rescued before the herd travelled great distances with her, possibly into Tanzania where the hope of any rescue would be lost forever. The baby without sufficient milk would only get weaker and weaker and eventually be unable to keep up with the herd, and be left behind.
As the days have passed little Roi has settled in completely and is now extremely attached to her Keepers, familiar with the routine and is playing once more and she appears to be genuinely happy.