Recently, residents of a village in Isiolo County, Kenya, were walking by a mud pit when they noticed something moving inside it. As they looked more closely, they realized a huge elephant was stuck inside with no way of freeing herself.
The concerned
residents immediately called the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rapid response team, who rushed to the scene immediately. It was late at night by the time KWS got to the elephant, so they stayed close by until it was possible to free her.
“[They] spent the night by her side, protecting her from predators and monitoring her until a rescue could be mobilized the next morning,” Sean Michael, director of communications at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT), told The Dodo.
Unfortunately, during the dry season, it’s not uncommon for elephants and other wildlife to get trapped in mud pits.
“Water pans dry up, creating sticky, quicksand-like mud that can be a real trap for large, heavy creatures like elephants,” Michael said.
At first light, the KWS Meru Mobile Vet Unit and SWT got to work freeing the large elephant from the mud pit. Female African elephants can weigh up to 8,000 pounds, so it took a large team of people and specialized equipment to hoist her out.
“It took several hours of incremental progress — extricating a full-grown elephant from suction-like mud is no small task — but the teams finally managed to pull her to freedom,” SWT wrote on Facebook.
Once the elephant was finally out of the mud, the rescue team members were relieved, but they weren’t sure how she was going to be doing. Thankfully, the mud ordeal didn’t seem to take much of a toll on her and she hopped up right away.
“Often, mud victims are dehydrated and exhausted from their ordeal,” Michael said. “Fortunately, this female was in excellent condition — she got right to her feet and needed very little recovery time.”
The elephant’s rescuers were surprised and delighted to find that the elephant was feeling well enough to get feisty with them. For any rescued wild animal, apprehension around humans is actually a great sign and means they’re strong enough to go off on their own.
“[S]he was feeling so fit that she promptly turned around and charged at the veterinary vehicle,” Michael said.
The elephant quickly ran off in the direction of her herd to rejoin them. Thanks to the dedicated rescuers who worked hard to help this elephant, she survived a dangerous moment and got to reunite with her family.
“It was a challenging mission, which made it all the more rewarding to see this elephant back on solid ground and standing tall — even with her unexpected car charge,” Michael said.
