Sticky Situation

Elephant Rescue

Ltingai Dam is located in Isiolo County at Tale area about 50 kilometres from Loisaba.  It was dug by Loisaba conservancy in order to help to provide water for the abundant wildlife in the Laikipia/Samburu corridor and the neighbouring community livestock since this area is very dry.

Unfortunately, due to unplanned community grazing and an absence of vegetation cover, surface soil erosion has produced a lot of silt in the dam, and during the dry season when the water level decreases, the silt takes many days to dry out completely. When this happens livestock and wildlife are in danger of becoming stuck in the silt, and it can take herdsmen many hours to release a cow or a shoat* because of the strong sucking action of the mud; worse still, if no one notices, the animal may fall victim to nocturnal predators.

When it comes to wildlife, herbivores such as antelope, zebra, or buffalo are highly like to be eaten by predators if they become entrapped, but when it is a carnivore like hyena, jackal, or leopard they may be killed by members of the community who view such predators as a threat to their own livestock.

Fortunately, when a big animal such as an elephant becomes stuck, the community are more likely to notify the Security Team at Loisaba so that they can try to rescue the animal.

In 2020, a team of rangers from Loisaba was involved in the rescue of a twenty-five year old bull. He was sedated by staff from the Northern Rangelands Trust and then pulled out using a tractor. This elephant was extremely lucky given that he has spent over twenty-four hours whirling about in the mud and exposed to immense danger from the predators around him.

On the 17^th January, 2021, as the silt was drying out once more, the community reported that there was another elephant stuck in the dam. Loisaba Conservancy sent rangers and a tractor to rescue the helpless elephant and again, she was sedated by staff from the Northern Rangelands Trust. Arriving at the scene, David Saruni, Loisaba Security Administrator, recalls how intimidating it was to be so close to a mature elephant, estimating that she was aged between fifteen and twenty years.

“Until she was sedated, she tried to scare us away by trumpeting repeatedly, and it was extremely loud. Elephants don’t like the smell of humans and now she was surrounded by them and this was her only way of protesting as there was nothing else she could do,” reports David.

Once she was docile enough, the team spent the next two hours standing in the mire themselves, trying to get her out. They passed a rope around her body and slowly pulled her out using the tractor. The silt acted like a vacuum, the powerful force holding her down but eventually the team was successful and she was released from the mud without injury.

To everyone’s relief, ten minutes after she had been removed from the silt, she recovered from the strong sedative, stood up and then disappeared into the bushes without a backwards glance. 

 

* shoat – sheep or goat