The Milgis Trust

Yes I’m afraid so…Despite having all the scouts that live any where near the luggas, heading down to open up wells for the wildlife every day, we have a new well victim…. Here with the story written by Moses Lesoloyia, Milgis Trust manager.. unfortunately do not have any pictures of the incident, so heres a couple taken in January 2009

The Dam that is now dry with the Rock of Ol Donyo Wuas behind..

On 17^th morning around 8 o clock we received a report from Lesanchu that there is a young elephant in a kisima, [well] down on the lower Elgerei. I contacted Helen with the news, and 5 of us piled into the landrover and headed off down the very slow track to Ndonyo Wuas. We took with us a blanket, ORS,[ rehydrate salts] spades, ropes, water and bottles. The kisima was dug in the now dry dam that the Elephants have been relying on, the bush around the dam is very thick which took us quite a time to cut through, but all the time we could hear the desperate crys of the Elephant struggling to get out of the Kisima… On arrival we assessed the 10 feet well and decided the fastest way to get it out is by throwing a loop round the youngster and to pull it out, the baby was thrashing around so much, making it too dangerous for somebody to go in. We made a loop with the thick rope [after the last big elephant rescue we made sure we had the right equipment] and put it round its chest as it raised its legs to try and come out. We pulled it out and it stood immediately and started chasing people around. Kosma and Lenkulate struggled to catch her but soon managed to calm her down.. We gave her 2 liters of ORS solution and went on giving it normal water the rest of the day. On our way to rescue the baby we had made a decision if she was in good enough shape, that we will try and link the baby with the mother. We ensured that no one touched it. We collected water from the well and stayed with it so that we could pour it on her if we heard the mother coming. Everybody was sure by 5 the mother will be there!!. We sent 3 scouts to try and find any eleys nearby, but with no luck… At one time the baby was urinating so frequently and we got worried that it had a big problem but after consulting Helen we were assured, that hopefully it wasn’t.. By 4 o clock we decided to move away abit from the well to set up our camp, below the Ndonyo Wuas rock and left three guys with the baby near the kisima. The rest of us went up the rock with binoculars to monitor any eleys coming, so that we could alert by radio the guys with the baby to pour the water on it, and dodge it and leave it to make a noise for the mother to come for it. We did this till 6.30 pm and darkness was already falling. We decided to move out of the thick bush because it was abit risky to stay in there as we were expecting all the usual Elephants to come in for water..

The Dam that the Elephants rely on at Ol Donyo Wuas.. South end of Ndotos behind. The dam is dry now and the Samburu have dug wells in the mud, for their livestock.. even though we have dug special wide wells for the Eleys in the main Lugga they insist on coming back to this dry natural dam.. that will fill up when the lugga floods..

2 people stayed on the higher bank of the of the dry dam so as to alert the rest of us if any eleys are coming in, and the rest of the group stayed with the baby in between the rock and the dam.. They stayed away from the baby so that it made a noise for the mother to hear, and were ready with their ‘running shoes’ should she come!!… By 9 we were losing hope and started thinking, maybe the eleys had followed the rain that was now falling on the Matthews range and the mother feared coming back alone. At 10.30 two bulls came in and stood for 5 minutes listening to the baby making a noise, but sadly it wasn’t their problem, so they drunk water from a different kisima and left. By this time every body was struggling to keep off mosquitoes, but we were here to do a serious job, and the advantage was, they helped keep us awake! We didn’t make a fire because we didn’t want to show our presence. We had taken dinner by 5. We stayed on and on till morning with no luck. We truly felt if the mother had come in we would have won the battle. This is something we are going to build on, by liaising with DSWT and try as much as possible to return babies to their mothers. But this time having had no luck, at 6.30 in the mining, we called Helen with the sad news, loaded her on the landy drove the 2 hours to the airstrip. We had given her another 2 liters of ORS solution and later at the airstrip another 2 liters of normal water. Finally the little eley fell asleep at the airstrip. . The Plane arrived to pick her up for her journey to the amazing DSWT orphanage in Nairobi, where Angela will keep us informed… Fingers crossed for the little surviver..All the people involved in the rescue were surprised that the mother didn’t come back, as this is very unusual with eleys and the following opinions were voiced.. .

• The mother feared coming back alone if the group went very far.
• Mother was old and not very strong due to drought
• Mother had previously lost a baby this way had so lost hope of this one too…

Unfortunately we won’t know… But the drought is probably not helping, with the fact that Nomadic people from all around, , especially from the Kaisut Desert, have come into this area, with thousands of camels, cows, goats, and sheep, and they are all trying to survive these hard times… There does seem to be a ” good agreement ” between the people and the wildlife, and every one sticks to it!!.. Wildlife have the use of the Lugga, and all that it gives at night, people by day…

BY the way the genet that was brought in to us about 3 weeks ago, it must gone out with its mother on one of its first nights out, and followed her into the well, but could not get out, is doing very well, and keeping me busy!.. It will be released at Elkanto when its old enough..