Trompie the Elephant

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As some of you may know me & my family have interests in a couple of game reserves in southern Africa. Last week rangers at the Limpopo Lapadi reserve in Botswana found a 4 day old abandoned elephant calf all alone in a ditch. It was very dehydrated and could hardly walk. Apparently caring for young elephants isn't easy so the reserve's conservationist made the decision to risk flying it (at great expense) to an elephant nursery in Zimbabwe https://www.zimbabweelephantnursery.com/ where it could receive 24 hour a day medical care.

Happily it survived the journey (2 flights and 7 hours on the road) and is doing very well.

They've named him Trompie. I'm not not normally too soppy but this thing is seriously cute.

[Amethyst]

Oh that is cute. Poor little thing looks lost. What happened to his Mum ?

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They haven't got a clue.

[Amethyst]

Bless, not poachers then, just abandoned - maybe it's poorly in someway so Mum ditched it ( literally lol )

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Update from Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery.

We haven’t done mud bath yet and not too much swimming as I’m careful with that umbillicus but he loved the sand today!

Yes! Some Ellie’s are so gloomy ... this one is awfully perky!

[Peridot]

Sooo cute. Hope all goes well with the little tike

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Apparently he's taken a turn for the worse and has stopped feeding. They're quite concerned about his prospects now.

This was taken a few days ago.

[Peridot]

sad, nature is horrible sometimes. Maybe he'll pull through and he's being given the best chance. Fingers crossed.