Elephant extraction 101
There are fewer than 30 "big tuskers" left in the world – elephants whose gigantic tusks reach almost to the ground. A resident of Amboseli National Park in Kenya, Tim is one of Africa’s largest and most magnificent tuskers, and thought by some to be the largest elephant on earth.
Tim was involved in a headline-grabbing incident in 2016 when he wandered into a conservationists’ camp with a large spear sticking out of his head. Tim knew he needed help, and also knew where to find it. Two years prior, he had survived another spear attack after vets in Amboseli removed the weapon and treated the wound – which had turned septic – with antibacterial clay.
It seems that an elephant never forgets, as Tim again sought help from humans after his second spearing incident. This time, Amboseli's most famous elephant was sedated by a tranquiliser dart and treated by a vet from the Kenya Wildlife Service, before quickly recovering and heading back into the bush.
Tim was in trouble again recently, but his sticky situation meant that heading off to find help wasn’t an option. On Monday, the Big Life Foundation – which protects over 1.6 million acres of wilderness in the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem – received a report of a big bull elephant stuck in deep mud at Kimana Swamp, about 20 kilometres east of Amboseli.
Comments
Kennedy
22/12/2018 11:18 AM
Awesome job