For Orphaned Elephant Calf, Harrowing Rescue Ends in Hope
In Kenya, baby elephant fights to survive after poachers poisoned her mother.
MASAI MARA, KenyaOne day last October, a mother elephant and her ten-month-old calf were seen playing together on the plains of the Masai Mara National Reserve when a passing tourist photographed the tranquil scene.
Twenty-four hours later, on October 22, the young calf was spotted again—this time standing over her mother's poisoned carcass, seemingly reluctant to leave her side.
The young calf had her head down, and her trunk was draped across the mother's back when Richard Roberts, from the Mara Elephant Project, arrived.
After examining the dead mother more closely, he found a poisoned spear wound in her cheek, indicating a fatal attack by ivory poachers.
The mother was still nursing the calf before the lethal, fast-acting poison stopped her heart, and
