How goats help these elephants flourish

By Rachael Bale, ANIMALS Executive Editor

One of the challenges of caring for rescued wildlife is figuring out what to feed them. Pangolins, for example, are really hard to keep alive in captivity because no one’s quite cracked the code of their diet. For other animals, decades of research has helped their caretakers fine-tune food and formulas that come close to replacing what they’d get in the wild.

At the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary, in northern Kenya, orphaned elephant calves get a concoction based on human infant formula. It works pretty well. They grow up, and many are later released back into the wild.

But travel restrictions during the pandemic complicated things. Reteti is in a remote area, and it became difficult for staff to get the baby formula their elephant calves needed, Ayenat Mersie reports for Nat Geo. Plus, with the drop in tourism income, they needed to save money. Imported baby formula was out.

So they looked in their own backyard. Most of the people living in the community-owned conservancy of Namunyak, where Reteti is, are herders. Their livelihood is based on raising and selling livestock, including goats. After calculations about caloric content, protein, fat, vitamins, and other nutrients, Reteti staff realized a goat milk-based formula just might work for the elephants. (Pictured above, some elephants have learned to feed themselves. Below, Nturuyayi Lengees collects fresh goat milk to deliver to the sanctuary.)

And it did. The elephant calves happily drink it, and they’re growing up big and strong. Plus, pastoralist families in the conservancy now have another source of income—selling fresh goat milk to Reteti. That’s been especially valuable as livestock markets closed during the pandemic, leaving families with no one to sell to.

At this point, supply can’t keep up with Reteti’s demand, so the sanctuary is working with herders on how to increase milk yields while protecting the land from overgrazing. Read more about this innovative and resourceful solution, and how it helped save a baby elephant named Sera, here. Happy World Elephant Day!

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TODAY IN A MINUTE

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Go deeper: Read more about Rollefson’s work promoting camel milk

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THE LAST GLIMPSE

Bouncing back: Jacob the lion has been snared. Trapped. Gored by a buffalo. Yet the lion has kept going, on three legs now—hunting, mating, and becoming a symbol of hope, Douglas Main reports. (Above, Nat Geo Explorer Alex Braczkowski photographed Jacob walking through Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda in early February.)

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