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Elephant rescue mission: Saving Baby Salama in Amboseli

Friday March 25 2016
Mag5March26

A herd of elephants at Amboseli National Park. PHOTO | SUSAN MUUMBI

Zainabu Salim answered her mobile phone and was alerted that a herd of elephants was in distress. A calf had fallen into the swamp and the mother couldn’t get it out.

A group of editors from local media houses were on a game drive in Amboseli National Park and we had already seen some zebra, gazelles and buffalo, and we were hoping to catch the elephants up close.

As the senior warden of the park, Zainabu took charge of the rescue operation. Several phone calls later, she had gathered a team of Kenya Wildlife Service rangers for the rescue mission. We approached the area carefully.

The calf was crying in the swamp and its mother was pacing up and down, 50m away, trying to keep vehicles away from the area. She raised her trunk and trumpeted her frustration. The message was loud and clear: If you touch my baby you may not live to tell the tale. Her sisters stood close by, in case backup was needed. The threat was real.

Along came Norah Njiraini from the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. Norah knows every elephant in Amboseli National Park.

First, mother and sisters had to be persuaded to move about 100m away and stay there. Two Land Cruisers drove between the herd and the baby and revved their engines. The elephants moved a safe distance away and the rangers got to work.

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My colleague Sandra and I got out of the car and followed Zainabu to the edge of the swamp, camera and mobile phone rolling.

Three rangers took off their shoes, grabbed a rope and jumped in. Over clumps of thick grass and through fetid water they made their way to the screaming calf and tied the rope around its middle. Half-carrying, half-pushing, slipping and sliding and falling in the thick mud, they made their way to solid ground.

Zainabu, giving instructions from the side, later joined in to give a hand. Her deputy, Joseph Dadachi, came along to escort the barely recognisable mud-coated calf back to its mother. And what a noisy reunion. Mother trumpeted her gratitude, and, after a group hug, baby remembered it was hungry and proceeded to suckle.

As we gathered our emotions, Norah was busy. She realised that the baby, male, was not in her records. He had been born just four days before to the S family, where the matriarch, Sadie, was born in 1964.

He needed a name, Sandra shouted out Salama (safe) and I echoed it in agreement. It was fitting for Sandra and Susan to name Baby Salama.

And so we went off to enjoy a celebratory drink at the windy Observation Hill, the viewpoint in the park. From here, we could see surrounding flat land with small hills in the distance, the snow on the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, and we watched the bright orange sun go down.

We had flown into Amboseli that morning from Nairobi. The 35-minute “game flight” provided magnificent views of Uhuru and Kibo peaks on Mount Kilimanjaro, flamingos in Lake Amboseli, and herds of elephants.

On the drive from the airstrip to Amboseli Serena, where we spent two nights, we saw several species of birds. Our driver informed us that there are more than 600 species of birds in the park.

Because the terrain is mostly flat, wildlife is easy to spot. On another game drive the following afternoon, we came across a herd of more than a hundred elephants.

They had spent the day feeding in the swamps and were now returning to their “sleeping” grounds. The driver switched off the car engine and we waited patiently as the huge pachyderms walked silently past the cars. They were within spitting distance.

Awed by their size and calm demeanour, we respectfully took pictures and filmed them walking by. And when the rain fell, and the rainbow came out, the scene was picture perfect.

But don’t just take my word that Amboseli is spectacular. Take that three-hour drive from Nairobi, or the short flight from Wilson Airport in Nairobi, and experience magical Amboseli for yourself. And while you’re there, do check on Baby Salama for me.

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