CONSERVATION

My Orphan Elephant in Sri Lanka

Florence Age 2 weeks

Our first visit to Sri Lanka was in 2003 after a very successful exhibition at Banham Zoo in Norfolk where the commission from our sales was used to rebuild the Sri Lankan leopard enclosure.  As I really wanted to see Sri Lankan leopards in the wild, we decided to visit that lovely island to photograph them in their natural habitat and flew out there in January 2003.

From our rented house in the south of the island we were going to Yala National Park to find and photograph leopards, but on the way we visited  the Born Free sponsored Elephant Transit Home (ETH).  We stopped at the Home to talk to the vets and see the wonderful work they were doing in raising orphaned baby elephants until they were about 4 years old and then releasing them back into the wild. 

In a pen at the back of the buildings was this tiny female elephant only about 3 weeks old and looking like a little woolly mammoth (they are very hairy), trumpeting and squealing and waving her trunk, desperate to touch and suck anything, from the bars of the pen, to keepers hands and anything else within reach.  She was heartbreakingly frail and traumatised, but Dr. Suhada Jawardane was feeding her every two hours through a small tube attached to an old plastic lemonade bottle as her digestion was very delicate and she was having problems feeding.  Not all elephants survive this trauma of losing their mothers. 

She had been found up in the north of the island near Trincolmalee during the civil conflict by some Navy personnel, who contacted the Department of Wildlife.  One of the vets Dr. Vijitha Perera – who has become a good friend to us – drove up to rescue her and bring her back to ETH. 

After rescue, all the baby elephants soon learn to feed through the hosepipe that is popped into their pink squashy mouths.  There is a funnel at the top and the milk is poured in and goes down a treat – four gallons a day for a big baby!  There is much squealing and jostling at the fence where they line up to be fed and tiny trunks often sneak across to the next baby who is still feeding to steal the hosepipe and take some more milk! 

We talked to the vet Dr. Suhada about the problems of keeping these baby elephants alive after such trauma and then returned to see this tiny orphan girl.  She had fallen asleep standing up, swaying slightly on her little legs with her eyes tight shut – just exhausted trying to survive.  As a mother and grandmother I became very emotional at seeing such a pitiful orphan and the tears rolled down my face at the thought of such a magical creature losing her mother.  But pity alone won’t buy life, so my mind was made up.

 On my return to England I contacted the Department of Wildlife and Conservation and signed up to be the sole foster parent for this baby elephant.  The deal was that for the next 4 years I would pay for her elephant formula milk, paid for from the sale of my artwork.  As her sole ‘Mummy’  I was allowed to name her – she is called FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE after an illustrious ancestor!!

 We visited her for the next 2 years, but missed her 2^nd year.  However when we visited her in 2006 when she was 3 years old, something really magical happened.  It was my birthday and I had fed her a gallon or two of milk.  She was growing really sturdy and strong by now and after the feed, I spoke softly to her as we stood by the fence together.  She then plucked some grass and tried to feed me with it – I politely refused – so she popped it into her mouth and then the amazing bond was remembered.  As I continued to talk to her she gently ran her trunk all over my body to get my smell, into my hair and around my face.  It was an intensely moving experience feeling this warm, bristly and very strong trunk, gently blowing and sucking warm air as she remembered my scent from 2 years before.  Luckily Jim was videoing this, so I have forever my best ever birthday present. 

In  April 2007 she was 4 years old and it was time for her to be released back into the wild, so we took two of our children and three of our grandchildren out to see Grandma’s Elephant.  The night before her release I went to see her at the ETH and to feed her one last time.  She had grown fit and strong and had her radio collar in place.  After I had fed her a couple of jugs of milk formula and  talked to her, she once more caressed my face with her trunk, then gently laid her trunk on my head almost as a benediction and then walked away. My eyes were full of tears.

 The release day was magical, with the Buddhist monks in attendance to create good karma for the future of the elephants – 10 were to be released together, with the Minister for the Environment sprinkling them with holy water.  Florence was putting up a spirited display of non co-operation at entering the truck and the little elephant she had befriended as she had been befriended 4 years ago, was trying to get into the truck with her.  As he was only 18 months old, it was not his time to go out into the wild, so he was gently shooed away. 

We drove for about an hour into the heart of Uda Walawe National Park, undid the ropes around the elephants’ feet and they just ambled out of the truck into the wild.  There were tears in my eyes as I watched her go: she had been a huge part of my life for 4 years and through her I have made many friends in Sri Lanka.  But it is right for her to go – wild she was born and wild she must be.

 2008 – Visited Sri Lanka, but were unable to gain entry to the park because of the civil war.

 2009 -  February.  We returned again to this beautiful island and again stayed at our usual hotel near the park, and within an hour of our arrival, the manager had recognised us and the word went out that Elephant Mummy was back!  The waiters all came shyly up to shake our hands and ask how was my baby – some baby now!  They hold elephants in reverential respect and awe and although  they call me Elephant Mummy they think it amazing that some Westerner should fly across the world to see one baby elephant.  However, with the vet and a tracker, we found her fit and fat and living with some of the babies released with her and some the previous year. 

 Her home is idyllic by a huge lake and she moves in and out quite happily with the wild herds of elephants that live there.  We did not get too close as she is not humanised any more and in any case there was a really handsome young wild bull elephant with her and her friends grazing on the lush greenery. 

 

 

 

 

 

So this is story has a happy ending, Florence will have another radio collar fitted in 2010 to last another 3 years and then she will be 10 years old and will not be tracked again.  However, as she has a hole in her left ear and a lump on her side, I would recognise her again. Mothers  know!!

 It is also a wonderful opportunity to return to Sri Lanka to try and track her as she grows into a majestic and magical adult and meet again the lovely people who are now  dear friends and who I would never have met if I had not become so involved with the  tiny frail creature we first found in 2003. 

If you wish to adopt a baby elephant through the Department of Wildlife and Conservation or Born Free, just go to the Links page.