Elephant orphan Phabeni is not among us anymore

Raising baby elephants is challenging, especially when you know that even the teething process is life-threatening. 

Although it is not easy, we can not lose our spirit and energy to continue, as there there are still lives to be saved out there. 

An extract from Adine’s Letter on the loss of Phabeni 💚

The loss of Phabeni hit us all hard, as the loss of anyone does. We stayed awake beside the little bull, and listened to his breathing. It was all we could hear. Until we could not hear it anymore. Owen was not prepared for the autopsy even though he tried to be there for it, perhaps to offer us support. But it is a brutal thing to go through. Especially considering how close we had become to Phabeni over the months he was with us. We had come to love him. Stavros, Herman, Khensani, Reply, Joshua, Liverson… these men and women were a family to Phabeni. They celebrated when Setombe took him in, they cried with me seeing how the females in the herd allowed him to comfort suckle from them. We were devoted to him every day, with every trying milk feeding, every nap under the reeds, every race to meet his herd, every night beside his sheep.

The odds of survival for elephant orphan calves is low. A report by BBC sharing the loss of an orphan at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust when Dame Daphne Sheldrick was still alive, shared that as many calves that survive, die. There is simply so much against them each step of the way for the first two years of their lives. It is a far easier task to raise rhino orphan calves, since they are able to thrive on a standard milk formula that suits all and does not need to be changed. My time raising rhino orphans was certainly hard work, but not nearly as challenging as caring for these gentle giant babies.

Watching Daphne in the video interview with BBC as she got emotional over the loss of a baby in their care, I can’t help but find comfort in seeing especially a woman in conservation letting her raw and real feelings show. Even the carers show their hearts’ truths. So often in conservation, cold facts and statistics lead. But there is a very real human and animal heart to the stories of the work we do, in the loss and triumph. We battled with Khanyisa over the years, but were able to pull her through. Similarly with Jabulani, Timisa and Kumbura, these little fighters thrived enough to walk alongside the other orphans from Zimbabwe. But the odds claim many.

Read the full letter here.

Read communication from Herd about the passing away of Phabeni.