Baby elephant dies after being rescued from a pond

[Lite Beer]

Baby elephant dies after being rescued from a pond

CHANTHABURI: -- A three-day old baby elephant which was helped out of a pond in Chanthaburi ‘s Ang Runai wildlife sanctuary by villagers and later on taken to KhaoKheo wildlife conservation zone in Chon Buri for proper care has died Saturday.

Mr Pitak Yingyong, chief of Klong Kok forest protection unit, who took the baby elephant to Khao Kheo in a pickup truck said that the animal had probably died of starvation and exhaustion because it had not been fed by its mother since it accidentally slipped into the pond in Ang Runai wildlife sanctuary a few days ago.

Villagers found the unfortunate baby elephant on Saturday and helped bring it up to safety and alerted KlongKok forest protection unit to help out.

The officials dug out a hole with the help of a backhoe for the baby elephant to rest with the hope that its mother would come back to search for it but it didn’t.

After vainless wait, the officials decided to truck the baby elephant to KhaoKheo in Chon Buri for proper care but it died eventually.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/baby-elephant-dies-rescued-pond

-- Thai PBS 2015-02-15

[happynthailand]

so sad

[SOTIRIOS]

...what point in rescuing it if you are not going to give it emergency treatment...food, water....etc...what a shame !!!

[Beng]

Sad indeed. very cute the little elephant.

[lonewolf99]

I'm more suprised they did'nt take it to a circus....."proper care" they don't know the meaning.

[binjalin]

a great shame and a simple bottle of fortified milk mix might have saved it

[ataloss]

"Ang Runai wildlife sanctuary"...so much for 'sanctuary'. The gods weep...

[BestBitterPhuket]

Where are the Chang beer guys from the Chang commercial?

[MusV]

Why the "sanctuary people "do not help? They possible can't or don't know how.

***Raising rescued elephant calves is challenging, and mortality rates are high.***

Part of the difficulty is that infants are fully dependent on their mother’s milk until they’re two years old and are not fully weaned until around four or five. Baby elephants also ***can’t*** tolerate the fat in cow’s milk. Finding a suitable substitute for elephant milk took Daphne Sheldrick, ( a Kenyan conservationist and expert in animal husbandry. She knows, to date, she has fostered over 250 calves ) 28 years of trial and error before she hit on a formula (see below) that contained coconut oil-likely the nearest replacement for the fat in elephant milk. Baby elephants are extremely fragile.

***They can be fine one day and tragically dead the next.***

That is where experience comes in-just being able to detect any such signs early enough to do something about it.

BUT...

With a little research with the help from GOOGLE ... you'll find this link ... and the Elephant Baby could possible still ALIVE!.

http://www.vicfallswildlifetrust.org/OUR%20ORPHANS.html

... with a Milk formula for an Elephant orphans.

Milk formula recommendations for elephant, we have used over the years:

CALCIUM 1/4 teaspoon

ECONOMIX (lowfat powdered milk) 150grams

ASCORBIC ACID 1/4teaspoon

EQUINOFOX (mineral iron) 1/4teaspoon

COCONUT FLAKES 1/2teaspoon

GLUCOSE 50grams

BABY CEREAL (pronutro) 100grams

METHOD:

-ADD COCONUT INTO TWO LITRE EMPTY BOTTLE

-ADD 50ML HOT WATER TO SOFTEN COCONUT FOR 10-30 MINUTES

-ADD THE REST OF THE INGREDIENTS INTO THE BOTTLE

-FILL UP BOTTLE WITH HOT WATER

LEAVE BOTTLE TO COOL DOWN TO LUKE WARM TEMPERATURE BEFORE FEEDING ELEPHANT

**BABY CEREAL TO BE REPLACED BY POWDERED CUBES AFTER SIX MONTHS

[Toknarok]

As per the above post baby elephants need their mothers milk to survive. Unless you have the ingredients for artificial feed and the expertise to administer it then the animal will perish. Years ago when I was in Africa a baby elephant was brought to the camp where I was staying. All we had to feed it was dried cows milk. We got onto the National Parks head office and asked for advice. Their answer was 'take it out and shoot it, trying to save it will only cause it un-necessary suffering'. It broke our hearts to do it, but we knew it was the best solution.