A heartwarming video has captured the moment a lost elephant calf was reunited with her missing family in northern Kenya. The four-month-old orphan had become separated from her herd and wandered, by chance, into a tourist camp in the Samburu National Reserve.
Unsure what to do, staff tied the calf to a tree and contacted a local elephant research group led by Professor George Wittemyer of Colorado State University. Scouring the reserve, Professor Wittemyer and his team eventually tracked down a group of elephants they believed was her family.
After providing the exhausted calf with water and a cooling mud bath, the researchers returned the orphan to her herd. As the calf tentatively stepped out of the trailer, the researchers watched in anticipation to see if she would be welcomed back home.
Joyful Reunion
Much to Professor Wittemyer's relief, the calf's aunt, known as Adelaide, noticed the baby and came to investigate. Adelaide trumpeted to the calf, and the calf called back, setting off a chain reaction that soon had the whole herd rushing to welcome their family member home.
As the elephants recognised the missing calf, they began what Professor Wittemyer describes as a 'greeting ceremony'. With a chorus of rumbling calls, each elephant in the group ran over to the calf and circled tightly around her.
'Elephants are highly social, forming powerful bonds between each other that last a lifetime,' says Professor Wittemyer. 'Similar to our societies, these bonds make up the social fabric of elephant society and underpin the rich behaviours elephants exhibit.'
Sad Discovery
Sadly, the researchers later found the body of the young elephant's mother, who had died of natural causes. However, elephants have incredibly tight social networks, and other family members stepped up to ensure their young relative survived. Researchers say the calf, which has not been given a name, is now being cared for by her aunts, Adelaide and Markle. Markle, who lost her own calf earlier in the year, even nursed the hungry calf after her return to the herd.
The young calf still managed to scare the researchers one last time when she appeared lying motionless in a river depression the following morning. The herd had already moved on to higher ground, and Professor Wittemyer feared she had died in the night. But about an hour later, the calf woke up from her lie-in and began calling out for her aunties. Hearing her wayward charge, Adelaide soon led the family back to the river, surrounding the calf before moving on.
Elephant Social Bonds
Elephants live in closely connected female-led groups, controlled by a dominant older female known as the matriarch. Their deep social relationships have fascinated researchers for decades, revealing powerful bonds of family and friendship between herd members.
Professor Wittemyer says: 'Elephants are one of the most sentient and, therefore, relatable animals we share this planet with. Social intelligence is absolutely vital for Earth's largest land animals to survive in the harsh environment of the savanna.'
Elephant calves have a hard start to life and are at great risk of being lost, as research shows that their mothers do not slow down their pace even slightly after they are born. Elephants must stay constantly on the move, chasing water and fresh vegetation to fuel their enormous bodies. That means young calves must be ready to keep up with the pack from the very day they are born. Previous studies have shown that elephant herds' average speed only drops marginally on the day of a birth, before getting right back to full pace the next day. Thanks to a 22-month gestation period, elephant calves are born ready to run alongside their family, with a little help from their aunts along the way.
Conservation Challenges
However, Professor Wittemyer's own research suggests that this nomadic lifestyle is becoming harder to sustain. Elephants need huge amounts of land to roam and can cause huge damage to people's property if they move through farmland or populated areas. Thanks to conservation efforts and a crackdown on poaching, the elephant population of the Samburu National Reserve has been slowly recovering. Scientists estimated that there are now around 900 elephants that pass through the park each year.
But encroaching human development could be putting that progress at risk. Professor Wittemyer used drones and GPS radio collars to track elephants' collective movements. This revealed that elephants were often forced to wander off protected land in search of food and water, putting them in conflict with people. Over the last 20 years, these elephants' movements have contracted in areas where the human population has expanded and where wilderness has been developed for human use.
'Landscape integrity and protection are critical for the species’ survival given projections about human population growth in Africa over the next 80 years,' says Professor Wittemyer. 'At the same time, we need solutions that reduce the challenges of living alongside elephants while helping people appreciate the remarkable lives these animals lead.'
