Like all mothers, she wakes up in the middle of the night to feed her baby. But the bottle that Jenny Webb prepares is not for a baby, but for an orphaned elephant that she takes care of as a child, only a few weeks old. We are in Malawi, in Lilongwe, where the elephant, found by rangers in the grass of a river bed in the Vwazi Wildlife Reserve park, now lives with its human family.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Like all mothers, she wakes up in the middle of the night to feed her baby. But the bottle that Jenny Webb prepares is not for a baby, but for a orphaned baby elephant that she treats like a son, left only a few weeks old. We are in Malawi, in Lilongwe to be precise, where the elephant, found by rangers in the grass of a river bed in the park of the Vwazi Wildlife Reserve, now lives with his human family.
When little Moses was rescued, he tried to find his family for days, but without success. The mother was probably killed by poachers, who kill tens of thousands of elephants every year for their ivory tusks. Lacking funds to care for Moses, the park entrusted him to the Jumbo Foundation Animal Orphanage.
Now Jenny is taking care of the pachyderm, which today weighs 100 kg and drinks 24 liters of infant formula every day enhanced with coconut milk and 14 other ingredients. “Elephants are extremely sensitive. We think of elephants as big and strong creatures, but in reality they are very emotional ", immediately tells the human mother of Moses, who is now doing everything to respect its ethology and make it a healthy and serene elephant.
For example, for sleeping there is a mattress on the dining room floor, where she and Moses can curl up for the night. Moses wakes up about every two hours wandering around the bed until she receives her bottle. In the morning, while Mom is having coffee and watching television, Moses throws his trunk over her shoulder and rubs his head on her belly.
And if in nature a baby elephant would take shelter from the sun under the mother, Mose has it at his disposal a blanket to emulate this behavior, while her still-too-delicate skin is protected with sunscreen and moisturizers.
In short, taking care of the little elephant requires hard work 24 hours a day. This also requires the help of the two employees Matimat Julius and Jim Tembo. Moses loves to play with them, especially when uI heal my arms to move the dust, just like mom would do with her trunk.
Like many children, then, the elephant loves to go for walks and is taken for a walk with the family dogs. “Dogs are like his pack. He socializes with them during the day and loves to take walks in their company. He immediately established a dominant position, ”says Jenny.
But at night, he doesn't like sleeping outside with dogs. He prefers to be inside with the cats. As soon as the sun goes down, in fact, he rushes into the living room on the makeshift bed. In a few weeks Moses will start eating hay, grass and bark. He already puts the leaves in his mouth, but he still doesn't chew them. Gradually the reintegration into the wild, possibly in the national park where it was found.
Meanwhile, Jenny Webb is also trying to raise funds to build a boma, an African-style enclosure where animals usually rest in the evening, where Moses can stay when it will outgrow the house. In short, raising Moses is challenging and expensive, “but it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” concludes Jenny, who is looking to expand her large animal orphanage. Why little elephants, hippos, buffaloes, rhinos without moms and dads in Malawi they still don't have a place to stay.
Roberta Ragni
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