February 2015 brought three new elephants to the Wildlife SOS family, each with a painful history of abuse in captivity, and each with a wonderfully unique personality that made it impossible not to love them instantaneously.
Suzy, Asha and Lakhi formed a herd soon after the trio arrived at the Elephant Conservation and Care Centre, despite never having known each other in the past. Of the three, Suzy and Lakhi were blind, Asha had a limp due to a severe case of ankylosis, Lakhi had an old chronic hip injury, Suzy had lost an entire row of molars, and all three females were in desperate need of veterinary care for these and other issues particularly those associated with their advancing age.
As one of our most popular and well-loved herds at the rescue centre, it was only fitting that we celebrate their rescue anniversary and honour them by letting the world know their incredible stories of rescue and rehabilitation. Wildlife SOS organized a webinar last week about the three elephants and their life at ECCC, hosted by our Elephant Campaign Manager, Rhea Lopez.
The webinar began with the history of each of the elephant, detailing where they had come from and whatever we know of what they endured in captivity. Moving on to happier times, Rhea described the elephants’ personalities and their initial reactions to their newfound freedom with Wildlife SOS. Full of anecdotes and fun facts about these three incredible animals, the webinar also featured lots of pictures of the herd and their latest members – babies Peanut and Coco – as well as videos and sound clips of the elephants interacting, communicating and being treated by the dedicated veterinary team at the centre.
The veterinarians in the video also explained the sort of care the elephants were receiving at ECCC, detailing the medical issues they suffer from as a result of years of poor management and abuse, and then going on to explain what Wildlife SOS is doing to tackle that.
Rhea also described to the attendees the vast array of sounds and other strategies that Asha in particular uses to communicate with and guide her special herd of blind females and babies – accompanied by a video and sound clips to bring the entire thing to life!
The webinar ended with a fun Q&A session where attendees submitted questions to the presenter about the herd and their life, and got to hear detailed answers to the same.
If you want to become a monthly donor and support the ongoing veterinary care being provided to these geriatric elephants in our care, you can do so at this link.
We also wanted to let everyone who attended the webinar know that following her fall a day prior to the webinar, Lakhi has been recuperating slowly and continues to receive treatment in the form of a regular hot compresses and balm massages the muscle cramp. Although she is still dragging the limb, she seems to be resting it the right amount as well, and appears to be in much less pain, as she is able to lie down, sleep and stand up without requiring any assistance. Even as she remains under constant observation, we hope to see her make a speedy recovery so she can go back to enjoying her new life, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!
