Elephant Rescued from Waste Pit at Tourist Lodge in Kenya.

January 2008. One night in mid January and elephant calf fell into a 20 foot deep waste pit at Little Governors’ Camp on the edge of the Masai Mara. Wildlife Extra is surprised that somewhere such as Governors’ would have such a tempting but deadly pit.

 

When the Mara is dry, this pit must be a magnet for all sorts of wildlife, and we would be amazed if the elephant was the first animal that has come to grief there.

Elephant in the waste pit.
The elephant remained in the pit filled with the laundry waste water until morning, when the management of Little Governors’ camp reported the matter to the warden in charge of Oloololo gate, who broke the sad news to the park HQs for action.

Several rangers rushed to Little Governors’ where they were confronted with the problem of how to pull the elephant from the pit.

The rescue begins.
The staff of Little Governors’ had already begun digging a trench into the pit to enable the elephant out. Warden John Sogirian and I suggested that the

trench plan could not work, since the waste will flow out of the pit leaving the elephant inside the pit and risking its life. But with the water still in the pit, the water would assist the elephant to float. So we asked for heavy ropes to use instead.

The rope was pushed under the elephant using a long stick. This plan almost worked but the rope broke when it was pulled by the 4×4 Bedford lorry. So we redoubled the rope and passed it over the tusk to the neck and tied a reef knot end to the nearby tree, and the other end to the lorry. The pulling started and within no time the elephant was out of the pit safely

 

A Successful Rescue.
Once out, the elephantcouldn’t even get to her feet, meaning that she was too exhausted. She remained lying down for about 10minutes so we asked people to fetch water to splash over the prostrate elephant. While we were waiting for the water she attempted to get to her feet twice, but failed. She then rested for some minutes and when we again splashed the water over her ears, she got up immediately. She did not charge or make any sound at all.

Fully regained conscious.
She stood still for about 5 minutes before she started walking unsteadily away.
The management of Little Governors have been ordered to fence all around the pit to avoid such accidents in future.