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Learning from Baby Elephants
Update: 2024-09-23
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When a baby elephant's mother is killed by poachers, she is brought to the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. Listen to stories from this amazing place where humans save animals and sometimes, animals save humans, too.
Guest: Ami Vitale, National Geographic photographer and filmmaker
Guest: Ami Vitale, National Geographic photographer and filmmaker
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Transcript
00:00:00
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:02
Constant Wonder Kids is a Constant Wonder podcast.
00:00:06
Hi, Wonder Kids.
00:00:07
It's Paige.
00:00:09
Anyone who has a pet knows that animals and humans can really love each other.
00:00:14
My friend's dog always knows when she's sad, and sits by her feet until she feels better.
00:00:20
Have you ever been comforted by an animal?
00:00:23
In today's episode, we're going to hear about the love and friendship that developed between some humans and elephants living at the Ritedi Elephant Sanctuary.
00:00:33
An elephant sanctuary is a safe place for elephants, with humans who take care of them, also known as elephant keepers.
00:00:40
The Ritedi Elephant Sanctuary is special, because not only do the humans take care of the elephants, but the elephants help the humans.
00:00:49
Once, an elephant even saved a human's life.
00:00:52
It's an extraordinary place with a lot of community cohesion, an understanding of how important the wildlife is to them.
00:01:04
This is Amy Vitale.
00:01:06
She's a photojournalist, which means that she takes pictures of amazing animals and people for her job.
00:01:12
Amy has taken pictures at the Ritedi Elephant Sanctuary since it opened, and now shares their story with the world.
00:01:19
Back in about 2014, 2015, I heard about a community that had this dream to have an elephant sanctuary.
00:01:30
And at that time, people thought it was a crazy idea that they didn't have the political power, that they didn't have the resources.
00:01:41
And basically, that it would never happen.
00:01:43
And I met the people and knew right away that their dream would come true.
00:01:51
And in fact, miracles can happen.
00:01:55
Before starting the Ritedi Elephant Sanctuary, many people thought it would be impossible to help the elephants because of poaching.
00:02:03
Poaching is when hunters come and kill animals illegally.
00:02:07
If you went back 30 years, this place actually was suffering from a lot of poaching.
00:02:16
You couldn't find elephants or rhinos or basically much wildlife there because it had all been poached.
00:02:25
Poaching is sad for many reasons.
00:02:27
Not only do endangered animals die, but poaching begins to have an impact on the whole ecosystem.
00:02:34
Poaching elephants is especially bad because elephants are what we call a keystone species.
00:02:40
That means that they impact other animals and plants and are super important.
00:02:45
Elephants clear trees, excavate waterholes and fertilize the earth around them.
00:02:50
Without elephants, the land was unhealthy, and humans couldn't grow the food that they needed.
00:02:56
They began to understand that when you take the keystone species out of an ecosystem, everything starts to suffer.
00:03:04
And they were actually suffering.
00:03:07
And so they came together and the leaders had this idea that they wanted to create a place where wildlife could coexist with them that actually their lives would be better with the wildlife because it brings in tourism.
00:03:28
It brings in so many things to the ecosystem itself.
00:03:33
Like there was this understanding.
00:03:35
And so they built the Ritelli Elephant Sanctuary.
00:03:39
It was difficult because the people building the Sanctuary had never done this before.
00:03:44
But they knew that they needed to do something to help animals and their community.
00:03:50
And so I actually kind of followed along on their journey from the very, very beginning, from when the first baby elephant arrived.
00:03:59
And I knew that they had gotten all the permissions from the government.
00:04:03
They found funding and partners.
00:04:06
And so I just stuck with them from that first moment.
00:04:10
And knew that this was a beautiful, important story.
00:04:15
The Samburo people decided that the Ritelli Elephant Sanctuary would be for elephants that couldn't survive on their own in the wild.
00:04:23
Often these elephants were babies whose parents had died.
00:04:27
These baby elephants were all alone with no one to help them.
00:04:31
In the past, what was happening is that if an animal was orphaned, they would be put in a airplane,
00:04:41
usually, and sent to another sanctuary in southern Kenya, which is doing wonderful work.
00:04:49
But they also understood that those elephants would never have the hope or chance to be returned to their own landscape to possibly one day reunite with their own herds again.
00:05:03
So by creating a sanctuary in these really remote places in northern Kenya, now they have the opportunity when they get released back to the wild that hopefully one day they'll have the chance to meet up with their own families and at least be in the same landscapes that they came from.
00:05:27
One of the first orphaned elephants that the Samburu keepers found was a little elephant named Shaba.
00:05:33
Shaba's mom had been killed by poachers, which was really scary and sad for the little elephant.
00:05:39
She wasn't old enough to make it on her own, and she needed help.
00:05:43
The workers were able to rescue Shaba and bring her to the sanctuary.
00:05:47
But Shaba was afraid and angry.
00:05:50
Humans had killed her mom, and she didn't know that the keepers wanted to help her.
00:05:56
She was very violent as any creature would be when they saw their mother killed in front of them.
00:06:01
She was traumatized and angry.
00:06:05
She was very aggressive.
00:06:07
Even for me, it took about a year because the sound-- I think the metallic sound of my camera and the shutter-- would create behavior that I'd have to say pretty far away and be very aware of her.
00:06:23
But for the keepers who had to be with her and feed her every three hours in the beginning, she just tried to charge people.
00:06:31
And even though she was just a one-year-old elephant, they are huge, even at one-year-old.
00:06:38
So I believe that she sent two people to hospital in the very beginning.
00:06:43
She was very violent.
00:06:46
Because Shaba was hard to approach, the keepers didn't know how to feed her.
00:06:50
Each day, she got skinnier and skinnier.
00:06:53
But she couldn't eat because she kept on chasing away the keepers who tried to bring her milk.
00:06:58
Finally, one of the brave keepers had an idea.
00:07:02
The dangerous thing was actually that she wouldn't accept the milk bottle.
00:07:07
And they had to figure out something quickly because she would die without that milk.
00:07:13
And so one brave keeper had the idea to put these tires together and wire them together and then get in the middle of those tires to try to get her to accept the bottle.
00:07:30
And she did.
00:07:31
Have you ever put a floating tube around you in the swimming pool?
00:07:35
This was kind of like that.
00:07:37
The keepers stacked tires up and got in the middle of them.
00:07:40
Protected by the strong tires, the keepers were able to sneakily give Shaba the milk she needed.
00:07:46
Slowly, Shaba realized that the keepers were there to help her, not hurt her.
00:07:52
From that moment on, it was extraordinary because she knew then that the keepers were there to protect her.
00:08:01
And then her behavior really changed.
00:08:07
Shaba began to let the keepers take care of her.
00:08:10
One keeper, Naomi, always sang lullabies to the elephants to comfort them at night.
00:08:16
Naomi loves to sing lullabies to the baby elephants.
00:08:21
And the remarkable thing is to see how the elephants react to her.
00:08:26
They definitely feel her energy.
00:08:29
And I think they like those songs.
00:08:32
Here's how Naomi explained it.
00:08:36
They become down.
00:08:37
They become skinny.
00:08:39
I have to become their mother.
00:08:42
We sleep with them during the night.
00:08:45
We sing to them.
00:08:46
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
00:09:03
With Naomi singing her to sleep, Shaba became more comfortable in the elephant sanctuary.
00:09:08
Soon, something interesting happened.
00:09:10
Shaba began to notice the new baby elephants arriving to Rteti.
00:09:15
So every time a new baby arrived, she would smell it.
00:09:21
Know it was there.
00:09:22
Come rushing in and come and comfort it with her trunk across because it would be in an enclosure.
00:09:31
The whole other herd, all the babies behind her, would come rushing to kind of greet the baby.
00:09:37
And then she kept the whole herd.
00:09:39
Once the babies were all intercated into the herd, she would really be like a mother.
00:09:48
Shaba went from being a scared, violent creature to being a mom to all the other baby elephants.
00:09:54
And she had a lot to teach them.
00:09:56
She would teach them how to find the best food.
00:09:59
She would comfort them.
00:10:01
She would check them and put them in place if they were becoming aggressive to one another.
00:10:07
She taught them how to get out of big ditches.
00:10:10
I just saw so much behavior that she was teaching them.
00:10:15
And then the keepers actually realized, and they would tell me that this elephant taught them so much because they were new at being keepers of elephants.
00:10:27
They weren't exactly sure of all the things that needed to happen.
00:10:32
And this elephant, Shaba taught them so much about love and how to take care of them.
00:10:39
And it was just this beautiful relationship that was built over the span of four years while she was there at the sanctuary.
00:10:51
As the keepers watched Shaba take care of the other elephants, they learned how to follow her example.
00:10:57
Soon, the keepers went from guessing how to take care of elephants to being master elephant caretakers.
00:11:04
It's also changing how the community relates to elephants, but also how they relate to one another.
00:11:12
And so schoolchildren who have never seen an elephant before or who were afraid of elephants, visit Richetti and see these elephants up close.
00:11:23
And they also see women working with these elephants.
00:11:26
So they then realize that they can grow up to be anything.
00:11:32
Soon, a large group of elephants was strong enough to go back into the wild.
00:11:36
And Shaba was ready to be their leader.
00:11:39
As they left, the keepers were happy because they were able to help the elephants go home.
00:11:45
It is a happy story.
00:11:47
It's a beautiful story, and it makes me cry.
00:11:50
Happy tears, actually, every time I think about it, because it is a story about the unique bonds that the people taking care of this elephant,
00:12:02
and in fact, this elephant taking care of them, too, that you start to understand our interconnectedness and the intelligence and the emotional connections and bonds are deep between people and these creatures that they coexist with.
00:12:24
Today, the Samboos people still care for the elephants at the Richetti Elephant Sanctuary.
00:12:29
And sometimes, the elephants take care of them.
00:12:33
One of the keepers had a wound on her leg that she was ignoring because she was so busy.
00:12:40
And she kept going on and on with her daily work.
00:12:44
And one of the elephants, named Vorgas, went over and took some mud from the mud bath and came over and started packing her leg.
00:12:56
And then he went over again to the mud bath and did it again.
00:13:01
And then on the third time, she started to wonder and realized that this elephant knew she had a wound.
00:13:10
And that is how elephants treat their own wounds.
00:13:13
They pack them with mud.
00:13:16
And she went to the doctor and he said that elephant saved your life.
00:13:20
Your wound is going septic.
00:13:22
You could have died.
00:13:24
She had to go on antibiotics.
00:13:28
Vorgas, the elephant took care of the keeper the best way he knew how and it saved her life.
00:13:34
And they've all said this to me before.
00:13:37
They've said, it's not us saving the elephants.
00:13:41
The elephants are really saving us.
00:13:44
And that was just one example of so many.
00:13:49
The Bratetti Elephant Sanctuary is a special place.
00:13:52
The pictures that Amy takes of the keepers and the elephants captures the love and friendship they feel for one another.
00:13:59
When we love animals and they love us in return, we can make the world a better place together.
00:14:05
The keepers save Shaba from being alone.
00:14:14
Then Shaba helped the keepers make an elephant home.
00:14:19
Elephants and humans each took care to help one another.
00:14:25
What a story to share.
00:14:29
I have the ending for all.
00:14:34
A quick word for you, parents.
00:14:40
This is Marcus Smith.
00:14:41
I'm host of the Constantwonder Podcast, which is where material for Constantwonder Kids comes from.
00:14:48
We made this episode because Constantwonder contains a lot of great stuff kids will love too, but you may be wanting more.
00:14:56
We've got a whole episode devoted to Amy Vitale and her work with animals and communities as a photojournalist.
00:15:04
If you want to hear the full presentation, go find Constantwonder wherever you get your podcast.
00:15:10
It's season two, episode nine.
00:15:13
And it's called to rescue an animal you've got to think like one.
00:15:18
We actually think you'll love more than just one episode of our podcast.
00:15:21
It's an ongoing quest to find awe and wonder in all creation, human or wild, vast or small, the kind of encounters that move us beyond words.
00:15:32
Remember when you had time for wonder?
00:15:34
Will we suspect you still do?
00:15:37
Subscribe to Constantwonder on your favorite platform.
00:15:40
Constantwonder Kids was produced by Page Crumberman Darington with Sound Design by Mitchell Towsley.
00:15:47
Constantwonder Kids is a production of BYU Radio.
00:15:50
(gentle music)
00:15:53