Wandering Alone In The Forest, This ʜᴇᴀʀᴛʙʀᴏᴋᴇɴ Baby Elephant Was Rejected By His Family After Being Reintroduced To The Wild

Wandering Alone In The Forest, This ʜᴇᴀʀᴛʙʀᴏᴋᴇɴ Baby Elephant Was Rejected By His Family After Being Reintroduced To The Wild

Wandering alone in the forest, this ʜᴇᴀʀᴛʙʀᴏᴋᴇɴ baby elephant was rejected by his family after being reintroduced to the wild. The three-month-old baby, called Gold, was first separated from his mother after falling into a well dug.

Rescuers spent two weeks nurturing the young animal back to health in the hope he could be reunited with its family. British wildlife expert Dr. Jake Veasey tried to encourage Gold to rejoin his herd by pushing the baby towards them – and at first, it seemed like his attempt had been a success. But his team’s joy turned to ᴅᴇᴠᴀsᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ when he was found alone less than twelve hours later, some distance from the area where he had been left.

Dr. Veasey said that Gold’s mother may not have been in the herd at all, or she may not have recognized him as he had been away for two weeks and smelt of humans and human baby milk. Gold ʟᴏsᴛ his family in March after he got ᴛʀᴀᴘᴘᴇᴅ in a well dug by illegal loggers, who cut down ʀᴀɪɴFᴏʀᴇsᴛ trees to sell timber. Rescue workers had to save Gold without being ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋᴇᴅ themselves.

Now Gold is living in temporary accommodation while Animals Asia builds a sanctuary to care for him and other elephants. ‘Gold was so depressed and lonely that we worried he might not sᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴇ,’ said Dr. Veasey, who explained that ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴇᴀᴍ was at first reluctant to ‘smother him with affection for fear of giving him ‘a human imprint’ and compromising his chances of life in the wild.

Gold had been showing signs of ᴄʜʀᴏɴɪᴄ sᴛʀᴇss – pacing back and forwards diagonally – and trying to suckle everything because he misses his mother’s teat. But Veasey has now ordered specialist bottles for the baby elephant and hopes that when the sanctuary is built, his health and wellbeing will improve.

Currently, there is just one other elephant in the temporary corral with Gold, but Veasey and his colleagues are planning on building herds thereby rescuing elephants from  ᴛᴏᴜʀɪsᴛ ᴛʀᴀᴅᴇ. Now he can interact with other elephants and thrive.