Baby Elephant Khanyisa’s Busy Morning: Milk Bottles, a Weigh-in & Carer Lessons

Khanyisa has a busy morning before heading out with the herd as she receives her weigh-in and morning milk bottles from carers Reply & Stavros! All after a few marula snacks of course…

Khanyisa’s weight is up to around 520 kilograms and she is standing tall above the fence around her garden now! This is compared to the 124 kgs she weighed when she arrived at HERD after being rescued from the snare that almost took her life.

She downs her bottles quickly and moves on to the mineral block in the garden, giving her body extra supplements, before indulging in the green grass. Nandi the German Shepherd is perfectly behaved as always and stays close by but away from the elephants. Although Nandi grew up around Khanyisa, as Khanyisa got so much bigger the elephant can cause a lot of harm to Nandi if they unsettle one another. Nandi might not be scared but we certainly are, and like to keep them apart. Khanyisa is much more trustworthy around her sheepy pals whom she has spent constant daily time with, compared to Nandi.

Nandi is similarly not overly afraid of the bigger herd but many of the rescued elephants are not at all used to dogs and can be stressed out by being too close to them. Nandi is like any young dog and still loves to run around which can unsettle big elephants.

Nandi is certainly woman’s best friend, in this case, keeping Adine company and adding her watchdog skills to her range of talents as a constant furry companion.

Khanyisa has her feet checked by Stavros, who shows Reply how to investigate the calf’s soles for stones or thorns that might harm her if they get wedged into the groves of the tread. Elephants will naturally try to remove these objects but aren’t always able to do so easily. You can see them attempting this when rubbing their soles over tree stumps to remove any unwanted items.

Since the herd is in our care, it’s our responsibility to make sure their health and well-being is always top notch.

Khanyisa heads out eventually for her day with the elephants, with carer Reply!