The horror of the five elephants shot on the 28th of July in Tsavo West National Park, had a sixth victim being their tiny orphaned calf rescued by DSWT two days later.   The trauma from watching his family gunned down, and the stress he endured, proved too much for him and little Losoito died four days later when we never managed to get top sides of his chronic diarrhoea.  This has not been the only incredibly sad story to unfold in July. 

Earlier on in the month on the 6th of July the KWS/DSWT Tsavo Mobile Veterinary Unit was called to assist with another heart breaking incident where a female elephant with bullet wounds thrashed around on the ground unable to stand due to the severity of her injuries.  With the DSWT helicopter for support the team were called into community lands in Bamba outside of Tsavo East National Park.  The area where she lay was made bare from her struggle, as her herd and family stood vigil beside her. 

With little alternative the kindest thing the Veterinary Team could do was put her out of her suffering.  These incredibly heart wrenching sights are witnessed by the field teams all too often, by the men who work so tirelessly and heroically to help put an end to this craziness.  Scenes like these need to be brought to a wider audience’s attention so that more people can know the suffering and sacrifice just to yield the slender pair of ivory tusks that she carried. 

After witnessing scenes like these no sane person could possibly ever want to own anything made from ivory.