Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Paichit – the baby elephant saved from a palm oil plantation in Indonesia

Orphaned at a few months old and nursed back to health by a local wildlife centre, Paichit’s story has serious implications for critically endangered Sumatran elephants

Pushing on 400 kilograms, baby Paichit knows when it’s feeding time.

He lets out an appreciative bellow, a rumbling baby elephant purr from his patch in the Sumatran jungle, as soon as his mahout (keeper) Julkarnaini approaches bucket in hand.

“He’s getting much healthier,” observes Julkarnaini, now using the bucket to give Paichit a bit of a bath. “At first he was very thin, but after a month here he’s putting on weight.”

Earlier this year baby Paichit, one of the critically endangered Sumatran elephants, was found stranded and starving in a palm oil plantation in Aceh, on the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra island. Paichit’s father had been shot and the rest of the herd had fled in fright.

When he was discovered, Paichit was so malnourished the shape of his ribs was visible from beneath his sagging skin. On arrival at a centre run by the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), an intravenous drip was immediately fixed to his ear.

“Paichit was really in a bad condition when he first arrived, he was very dehydrated, he was suffering from shock, stress and he was very thin, malnourished, and his skin was in a bad way,” recalls BKSDA veterinarian, Dr Rosa Wahyuni.

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