A 4-month-old calf was rescued from a hunter’s snare trap last month.
Baby elephant Ayeyar Sein impatiently trumpets and can’t wait while a veterinarian prepares her bottle. She made a splint of bamboo and cloth bandages to cover the injury on her front left leg.
Four-month-old calf rescued from snare traps in a Myanmar forest last month and now being looked after by staff at the Yangon area Wingabaw elephant sanctuary.
“When she arrived at the camp last month, her leg was terribly sore,” said Than Naing Oo, the camp veterinarian. “Now she is getting better by receiving medicine twice a day.”
Than Naing Oo said Ayeyar Sein’s parents were nowhere to be seen near the trap and were most likely ki.l.led by p.oa.chers. Poachers kill elephants for their ivory, which can be used in jewelry, traditional medicine, and other things.
“The biggest challenge for us at the nursery is to help the baby elephants grow and to keep them alive,” said Shwe Yi Win Htet, manager, who explained that two baby elephants had d.i.ed in their care.
“They do not have mothers to feed them and are instead meant to be fed with powdered milk. “It’s why we all take care of them with such dedication,” she said. Our priority is to prolong their lives.”
Officials named a four-month-old calf Ayeyar Sein, following the tradition of naming infants after the state they are found in.
Wingabaw elephant camp is a government and non-profit-owned shelter that was established specifically to provide lifelong care for such elephants, and 20 elephants currently being cared for there were saved from similar circumstances.
Ayeyar Sein will be raised with the other orphans in the camp after her injury has healed.
According to a 2018 Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute report, there are about 1,400 to 2,000 elephants left in Myanmar’s wild, only 5,000 are in captivity.
