Unlikely survival of baby elephant orphaned by ivory poachers

Tundani was seen by a pilot on a routine aerial surveillance flight Credit: DSWT

An abandoned baby elephant whose mother was killed by ivory poachers has been saved after an animal rescue worker spotted it from an aeroplane.

Tundani, a baby male calf, was seen trudging through the vast Kenyan savannah earlier this month. Alone in the wild and still dependent on its mother’s milk, it had no chance of survival.

But since being found and taken in by a Nairobi orphanage, Tundani has been rehabilitated and grown in strength.

Tundani is now being cared for, along with 21 other orphaned elephants, by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

His keepers hope he can eventually be reintegrated back into the wild, where the Wildlife Trust say to "up to 35,000 elephants" are killed every year by ivory poachers.

Tundani was transported via charter plane to the DSWT Nairobi Nursery Credit: DSWT

Dame Daphne Sheldrick, the founder of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, said: