not embellished with happiness in a world of brutes! Usually, when we talk about elephants, it is to evoke the misdeeds of poaching. With the story of little Nania, it is, on the contrary, a wonderful fairy tale which could be entitled: “Where there is gene, there is hope. ” Eh yes ! The hope of finding his mother and his clan.
Once upon a time, in September 2017, a two-month-old baby elephant lost its mother in Deux-Balé National Park in Burkina Faso. He is hungry. He is thirsty. Here he is approaching the village of Pama. Surprise locals! What is he doing there? The children give it the name of Nania which means “Will” in Dioula. Not knowing how to feed him, the villagers take him to the forest management unit, located in Boromo. A long walk of ten kilometers that Nania goes through humming: “An elephant, it deceives, it deceives.” An elephant cheats a lot… ”
16 liters per day
The orphan is installed in a makeshift enclosure. The guards are very helpless. A fundraising allows the purchase of milk. This is because the little glutton needs 16 liters of milk per day. Rather than send her to a zoo, the guards decide to call for help an international organization based in the country, known for its work in favor of elephants, the good fairy IFAW (International Fund for the Protection of Animals) .
The director of France & Francophone Africa, Céline Sissler-Bienvenue, immediately accepts to take charge of the maintenance and education of Nania. “Our goal is to provide him with everything his mother could have taught him to live in a wild elephant clan,” she explains. For this, four keepers take turns with the baby elephant day and night, paid by the IFAW.
Walks lasting several hours
We have no idea, but the school of wild life is well worth the ENA. No less than ten years of learning are necessary. Namia had to learn to wash in water and mud to moisten her skin and protect herself from the sun and insects. “At the moment, he is being taught to recognize and look for the right fruits, but also to take acacia leaves without being stung by the thorns. It requires a lot of dexterity, ”continues Céline Sissler-Bienvenue. “Every day, his caretakers take him on walks lasting several hours in the park to mentally map him and thus know where to find his food and the bodies of water. ”
At the same time as this training, Céline Sissler-Bienvenue decides to find Nania’s mother. Today, genetics allow it. This is because elephant dung contains the DNA of its producers. Sixteen samples of elephant faeces were collected in Deux-Balé Park and sent to the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington for genetic analysis. Besides, of course, Nania’s feces. Identification could be hoped for because, decimated by poaching, the national park is home to only a few dozen pachyderms.
“She never trumpets”
The verdict falls a few months later and it’s a happy surprise. Among the dung collected in the field, several belong to members of his family, most likely his mother, grandmother and aunt. “Even if we cannot completely rule out the hypothesis of a half-sister instead of a mother, we want to believe in a miracle,” explains Céline Sissler-Bienvenue. It remains to locate the matriarchal clan of Nania. This shouldn’t be too difficult, as her putative mother’s dung was taken two hundred yards from her enclosure.
It remains to be seen, if the mother will recognize her daughter? Céline does not know what to think: “Such an experience has never been attempted in the past. This is the very first time that an elephant has been re-educated in the wild, alone, without other congeners. We can only hope. So far, the few times that Nania has seen other elephants on her daily walks, she has been very afraid of these monstrous creatures. And this, especially since she did not have the opportunity to learn to speak the elephant. “She never trumpets,” Celine confirms.
The only hope is that in the savannah and the forest, elephant clans sometimes welcome foreign females. “And if that doesn’t happen for Nania, at least we’ll have taught her to fend for herself in the wild.” ”
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