A woman saves an elephant calf and a very strong bond is born: he has become her shadow
Can an unlikely friendship arise between a baby elephant and a woman? Yes of course, and Roxy Danckwerts knows this very well. The woman has always been active in the protection of animals in danger or in danger of extinction and founded the Wilde Is Life association, which has built a safe haven for wild animals in the Zimbabwe. She had made the acquaintance of a baby elephant, which had been unintentionally left behind by its herd on the banks of the Kariba River ...
via BBC
Alone and scared and without his herd to protect him, the baby elephant didn't know where to go, so Roxy decided she would host him in her animal sanctuary for a few days, waiting for him to recover. In fact, when Roxy rescued the baby elephant left at the river, he was underweight: 125 pounds as opposed to an average of about 200-220 pounds for a standard calf of his species. For this the first few weeks in the shelter were very difficult ...
But all's well when it ends well: now 5 years have passed since the rescue and the elephant Moyo, which in one African means "born from the heart", is so fond of Roxy, his human savior, that he never leaves her side!
Now Moyo seems much more interested in Roxy's home life than in the open spaces of the wild country of Zimbabwe, as he always wants to stay indoors with his human savior. The elephant, in fact, regularly visits Roxy's kitchen, chewing peanuts, eating cookies, and he also seems to be genuinely interested in the silverware!
Over time, Moyo also managed to overcome his fear of water, as five years earlier he had been particularly traumatized by the river where he had been unintentionally abandoned by his pachyderm family. But after 15 months of therapy and specialized care from Roxy and the sanctuary staff, Moyo is now no longer afraid of crossing a stream, river, lake or waterfall!
What did we tell you? A very touching friendship between woman and elephant can develop!
