There's a saying in life: It's not what you know, it's who you know. This was especially true for Jake, who on our latest holiday to the Kruger National Park, was treated like a real VIP visitor by our friends in the bush. He was allowed the privilege of taking part in activities that other tourists never get to experience and he has the most amazing memories of this once in a lifetime experience. We were so honoured and humbled by our experiences and by the remarkable people we met along the way, who are doing so many amazing things to protect our wildlife. this post is about Jake's up close and personal experience with a sedated elephant.
PLEASE NOTE: You may not phone the park and ask to take part in these activities, they are not available to the public.
A very excited boy on the back of the open ranger with game rangers and vets...
The tracker helicopter had already located the elephant bull that was to be sedated. The main purpose of the outing was to demonstrate elephant sedation to around 80 veterinary students and we were fortunate enough to tag along. Here he comes...
The helicopter has to work very closely with the elephant, so that the vet on board can inject the animal from the air. It's very precise work, especially since the medication used is 10 000 times stronger than morphine. There's no room for error. They obviously also needed to try keep the ellie in view, but not too close, so that the students could see how the sedation progressed...
It took about 14 minutes for the sedative to take effec. You can see the dart sticking out above his rear end...
At this point, the ellie was so sleepy, he could hardly lift his feet...
He was obviously feeling it, when he went to hide away from us behind a bush...
The ground crew were ready to move in as soon as he toppled...
Umph... trunk up, he's man down...
Once the elephant is down, the guys need to move in quickly to catch his trunk. If the elephant lands on his trunk, he's in trouble...
But this one was easy - he just flopped over...
Night night ellie, enjoy your snooze. At this point, the 80 vet students had been instructed to wait until called to get out of their cars, but we were part of the vet's team, so we were able to get there almost immediately...
He was HUGE...
This is the head vet at Kruger Wildlife Veterinary Services...
I think Jake was in shock at being able to get out in the bush and get so close to an elephant...
A close up of his tusk...
It takes 2 men to lift the elephant's back leg, to get it into a more comfortable position...
The elephant was about 25 years old and I can't help but wonder how many miles these mud-caked feet had traveled...
The vet students were allowed 15 minutes per group with the elephant, where we had a full 1 hour 15 mins with him...
One of the vets monitored the elephants eye closely to make sure that he was still OK...
Look how thick his trunk is...
The skin on an elephant's trunk is unbelievably warty and actually quite hard...
Jake wasn't at all put off by the students. In fact I think he quite liked being surrounded by all these pretty girls...
Toenails...
Bumpy skin...
It's really very rough up close...
Wrinkly elephant knees... 
And very coarse tail hairs...
Jake giving the ellie some love...
And don't forget me! How many people can say that they've done that before???
This is the site where they darted the elephant. You're not allowed to touch it, because the drugs are so hectic and can penetrate your skin. It's disinfected and marked out immediately...
Peeping over the elephant's tummy...
The trunk has to be kept open with a stick, so that the elephant doesn't suffocate...
You wouldn't believe what this very brave vet student asked to be allowed to do...
Jake's face says it all...
Making sure that I'm actually watching....
Some more skin time with the ellie...
Jake with our friend, Steven...
This is the entire group of students that we shared this experience with...
Once the students had all been chased back to their van, Jake and I could have a few pics on our own with Jumbo...
Jake and Steven with the ellie too. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ELEPHANT IS NOT DEAD, JUST SEDATED...
As a last minute treat, Steven insisted on taking our car for us, so that we could go in the helicopter!!!
I cannot even begin to tell you HOW excited we were...
One that Steven took of both of us before lift off...
And then it was time to wake Jumbo up...
Antidote in and time to clear out. It took about 1.5 minutes for the elephant to wake up from here...
Up we go - you can see the elephant with the last 2 vets running away and the vans full of students watching from the ground)...
It was quite funny watching the elephant waking up. He rocked and rocked and the other pictures I have show his boy bits in all their glory and really aren't very pretty...
And eventually he had enough momentum to hoist his heavy body up...
I wonder what he thought about all the smells and sensations he must've felt after our experience with him...
It took us about 20 minutes to get to where we were going and we had a gorgeous scenic trip over the bush...
It was magnificient!
The land is dry and we didn't see many animals, but it was still AMAZING...
Jake treasured every second...
A giraffe from the sky...
A blurred bateleur, which is Jake's favourite eagle. Not often that you get to see one of these in flight from above!
Zebras running away from the helicopter...
And some wildebeest...
Back at Steven's house, he shared his skull collection with Jake. These are all from animals that have died of natural causes in the bush, none were hunted. This is a lion skull - now Jake can say that he's had his head in a lion's mouth...
SO... that was adventure number one! I told you we were spoiled!! Pop in next week to see what else we got up to - would you believe me if I said it was even more amazing???
Have a happy weekend!
Love Sue XXX
1 comment:
What a wonderful unique experience for you both! Amazing
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