14 DAY TRIAL // An elephant in Kenya owes its life to a group of vets who rescued it after the animal fell victim to poachers operating in this part of the world. Thus, there is little doubt that, had it not been for the vets, the pachyderm would now be dead and without tusks.
Media reports say that the elephant was attacked by poachers in the Tsavo National Park in Kenya. The hunters are said to have shot the animal with a poisonous arrow and to have afterwards left the area.
It is believed that the poachers were planning to return to the region sometime after having ambushed the pachyderm, remove the animal's tusks and make a run for it, Daily Mail informs.
Luckily, the elephant was found by a group of local vets not long after it had fallen victim to the illegal hunters. The vets anesthetized the young animal and performed emergency surgery on it on the spot.
Thus, they took care of removing the poisonous arrow and also treated the wound. More precisely, they drained whatever poison had worked its way into the elephant's body and also removed the pus that had come to form around the injury.
What's more, the group of vets cut away some of the infected flesh on the animal's body and used clay to close the wound, the same source details. Once the anesthesia wore off, the young pachyderm managed to get up on all fours on its own and was allowed to leave the area.
The people who helped rescue this elephant in Kenya's Tsavo National Park explain that, had the elephant not been found and treated, it would have surely passed away in just a few days. Besides, its death would have been slow and painful.
As reported on several occasions, Africa is losing its elephants at a fairly rapid pace due to the fact that quite a lot of people are interested in buying items made from ivory. Recent reports pieced together by conservationists say that, just last year, illegal hunters tracked down and butchered about 35,000 such pachyderms.
Both wildlife researchers and environmentalists believe that, unless efforts are made to curb, maybe even halt poaching activities sooner rather than later, Africa will lose its entire wild elephant population by the year 2025.
Since poachers only kill elephants in order to provide for the illegal ivory market, there are some who say that, in order to save this species from going extinct, it is mandatory that conservation campaigns focus on educating the public about the need to quit buying trinkets made from their tusks.