Phabeni sadly passes away

Phabeni, an orphaned elephant, was rescued after a woman living near the Kruger National Park (KNP) found an elephant calf on her property. There was no sign of his mother or the herd. HERD’s Adine Roode said they were thinking of ways to celebrate Phabeni’s birthday in July. “Little did we know that he would never reach his first birthday. It has been an up-and-down struggle with Phabeni in the last seven months with him gaining weight, losing weight, taking bottles, and leaving bottles.

“For the last week, Phabeni skipped either his 8, 10, 12, or 2 o’clock bottle. Sometimes it was one bottle, sometimes it was two bottles. It was either 10 or 20% of his daily intake that he did not take,” said Roode. She said that she noticed that his energy levels were not good and that he was listless. He had puffiness in his face. “I contacted Katie Rowe from Reteti for advice, as Phabeni had been on goat milk for just more than a month, and he took well to it, but he did not gain as much weight as I thought he would have, and as he needed.”

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“At least he was taking his bottles. I thought it would take some time for him to put on weight as his digestive system needed to adapt to the new milk. I checked with the pediatrician who said it would take quite a bit of time. After about two and a half weeks he started gaining weight, however he never reached 170kg,” she added. She then asked Dr Peter Rogers to give him a vitamin boost and vitamin B12 to increase his appetite.

“Dr Rogers suggested that we give it intravenously to reduce the stress of darting him, so we put Phabeni on a drip. Even though the sedation was mild, he did not take the sedation too well as his front legs battled to hold his weight. “I laid down and he rested on my legs, with his full weight. We gave him three bags of fluids plus a good dose of vitamins and minerals. We wrapped up just after 16:00 and he took his four milk bottles without any problems.”

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“At 18:00 he also finished the bottle easily, as well as the 21:00 bottle,” added Roode. She said that she was called to Phabeni by the carers just before 23:00. “I realised that Phabeni did not have the energy to even stagger anymore. I suggested that we try his midnight bottle at 23:30, which he didn’t take. However, he did lift his head high in the air with his trunk folded upwards, and backward and opened his mouth as if to get milk. He screamed a few times. But in the end, he fell asleep,” she added.

By 05:00 Roode told Stavros that she was going to make coffee. She said when she returned, Godknows, one of the carers, told her that he was still sleeping. “It was during this stage, with a sleeping Phabeni cuddled up with another carer, Stavros, that Stavros told me that Phabeni was dead. I couldn’t believe it. Godknows and I rushed in to find Phabeni not breathing, just still and warm. It was 05:43,” said Roode. “It will take time to heal from this.

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But it comes with the territory of trying to rescue, rehabilitate, and raise elephant orphans who have lost their natural families. “It is part of the journey of elephant conservation, dealing with loss. We truly tried everything to help Phabeni over the months when his health battled. We used every contact, expert, friend, advisor, and supporter so that we could create solutions to the different problems that Phabeni faced. Together, we all gave him the very best chance in life, but it simply was not enough. His little heart will stay with us eternally,” she concluded.