Watch: Charley has his first mud bath and trumpets away in Limpopo

Charley the elephant, released into a new enclosure at Shambala Private Reserve in Limpopo on Tuesday, can now roam one hectare in the savanna and start foraging for food by himself.

Charley was relocated from Pretoria Zoo to the reserve on August 19, where he was kept in a boma until he was comfortable in his new environment. He has now been released into an outdoor enclosure.

He took careful steps on his first day but is now walking around with confidence and has enjoyed his first mud bath.

Charley is curious about the grass in the savannah around him but still gets his favourite foods, like pumpkin.

“He absolutely loves and devours his pumpkin rapidly,” says Dr Marina Ivanova, Four Paws veterinarian.

To prepare the 42-year-old elephant for an independent life in the wild, he is receiving special care and a rich diet of vegetables, fruits, and branches to gain weight.

Ivanova says Charley is a fast learner.

“He is discovering something new every day. He is a different elephant and is behaving day by day more like a normal elephant now. He is getting all the food he loves, especially paw-paws and bananas,” says Ivanova.

With this special feeding and trust-building programme, the African elephant is being prepared for his life in the wild by an expert team from the global animal welfare organisation, Four Paws, and his future caretakers.

“Charley is a very special elephant. He adapts well to his new environment. He has already built a strong bond of trust with the new caretakers.

“It is simply beautiful to see that he has already started communicating with the other elephants in the reserve from afar,” says Ivanova.

“Last week, he trumpeted for the first time and used his trunk to pour water over his head. On Tuesday, he enjoyed his first mud bath since being in captivity for over four decades. It is with great joy that we are watching him settle in so well,” she adds.

His new enclosure has a pool and a mud bath, which are important for elephants’ skincare.

The enclosure serves as an important step for his later release into the 12 000-hectare reserve, where he can decide to join one of the two elephant groups or live alone.

To get Charley ready, a lot still needs to be done. He is being taught to come back to his safe space in the enclosure, which is important for future veterinary examinations.

“In the wild, elephants walk up to 150km per day,” explains Ivanova. “We are teaching him how to pick fresh branches from trees, which are important for his digestion.”

She says that his captivity, first as a circus animal and then at the zoo, has left deep wounds that are starting to heal.

Charley’s nails had deep cracks and needed special attention.

In Shambala, Charley has already started caring for his feet, shaping them by rubbing on rocks, as wild elephants do.

Before he is set loose, Charley, who currently weighs five tons, needs to gain more than 100kg. As such, he is fed a daily diet of up to 130kg of seasonal vegetables, fruits, hay and branches.

Four Paws, the Elizabeth Margaret Steyn Foundation and Shambala Private Reserve collaborated to secure Charley’s retirement in the reserve.

Charley was born in 1982 in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. He was captured when still a youngster to perform at Boswell Wilkie Circus two years later in South Africa.

When his owner faced charges of animal cruelty for beating his elephants and not providing them with enough water and shade, Charley was transferred to Pretoria Zoo in 2001, where he spent more than two decades in a barren enclosure.