Wildlife Conservation South Africa Project #54620

Raise Khanyisa Orphaned Elephant Snaring Survivor

by Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation & Development

Raise Khanyisa Orphaned Elephant Snaring Survivor

Project Report | Feb 9, 2024
Khanyisa Meets Orphan Phabeni & Learns To Share!

By Sunel Craythorne | Fundraising Administrator

Khanyisa drinking milk in the Bush.

What a privilege to report back on Khanyisa.

Khanyisa is learning to share!

HERD’s newest elephant orphan, little bull Phabeni has been receiving visits from young Khanyisa at the fence at the bottom of the orphanage garden. While Khanyisa drinks her milk bottles on one side of the fence, Phabeni watches her from the other side, getting acquainted with the albino calf who once stood in his “shoes”.

While snacking on supplies of sweet potatoes, apples, and pellets, Khanyisa recently found Phabeni’s wandering trunk coming in to smell her. It was a precious moment as the two little trunks touched. Khanyisa wasn’t too thrilled when Phabeni was given a taste of her cherished sweet potatoes but it is all very new to her. She has never seen such a small elephant so closely before and certainly has never interacted with one. This is only the beginning of a new learning phase for her as she is introduced to a younger brother little by little.

These moments remind us of Khanyisa’s time in the orphanage, when she too was only months old and taking in this whole new world step by step. Each elephant orphan walks a journey that’s all their own, unique to them, so we know Phabeni’s road might look a little different to that of Khanyisa.

For now, Khanyisa is still the baby of the herd and gets extra attention and protection from the bigger elephants in her family. Kumbura and Lundi are still excellent motherly figures for her, and Timisa is the greatest of playmates. When Khanyisa needs to take a snooze during walks in the wilderness, she simply plops down and the herd surrounds her, offering her shade and security. It is a beautiful sight to see.

Khanyisa still receives milk bottles during the day and is certainly long over the one-tonne mark in kilograms as she continues to grow and grow alongside her carers and elephant family. We are so grateful for her amazing health and progress.

Watch special moments with Khanyisa as shared recently on HERD YouTube:

The Moment Baby Elephants, Phabeni & Khanyisa Touch Trunks - https://youtu.be/aj8wHlIdbd8?si=u7dzjFHstge_ufZv

Khanyisa Naps Sweetly in the Shade of Her Herd - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugRt7V7x1E4

Baby Elephants, Khanyisa & Phabeni Share Sweet Potatoes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Tz_jwy_fw&t=3s

Quality Time With Khanyisa & Her Loving Protector, Kumbura - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUmKJtHWdL8&t=403s

Adine Joins Khanyisa, Timisa & the Elephants On a New Walk in the Wilderness - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwZ37sSiWLw

You can keep an eye on our social media platforms for daily updates and news.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HERDElephantOrphanageSouthAfrica

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERDElephantsSA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herd_elephants/

We are so grateful for the endless support from kind hearts like you. Thank you for all your compassion and generosity towards Khanyisa’s journey.

Warms Regards

Adine and The HERD Team

Permalink

Oct 12, 2023
Baby No More? Khanyisa 4 Yrs Old & Over One Tonne!

By Sunel Craythorne | Fundraising Administrator

It is our privilege to report back on Sunshine Khanyisa!

She is doing extremely well, and we couldn’t be prouder of her progress.

We recently celebrated Khanyisa’s one-tonne milestone and her fourth birthday – what an amazing journey of development it has been for her, having started at HERD as a tiny four-month-old calf who only weighed 124 kilograms in January 2020 when she was rescued. Now at over one tonne in weight, we will not be weighing Khanyisa anymore as our scale only tracks weight up to 1000 kilograms.

Watch these precious weigh-in moments with Khanyisa: https://youtu.be/yB15InZl_0c

We celebrated Khanyisa’s birthday at the end of September and took the occasion to honour the calf by sharing the first chapter of the children’s book we are writing about Khanyisa’s journey. Written for ages 10 and up, the book shares Khanyisa’s life with young readers to inspire homes and classrooms around the world. We hope to finish all the chapters soon and start the process of looking for publishers who share our vision for the book.

We also took a look back at Khanyisa’s special bond with two of her carers over the years – Reply (https://youtu.be/mkmqEbs_lK4) and Herman (https://youtu.be/-9qsJgYlezo). Her carers have been instrumental in the success of the calf’s rehabilitation and integration and so we had to shed some light on their journey with Khanyisa. We are indebted to them for their dedication to Meisiekind and to all our supporters for helping us raise this snare survivor with a new family of elephants around her.

Khanyisa continues to receive milk bottles during the day, in addition to apples, pellets, and sweet potatoes in the morning when she starts the day with a full breakfast. We are excited for the rains to slowly return to our reserve as summer nears, as the bush and waterholes need a lot of replenishing. This will help provide the elephants like Khanyisa with the grass and lush vegetation they love so much, and will enable us to start looking at weaning Khanyisa. It will be a long and slow process of reducing Khanyisa’s milk bottles, taking place over many months, so for now we continue to invest time and money in providing her with formula.

Watch some beautiful moments with Khanyisa and her herd at sunset on a recent walk home - https://youtu.be/VavEe7oMcxQ - as Khanyisa approaches Adine for extra-close greetings and rumbles.

Don’t forget to keep an eye on our social media platforms for daily updates and news.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HERDElephantOrphanageSouthAfrica

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERDElephantsSA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herd_elephants/

Thank you for all your support towards Khanyisa’s journey.

Warms Regards

Adine and The HERD Team

Permalink

Jun 15, 2023
Albino Baby Elephant, Khanyisa's Last Milk Bottles

By Sunel Craythorne | Fundraising Administrator

We are happy to report on Miss Sunshine… Khanyisa!

So much love and dedication has gone into the raising of baby elephant Khanyisa, the snare survivor. There is plenty of Sunshine to love!

She can hardly fit through the orphanage door as she goes for a weigh-in with carers. How great it is to see her at more than 900 kilograms. She is clearly thriving thanks to all the support from her milk bottles, her carers and herd, and you, her supporters (foster parents and donors).

Khanyisa is stronger and more skilled at foraging and roaming in the bush each day, with the guidance of her elephant family.

There will be one more season of milk bottles before full weaning starts. Winter is here which means that the bush is becoming drier as the weeks progress. The rain will only return toward the end of the year, after Khanyisa turns four in September, bringing with it a greener, more abundant wilderness to help supplement Khanyisa’ s diet as she weans. So, we’ll take this winter as our last season of milk bottles.

Khanyisa is still building her skills and strength and needs to learn to feed like a big girl! To carry a massive tree branch like Tokwe, as she walks around the wilderness, feeding herself as she goes. To reach up to the tallest leaves on the Marula tree like Fishan and Sebakwe. To pull bark from the branches like Zindoga and dig up bulbs and roots like Lundi. We’ll be here watching her change in these and new ways. Each step by elephant step.

We couldn’t have gotten Khanyisa this far without your help… A big thank you to you, from all of us at HERD.

Thank you for all your donations and fosterings for our Miss Sunshine!

Don’t forget to follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to see more moments with Khanyisa.

Yours in conservation.

Adine and the HERD Team

Permalink

1 2 3 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.