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IFAW - Elephant Rescue

  • Holly-Marie Cato

Working with International Fund for Animal Welfare, we traveled to Zambia to document an orphan elephant Mulisani as he relocated from a nursery to an adult herd. While there Game Rangers International received an emergency call about a distressed elephant who escape poachers, crossed the Zambezi River, and was in need of urgent care and safe passage. So with a team of veterinarians, we mobilized deep into the Zambia bush to rescue the elephant and relocate him somewhere safe and away from a local village. This remains one of the most impactful assignments to date - nothing went to plan, like most foreign expeditions seem to do however we pulled together, worked as a team and it was such an honor to capture people who risk their lives to save endangered animals – people who are at the forefront of conservation work yet seldom seen. I'm glad to bring visibility to them here. On Assignment for International Fund for Animal Welfare in Kafue National Park, Zambia Documentary photography + Grading by me

Sedated adult elephant on a flat bed truck, being transported to a safe location in the wild
Mulisani arriving at this new home in Kafue National Park, his keeper Oscar guides him out of his transport vechical with a bottle of milk.
Oscar and Tuko the youngest calf in residence in the orphanage when this was captured. Oscar's relationship with the animals is really special, much like an elephant mother, he raises them from infancy and will help them transition into living full time in an elephant herd. Unlike most elephant nurseries, human contact with the elephants is kept to a minimum. Only trained keepers like Oscar will touch and directly engage with these creatures. As the calf grows older and more independent that interaction reduces, as their hope is that all elephants rescued do not remain in sanctuaries but live as they were meant to, in the wild.
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    International Fund for Animal Welfare

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      IFAW

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