A Baby Elephant’s Story
A Baby Elephant’s Story is told so sweetly by Cody Kuchirka and Giselle Correia – a pair of free-spirited and wandering souls who are travelling the world and helping whenever they can. The power of Social Media is an amazing thing and I am so happy to have Cody and Giselle share their story as Guest Writers on my Blog. I can’t say it enough times – with awareness comes change. A heartfelt thank you to Cody and Giselle for all that you are doing! These are their thoughts about A Baby Elephant’s Story.
One day we decided to quit our jobs back home to head out and travel the world long term. We are a fun creative couple who live for travel and meeting new people. We have a strong love, and passion for animals and animal rights and have been including a lot of volunteering at animal sanctuaries on our journey around the world. We are kind, compassionate, open minded, weird, and have a quirky sense of humor. We love tattoos, horror movies, music, kind food, and animals. What’s not to love?
Our time with a baby Elephant by Giselle Correia and Cody Kuchirka
Cody and I were ready for our 1 week stay volunteering at Elephant Nature Park in Chiang, Ma – in Thailand. Little did we know that we would be chosen to care for a new born baby elephant that had been rejected by his mother. When we arrived baby Ellie was already settled in. He was weak and malnourished due to not receiving his mother’s milk. We were given the chance to see him and we were given more info on his condition by Lek and some vet students. He was very ill and needed 24 hour supervision. We must have made a good impression on them because we were chosen amongst a few other people to care for this precious baby.
Our days with Ellie were incredible. We knew how lucky we were and we were present at every moment. Some of the care involved using a towel to simulate his mother’s trunk slapping his back, as well as using another towel sweeping back and forth to simulate her tail on his backside. We bottle fed him and recorded every single hiccup, and poop he had.
We made sure there were no mosquitoes or any other bugs biting him (as any bites would compromise his already weak immune system) and had to catch him and get a blanket under him before he fell on his head from being so tired. We fell asleep with him every night under a mosquito net cuddling and spooning him to keep him warm. Our time with him was so special.
We are true animal lovers and believe that all animals have the right to live freely in their own habitat, but unfortunately this baby’s mother was domesticated and this was his fate. Because of this we were able to experience something that most people will never ever get to experience. And we are most grateful. Ellie was so precious. He would stumble around learning to walk, trying to get his balance and almost bulldoze us over.
He was about a week old and already so strong – but not strong enough.
Baby Ellie was too weak to survive. We spent our last 8 hours with him and the next day he fell into a coma and passed. It might have been for the best, as his mother had already killed her first baby and had attempted to kill him. Many experts believe this madness is due to the severe torture elephants go through in order to break their spirits to become working/entertaining elephants. They also have incredible memories, and are extremely intelligent, so it is thought that his mother knew his fate and tried to end his life before it was ended by humans. It was an extremely sad and emotional funeral as he was so young, and it could have been prevented if we respected the complex lives of animals a lot more.
Giselle With Baby Ellie – What An Amazing Experience
We buried him in the jungle where he belonged. Where all elephants belong.
Website: Giselle and Cody – www.mindfulwanderlust.com
If you have been moved by A Baby Elephant’s Story – there are so many ways that you can help. Be like Cody and Giselle and volunteer when you travel. Sign petitions – write letters – never buy ivory – share animal stories that you see online – tell your friends – donate to one of the incredible elephant sanctuaries like Elephant Nature Park – The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust – BLES Animal Sanctuary – EARS.
