Overnight Rescue of Elephant Trapped in Water Well | Sheldrick Trust

On Friday evening we get the report of an elephant stuck deep down a well. It's pretty obvious from the report that the elephant is in a bad way and we need to act fast to save the elephant. It's late in the evening so we need to fly down there as soon as possible with equipment to start pumping water out and try to get all the water out of the well to allow the elephant to stand up so it doesn't drown. As soon as we landed there it was obvious that the situation was much worse and much more complicated than we thought. The well was much deeper and the elephant looked like it had been in there for some time, 12 hours maybe more. Our number one concern was to get the water out and give the elephant time to rest so it didn't drown. If we can pump out all the water then we can have a chance to somehow get the elephant to stand up. Because of how deep the pump is it's actually quite hard to pump water from down at the bottom of the well. We have to first fill the pipes with water and prime the pump. And only then can we begin the pumping process. Wow, this will take all night. It looks like it will take all night. We drain the water and then we look for a machine that will be able to pull this guy out. So it will take some time. This is the first stage. Because of the nature of the reports and photos that have been sent, we all think we're going to be there for the evening and get the job done quickly. Soon we realise that isn't the case and we're going to need to spend the night there and pump throughout the night to try and get this elephant on its feet and stop it from treading water. Every 45 minutes to an hour we have to refuel the pumps and check that there's no sediment blocking the pipes. The well's full of grass, sticks, mud. So every 45 minutes we have to clean the pipes, refuel the pumps and make sure that they're working throughout the night. Definitely a big race against time. As we're pumping water out of the well, we start to see it filling up. Because it's in the water table, as we're pumping, the well itself is filling up. We got hold of headquarters and asked for a few more pumps to come in the morning as soon as day broke. Now there's three pumps total, all pumping non-stop. Pumping is only the beginning, that's the first step. Now we have that all done, the next step is to get some heavy machinery in, some cranes, in order to lift this elephant out of this 45-foot well. It's a very inaccessible area, so it took them a long, long while to get there. The next step is to dart the elephant and get straps on it so that we can start lifting it out of the well. Darting an elephant in water is a very, very difficult thing to do. Because as soon as they're sedated, their trunk will fall below the water level and they'll start sucking water. So it's very, very important that we get to the elephant as soon as it falls in the water, so that we can lift its trunk out of the water so it doesn't breathe in any water. It's obviously a very dangerous thing and there's a fine line between knowing when the elephant's fully sedated or whether it's still awake and able to thrash around a little bit. Rambo, my goodness! You're cutting a very fine line and it can be very dangerous. Given how slim the chances of success were in this operation, it was a huge feat saving this animal and the team did an unbelievable job. My name's Renko Hartley. I'm Daphne Sheldrick's grandson and I work for the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.