Fears for baby elephant missing its trunk

A baby elephant has been spotted in a South African safari park without a trunk.

The young calf was filmed near a waterhole in Kruger National Park in July, however the vision has only just begun to go viral now after being distributed by video licensing company Newsflare.

The person who recorded the footage, who did not give their name, said it was a sad sight.

“We could see that this baby elephant’s trunk was torn off by some kind of predator during a horrific incident,” they told Newsflare.

“Crocodiles grabbing baby elephants by their trunks while drinking water have been recorded in Kruger before and this was the most likely reason for this baby elephant losing its crucially important body part.

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“An individual can simply not survive without its trunk.

“Elephants use their trunks to feed, drink water and smell.

“Finding this elephant again in a population of 20,000-plus elephants roaming the 2.5 million hectares of Kruger Park seems to be an impossible task and we can only hope for luck.”

The vision spread on social media, with wildlife experts weighing in on the young calf’s survival prospects.

Joyce Poole, the co-founder of conservation organisation ElephantVoices, told Jason Bittel at National Geographic it was likely the calf wasn’t going to make it. 

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But she said the little cutie’s wound looked to have healed, suggesting it was getting help from the herd.

“The calf is not thin, so it is getting enough nutrition somewhere,” she said.

“It will obviously have a harder time than other elephants, but it may be being helped by members of the family.

“Their behaviour is so adaptable, so flexible.”