Last week, we were captivated by this epic rescue of an elephant from a muddy pit near Kenya's Chyulu Hills National Park. And we've got another amazing rescue story to share this week – but this time, the muddy mishap involved two young African buffalo calves. The rescue mission played out in South Africa's Phinda Private Game Reserve, and both of the youngsters made a lucky escape.
Ranger Bruce Hedges recounted the rescue on the reserve's Facebook page yesterday:
The general principle in game reserves is to let nature always take its course, but with every rule there are exceptions. What began as strange inter-species interaction, ended up with the saving of two young buffalo calves the following morning (one still had its umbilical cord attached).
It all started the evening before... We arrived at a dry, muddy waterhole to find a buffalo cow acting very strangely towards two rhino. Every time the rhino approached the waterhole, the buffalo would charge at them. We watched this unusual behaviour for a long time, not thinking that anything was wrong. At this point we didn't know [the buffalo's] calf was stuck in the mud and that she was trying to protect it. At one point the young rhino walked over her stranded calf and wallowed on top of it!
The next morning we were in the same area looking for cheetah and spotted the herd of buffalo around the same waterhole. As the herd moved off, two cows lingered behind briefly before following the rest of the herd. We went to investigate and found a calf stuck in the mud. After chatting to the other rangers, we decided that saving its life was the best thing to do. Rangers and trackers started pulling it out and while we were doing so, noticed another calf completely buried in the mud (the one from the evening before). We pulled both calves out and had to wash their eyes and nostrils so they could see and breathe properly. The calf that had been in for over 12 hours (and been walked over by the rhino) was extremely exhausted and couldn't even walk. The resilience of this young calf was amazing. We washed both of them off and made sure they were strong enough to walk. We then called in our conservation team to return the calves to the herd and continued on our game drives.
An experience like this was once in a lifetime, and saving the lives of two baby buffalo that would have otherwise suffered and died in the mud was very rewarding.
Top header image: Tim Ellis, Flickr
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