Pictures have emerged of safari guides risking their own lives to mount a desperate battle to save a young elephant who was stuck up to his neck in mud for up to four days.
The small bull used his trunk as a snorkel as rescuers worked around the clock using a tractor, ropes and their bare hands to try and pull him out.
Rescue attempt: Len Taylor, a guide at Gache Gache Lodge, climbed into the mud with the elephant and spent six hours trying to save it
Stuck: The helpless young bull had spent up to four agonising days trapped in the mud and had been using its trunk as a snorkel
Hero: Guide Len Taylor, who spent six hours trying to rescue the young elephant, climbed onto its back to take a rest from the mud
Caked: The poor young elephant was covered in mud in Zimbabwe from top to bottom after being stuck for up to four days in the hot sun
Guides from Gache Gache Lodge on Lake Kariba, only a few minutes from where the elephant was stranded, risked their lives to climb into the mud with the animal in order to tie a rope around his body, getting slapped by his trunk in the process. Guests also took shifts in the race against time to save him.
Found: This was the scene when tourists and guides found the young elephant stuck in the mud. The tractor in the background was later used to try and pull it out
Trapped: It’s thought the elephant had been stuck in the thick mud for up to four days in the African sun, causing it to become dehydrated
Creative: Len tried to get the rope under the elephant’s belly using long sticks while the terrified animal tried to hit the men with its trunk
‘I did not want to have to free him and only then have to shoot him in self defence. As it was, he was too weak to come after us.’
Race against time: Melissa Mackenzie, who was a guest at the lodge, posted pictures of the desperate battle to save the stricken bull. Alongside this picture, she wrote: ‘Gets dark so fast here, had to act quickly’
Stumbling blocks: The biggest problem was trying to get a rope around the stricken elephant’s belly because the mud was so thick
Progress: Once the rope was tied around the elephant’s neck without strangling him, the men tried to pull the young bull out of the mud
Ray Townsend, who works at the lodge, said: ‘Even though he was eventually pulled out, he could not stand, could not get up by himself.’
Fears: Len said: ‘Once it looked like we could get him out, my biggest fear was that he would try and kill us once he was free’
Efforts: The men, covered in mud themselves, pulled the exhausted young bull out of the mud but then had to stop it falling back in
‘After an extremely long wait for this boy to get up, bearing in mind that an adult or sub adult elephant cannot be left down for too long, the decision was made by Parks and Wildlife department to euthanise him,’ he said.
Worry: ‘Elephants are extremely aggressive when they are distressed and he of course had no idea we were trying to save him,’ Len said
Struggle: The elephant had spent up to four days with without water in the hot sun and slowly exhausting itself trying to get out
Unhappy ending: The decision to put the animal down came after it became clear it wouldn’t be able to stand up or survive the ordeal