This is the moment vets flew to the rescue of an elephant calf after it became trapped in a snare laid by poachers in Kenya.
Footage shows the baby elephant unable to free its ankle from the tight loop of rope binding it to a stake in the ground in a remote area of the Tana River in the Ndera Community Conservancy.
On arrival, the vets fire a dart filled with anaesthetic at the calf, to subdue the distressed animal.
As the calf slumps to the ground, the vets move in to assess its injuries. They swiftly cut the rope off and spray the wound in the elephants ankle and one on its ear with blue antiseptic spray.
Video footage showed the vets fire a dart filled with anaesthetic (pictured) at the calf, which fell to the floor and the team rushed in to begin freeing it
Simple snares are usually a noose made of wire, rope or cable and suspended around an animal’s path. As the snared animal fights to free itself, the noose tightens, cutting into the flesh and suffocating the animal if it is around the neck, or causing a deepening wound if around a foot.
The vets use a knife to free the elephant calf from the tight rope around its ankle, being careful not to injure the helpless animal in the process
Despite fears that the mother, who was standing 50 metres away, may move in and endanger the vets from the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, they were able to free the calf (pictured)
In December 2020, a quick-thinking wildlife rescue team saved an elephant’s life after it was spotted with a hunter’s snare attached to its leg in Zimbabwe.
The vets also marked the elephant calf with blue paint on its ankle and ear after freeing it. A snare trap sees a loop of wire or rope suspended from tree by poachers to trap an animal
After the vets successfully free the elephant, it wakes up (pictured) and happily bounds off in to the thicket of nearby trees
According to the country’s first wildlife census, Kenya has a total of 36,280 elephants, a 12 per cent jump from the figures recorded in 2014, when poaching activity was at its highest.
Catherine Norton (centre) was part of a wildlife team that helped to save an elephant at the Musango Island Safari Camp in Zimbabwe in December 2020 after it was spotted with a hunter’s snare attached to its leg
Across Africa, poachers kill around 100 elephants a day for their meat and tusks, with only around 400,000 wild elephants left, according to World Elephant Day.