Elephant With An Old Bullet Lodged In His Head Asks Veterinarians For Help

May 12, 2020 by apost team

After Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority reported two wounded elephants in the Zambezi Valley back in 2016, vets Dr. Keith Dutlow and Dr. Lisa Marabini were on the lookout. It normally takes time to track down wounded elephants, but one injured elephants came right up to Dutlow and Marabini’s car for examination as they were traveling through the Mana Pools reserve. The vets quickly discovered that the male elephant, better known as Pretty Boy, had been shot in the head.

In order to treat Pretty Boy, the vets and their team injected Pretty Boy with a tranquilizer, and only 15 minutes later, the bull was asleep, according to Lisa Marabini’s report in National Geographic. 

“If they’re very heavy, bull elephants sometimes have difficulty standing up after being immobilized, and Pretty Boy’s weak-looking back wasn’t in his favor. His poor body condition also caused us some anxiety,” Marabini wrote.

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Upon further inspection and after performing an X-ray of the animal’s forehead, Marabini and her husband confirmed that a poacher had shot Pretty Boy in the head with a small bullet. The wound was infected, so Dutlow had to operate. While the elephant was asleep, the experienced vet made sure to clean the injury and remove as much as he could of the bullet. The veterinary team also applied a topical antiseptic and long-lasting antibiotic in order to prevent infection

Luckily, Pretty Boy seemed to be in excellent shape once he came to. While he spent the first afternoon after his operation “dozing” with his face pressed against a nearby tree, Marabini wrote that the next day Pretty Boy already seemed to be doing better.

“We were greatly relieved to see him the next day with a happier demeanor, stuffing his face with albida pods,” Marabini wrote back in 2016. “With a professional guide from the area, we walked right up to him, and he didn’t bat an eyelid; he just carried on eating. It gave me a newfound awe for these animals.”

Dutlow and Marabini are founders of the AWARE (Animal And Wildlife Area Research And Rehabilitation) Trust, which works to “further the conservation and welfare of wildlife and wildlife habitats” through veterinary medicine and by raising awareness in Zimbabwe, according to the organization’s website. Additionally, it is the only veterinary conservation trust in Zimbabwe run by veterinarians. Part of their unique mission includes treating and rehabilitating wild animals like Pretty Boy after they have been injured by poachers.

While poaching rates did decline in Africa as of 2019, approximately 10-15,000 are still killed each year by poachers, which means that elephants continue to be an endangered species, according to Science Daily. To help with conservation efforts, to help save more elephants like Pretty Boy, visit AWARE’s website.

What do you think about Pretty Boy's recovery? Let us know and pass his incredible story on to fellow animal lovers to raise awareness about elephant poaching.