New life is something that is celebrated in many circles.
That’s why the elephants at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an orphan elephant rescue, were so excited to welcome Milo.
Milo is the 53rd calf born to an orphaned elephant that the trust both rescued and raised.
Milo was the very first calf an ex-orphan elephant named Melia gave birth to.
Melia had her baby right outside of the stockade.
According to WTMJ-TV, elephants have a habit of returning to their herd or from the wild back to a stockade to show off their newborns.
It’s their way of celebrating and showing their pride over their new baby.
Sheldrick Wildlife Trust says this is a time-honored tradition on behalf of their ex-orphans.
They’ll show up at their “home” days or hours before they give birth.
The last time the Ithumba sanctuary experience this same “miracle” was in 2014.
That’s when an elephant named Emily returned to give birth to her second daughter a few days before Christmas.
Milo’s birth was somewhat of a surprise.
While Melia had been getting visibly larger throughout her pregnancy, no one knew exactly when she was due.
Her large frame made it difficult to determine.
She returned to the stockades the night before she gave birth which offered a clue.
Both she and her fellow elephants seemed startled when a child dropped from her the next morning.
“Melia was as surprised as we were to find herself a mother! Initially, she seemed flummoxed by the tiny baby lying before her. That’s where her more experienced friends stepped in, helping the first-time mum come to grips with the situation. Loijuk, who is mother to three-year-old Lili, took charge and used her front legs to lift the baby to his feet,” Sheldrick Wildlife Trust wrote.
The bulls were staring in awe while keeping their distance.
Melia soon figured out the best angle to feed her baby and had her child nursing in no time.
She was very affectionate with Milo, which means “beloved.”
Motherhood is new to Melia, but she’s doing a great job figuring it out.
She is also surrounded by other elephants in her herd that are helping her care for the calf.
Melia came to the Trust in 2009 when she was 11 months old and orphaned in Tsavo East.
They aren’t sure if her mother was a victim of poaching or if she just succumbed to the dry season.
Thirteen years later and she had Milo.
“Milo is the 53rd known calf born to an orphan we rescued, raised, and reintegrated back into the wild. All well, he has a good seven decades ahead of him. It is an extraordinary privilege that we were privy to his debut on earth,” the Trust wrote.
See Milo’s birth and the herd’s adorable reaction to it in the video below.
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