Back to the wild – rehabilitation of orphan Asian elephant calves in Sri Lanka

Summary

Sri Lanka holds over 13 percent of the world's Asian elephants at the highest density of any country, but habitat loss and human-elephant conflict kill roughly 200 elephants and 60 people a year and leave about 14 calves orphaned annually. In 1995, Sri Lanka's Department of Wildlife Conservation opened the Elephant Transit Home at Udawalawe, the first facility anywhere built specifically to rehabilitate and release orphaned elephant calves, at a time when critics doubted hand-reared elephants could ever readapt to the wild. Rescued calves, ranging from a few hours to several years old on arrival, are treated for injuries and disease, then settled into a routine of milk feeding roughly every three hours alongside independent foraging in nearby forest, managed by a team of up to 50 keepers. Calves are typically released between four and seven years old, fitted with a VHF and GPS collar about two months beforehand, using a hard-release method with no holding pen; the first release group left in 1998, with most subsequent releases going into Udawalawe National Park and the rest to Maduruoya National Park roughly 250 km away. Daily tracking for two weeks, then weekly monitoring, shows released elephants typically take six to twelve months to establish home ranges, often start out in a group before some join wild herds, and have gone on to breed successfully, including one female who founded her own herd. Over 22 years, the centre has released 117 elephants. The project rates itself highly successful.