Cello's Story - The Final Chapter

Cello the day after her first treatment

April 18^th in northern Kenya.  She made her way back to Lewa and was treated twice for an infection resulting from the gunshot wound.

Following her second treatment on May 1^st, Cello appeared to be improving.  But, shortly thereafter, she began to deteriorate.  We knew that immobilizing her a third time was not an option, so we decided on a somewhat unorthodox, last ditch attempt to stave off the infection – we followed her with a vehicle and shot auto-inject darts full of antibiotics into her wounded leg.  However, it soon became apparent that Cello suffered from a bone infection that would be almost impossible to combat.

On June 20^th, Cello lost her fight for life.  Despite our best efforts, we were not able to stem the infection that ravaged her body.  Saturday afternoon she laid down for the final time.  Sometime during the night, she died -- in anguish and without the family with whom she had spent her entire life.

Emaciated and exhausted, Cello rests her trunk on the tree

As matriarch, Cello had kept her family safe for over two decades, leading them to water in times of drought and bringing them to safe havens such as Lewa. Cello’s family did not come to Lewa with her – most likely they scattered in terror when the bullets were fired.  Her four-month-old calf most certainly died, too young to have survived without her mother.  The whereabouts of Cello’s family was unknown.

In March of the following year, Bassoon was also shot and wounded in the leg.  She, too, made her way back to Lewa and, once again, we darted and treated the injured elephant  -- her three-year-old calf stood vigil.  Happily, in this case there was no damage to the bone, and Bassoon made a full recovery.
 

On June 20th, Cello laid down for the final time

Since then, some members of the Instrument Family have reunited while others have joined different families and are sometimes seen on Lewa.  Harp, Bassoon and Piccolo are often together and, from time to time, Violin joins them.  But, unlike the Vegetable Family that faced a similar tragedy (see Blog  3), the Instruments have never fully recovered from the loss of their matriarch.