Shocking Look at What Happens When an Elephant is Poached

Each year, 35,000-50,000 African elephants are slaughtered in order to supply the illegal trade of ivory. Poached for their tusks, wild elephants are constantly placed at risk of encountering humans who want nothing more than to profit from these vulnerable giants.

Unfortunately for this big bull of a pachyderm, his path crossed with a group of poachers who were using poison dart arrows as their weapon of choice. Poisoned darts are incredibly painful to any animal unlucky enough to be pierced by one, and fatalities by dart can range over a time span of few hours to a few months.

Medics from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the Kenya Wildlife Service received a call about the elephant, and rushed to remove the arrow and clean the elephant’s wound. They gave the helpless pachyderm long acting antibiotics in the hopes of helping the elephant make a full recovery. Thanks to the hard work of this extraordinary team (who dedicates their lives to saving elephants) the bull was able to survive! Hopefully he will be not targeted by poachers again!