In April 2026, a tourist reported a subadult elephant with a sever snare injury on his right front leg. The team flew out with the helicopter in an attempt to locate him but were unsuccessful. The following morning a drone was mobilized to look for the family group as one of the females had a collar on. The data from the collar allowed us to get a rough idea of where they could be. The family group was located and we flew to the area to look for them. They had moved off from the location however by widening the search area the helicopter was able to locate them.

The injured individual was easy to identify as he was severely lame and unable to bear weight on the injured leg. He was successfully immobilised so that veterinarians could assess the injury and the damage caused by the snare. Unfortunately the snare had dug into one of the joint cavities just above his foot and most of the tendons on his leg had been severed by the snare. The prognosis for recovery was grave and it was decided that the best option for this individual was euthanasia.

This operation would not have been possible without our sponsorship of 4.2 helicopter hours. Helicopters are an essential tool in much of the elephant conservation work that is needed and the cost of running them is currently out of reach of the reserve budget due to current foot and mouth restrictions on game capture.

You can support operations like this to ease suffering for injured wildlife by making a donation to our Flying For Conservation Fund.