A young elephant (5-7 years) was spotted with a tight snare around the trunk. The trunk distally to the snare was already swollen - indicating that blood supply was starting to be cut off. Luckily the animal was located swiftly in the Sabi Sands on the border with Manyeleti Game Reserve and darted. The young elephant went down in 3 minutes, after which the mother could be pushed further away by brilliant flying from Gerry McDonald and his R40 helicopter.

We landed shortly after and were able to stabilise the elephant. The snare luckily had not cut in the skin yet so the procedure was quick. The snare was cut, the body was examined for other snares or abnormalities and the animal was reversed. After 5 minutes the animal was up and could walk back to the herd. Overall the procedure took 20 minutes - incredibly efficient work by the vet team and helicopter pilot.

Thanks to our local partner NGOs for sharing the costs of this rescue operation.