Kora On the 13th July the Keepers happened upon ex-orphan “Kora” and noticed that he had a poisoned arrow protruding from his shoulder. With him was his best friend, Lualeni and also Kamboyo. The trio returned to the stockades with the Junior group where the Keepers managed to extract the arrow head, which was coated with deadly Akokanthera poison. Amazingly, Kora seemed to understand that the Keepers were helping him as irrespective of the pain involved, he stood quietly as the wound was cleaned and dressed and later when he was injected with a long-acting antibiotic flown in from Nairobi. He was kept in the stockades for several days so that his condition could be monitored closely should the poison, which affects the rhythm of the heart, take effect. Throughout this ordeal, Lualeni remained steadfast, actually sleeping in the compound to be near him, until the Keepers let her join him and the other youngsters inside at night.
presence in the North who could assist in the battle against poaching and help to keep our elephant orphans safe. Sadly in December poor Kora returned once again to the Ithumba Stockades with more arrow wounds, but on this occasion not coated with deadly poison, which was probably fired from the bows of bushmeat poachers. The Keepers cleaned the wounds, which were not life threatening, packed them with Green Clay and off he went again to join his ex-orphan group determined to enjoy the green season in their company rather than as a stockadebased Junior.
The Keepers are convinced that ex-orphan Kamboyo, who was with Lualeni when Kora was brought back, must have informed Yatta and the other ex-orphans of Kora’s predicament. The very next morning Zurura, Makena, Loijuk, and Rapsu were lined up outside Kora’s stockade studying him, joined later by Yatta, Wendi and the entire ex-orphan unit plus their wild hangers on. Since then, they all kept in regular contact with Kora, who opted to remain with the Keeper-dependent Juniors until September, browsing with them during the day and returning with them to the stockades at night. Lualeni did the same for several months, but then rejoined the Senior ex-orphans making a point of meeting up with Kora and the Juniors at some point during the day. The poison obviously made Kora feel slightly unwell for a few days, but otherwise it had no serious affects, so he was very lucky. In the evil and avaricious world of today, where poaching is driven by the rising demand in China, no elephant is safe, irrespective of where they happen to be and on the day that Kora was arrowed, two large wild bull elephants lay dead, poached within 12 kms of the Ithumba Stockades. Following this, the Trust sought permission from KWS to have a second specially recruited and trained anti-poaching
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