Khanyisa is about to celebrate her 4th birthday this September and in the lead-up to that, she has crossed a very big milestone, weighing in at 1 tonne.
Hoedspruit, South Africa (30 August 2023) – Little Khanyisa isn’t so little anymore. This stunning young lady has officially reached the weight of 1 tonne. This is a big milestone considering where she started when she arrived at the Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development (HERD) sanctuary in September 2020.
When Khanyisa arrived at HERD, she was a mere 4 months old and weighed just 124kgs. She had been found badly injured having been caught in a poacher’s snare. Not only was she badly injured, but her most defining feature was that she was also an Albino elephant.
Last year we reported her progress as she reached 600kgs and now, she has surpassed that and set the scale to just over 1 tonne. The HERD team were so excited to share her big milestone and it became the headline story in their latest newsletter.
“Albino baby, Khanyisa is now over one tonne in weight! We have been anticipating this milestone as a show of how well Khanyisa is doing, and are excited for her to be edging towards her 4th birthday in September this year at over a tonne large. She is certainly no small fry anymore. We are so grateful for all your support for this survivor!
As we celebrate KHANYISA’S ONE TONNE milestone, we invite you to take a look back at some very special weigh-in moments! Khanyisa started at the orphanage weighing around 124 kilograms and quickly worked her way up.
There were moments in between that scared us as she dropped weight with every bout of diarrhoea or illness. There’s little as terrifying as watching a young calf in your care become fragile and weak. But Khanyisa pulled through with the best team around her, and incredible help from our vets and experts. Her weight rose again and her spirits would lift to show us she was a fighter!
She has continued to grow with great speed since graduating from the orphanage and joining the homestead full time, adapting beautifully to this new stage. Now at over one tonne in weight, we don’t think we’ll be able to continue weighing her since our scale is meant to only read up until around 1000 kilograms. So let’s enjoy this look back at Khanyisa’s happy weigh-ins, with the team and Lammie and Nungu, with this video”
About HERD
The HERD Elephant Orphanage is the first of its kind in South Africa. It is vital to have wildlife orphanages as poaching is rife in South Africa, and often calves are left to fend for themselves after their mothers have been poached. The orphanage was established near an adoptive herd. The Jabulani herd at the Kapama Private Game Reserve is mainly made up of orphaned elephants. The herd has been welcoming to any orphaned elephants that have needed a family structure. Elephants rely heavily on their family structure, so having an adoptive herd is excellent!
If you have some spare time today, spend it with Khanyisa as she gets all her weigh-ins done. This is the best video you will see today.
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