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ROO

Roo is a very special female elephant.

She was named after EHRA’s Managing Director Rachel Harris who has been at the heart of all of EHRA’s operations since the very beginning. Unbeknown to her, the team named the elephant after her because Roo, just like Rachel, was always keeping an eye out for everybody and made sure that all family members are fine.

Roo is the embodiment of gentleness and care.

She is one of the few elephants in Mama Afrika that would always choose to walk as far away from people as possible and she treats every other living being with exceptional respect.

But Roo went through many difficult times. We observed her having lost at least three of her own calves, one of which was killed as a result of human-elephant conflict (the baby was caught in a fire set by farmers to chase elephants away. It lived for a few days and then died of severe burns).

But when the original matriarch ‘Mama Afrika’ had died in late 2014, Roo immediately adopted the baby ‘Madiba’ Mama Afrika had left behind. Madiba was then only two years old and still milk dependent. Roo just lost her own newborn and so still had milk-she started to feed Madiba immediately! Until today, mom and adoptive son are inseparable.

Although deprived of her own offspring, Roo is a wonderful mother, deeply caring, ever so gentle and a beautiful female that brings stability to the family.