Last year, Network for Animals moved Tembe, an elephant with big tusks a thousand miles through Africa so he could mate with tuskless females in the Addo National Park, in South Africa. Because of poaching dating back to before the area was protected, most elephants in Addo either have no tusks or small ones.
Big tusks are a turn-on for lady elephants and when Tembe arrived at Addo, he was an immediate hit with the fairer sex. You can imagine that this did not go down too well with other males because none had such handsome tusks – a case of ‘tusk envy’, you could say!
Alas, Tembe and a lady elephant were… busy… when her regular escort found them. Enraged, he charged the interlocked couple and – here’s the painful bit – bayoneted Tembe in the rear end. Ouch!
Poor Tembe was seriously injured; the Addo team swung into action, anaesthetized him and gave him medical treatment that saved his life. The good news is that Tembe is on the mend, as our pictures show.
The moral of the story… Pleasure must be paid for.
