Murera, the elephant vets once wanted to put down, has given birth to a second daughter, Mwezi

An elephant that vets once advised putting to sleep has had a second calf. Murera, a rescued orphan and matriarch of the Umani Springs herd in Kenya, gave birth to a daughter in the early hours of 29 October, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust said on 3 November. Keepers named the calf Mwezi, Swahili for “moon,” because she arrived under a near-full moon.

A 2 a.m. arrival

Because of an old hip injury, Murera still chooses to return to her stockade at night, so keepers have followed her pregnancy of nearly two years closely. At 2 a.m., just after light rain, they heard something drop, then a chorus of rumbles and trumpets, and found Murera cleaning a newborn. They helped by covering the calf with shovelfuls of dust so she would dry faster. Mwana, Murera's first daughter, hovered behind her mother until Mwezi got to her feet, then stepped forward to greet her.

By dawn, other orphans who sleep in the wild were waiting at the gate. Three nannies in the herd, Kiasa, Amali and Quanza, now share childcare, and the herd has been staying near the stockades while Murera recovers.

Saved against the vets’ advice

The Trust rescued Murera in 2012, at the height of Kenya's poaching crisis. She had stepped on a poisoned spike trap, which ravaged a hind leg, and she had also dislocated her other hip. Every vet recommended euthanasia, but Daphne Sheldrick believed there was a chance, and the keepers kept going.

“At the beginning, it was very hard for all of us… At one point she gave up and stopped feeding, but we persisted.” — Peter, senior Nursery Keeper, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

She recovered enough to walk in the forest, but would always have physical limits. That led the Trust to create Umani Springs, its reintegration unit for elephants like her.

A family of three, days before the rain

Murera's first calf, Mwana, was born on 12 March 2023. The Trust said Mwezi came just days before the rains broke at the end of a particularly hard dry season in the Kibwezi Forest. Her keepers have now walked beside Murera for 14 years. More rescue stories are collected under wildlife rescue.