Abandoned baby elephant treated for inflamed belly button in China

I’ve got a bad case of Nelly belly! Abandoned six-day old elephant is treated for an inflamed belly button after it is rescued in Chinese woodland

• The baby male elephant was found on Sunday in China’s Yunnan province
• It had been left behind by its herd when it fell ill from an inflamed belly button
• A team of animal rescuers found the elephant calf and were able to treat it
• After some care, video showed him getting back on his feet and walking away 

An abandoned six-day old elephant has been treated for an inflamed belly button after it was rescued from woodland in China.

The baby male elephant was found on Sunday in China’s Yunnan province after being left behind by its herd in Xishuangbanna.

In June, another elephant became separated from its group in Yunnan province after the herd travelled hundreds of miles from their nature reserve, near China’s border with Myanmar, in a widely-reported journey that went viral online.

Pictured: The abandoned six-year- old baby elephant that was found with a swollen belly button and nursed back to heath on Sunday in China’s Yunnan province after being left behind

Speaking about the baby elephant found on Sunday, one of the rescuers told CCTV: ‘When we arrived at the scene, we found that its belly button was a bit inflamed.’

Bao Mingwei, director of the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center, added: ‘We used anti-inflammatory drugs to treat the infection around the umbilical cord. 

‘We measured some basic data including its body temperature and its heart rate,’ he added. 

State television footage showed rescuers tending to the elephant, before moving the calf to a rescue centre in a truck.

Done footage initially showed the herd of elephants grazing and drinking from a river, before the video cut to showing rescuers caring for the calf.

Mingwei, along with with a group of rescuers and veterinarians, are seen taking the elephant’s temperature and squeezing water into its mouth to nurse him back to health.

Pictured: The elephant is nursed back to health by workers from the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center. The baby male elephant was found on Sunday in China’s Yunnan province after being left behind by its herd in Xishuangbanna, according to Tuesday’s CCTV report

Pictured: Rescuers care for the elephant as it is treated for an inflamed belly button

Pictured: Drone footage of the baby’s herd, which wandered off and left the six-year-old male behind. Luckily, he was rescued by a group of animal workers who treated him

After some care, it is shown getting back to its feet, before being led down a train towards the truck to be taken away to the centre. 

Conservation efforts in Yunnan have seen China’s remaining native elephant community numbers double over the past decade. 

Meanwhile, the space available to them has gradually shrunk over the years, with the tropical forests of Xishuangbanna replaced with banana, tea or rubber plantations or used to plant lucrative raw materials for traditional Chinese medicine.

Elephants in China are of the Asian elephant variety, one of three living species currently recognised, the other two being the African bush elephant and the African forest elephant.

They are found throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in the north, Sumatra in the south, and to Borneo in the east.     

Last month, a different herd of wandering elephants in China that captivated the world when they went on a 17-month, 300-mile trek finally went home. 

The elephants were spotted early August near Ganzhuang community in Yuanjiang county, Yuxi city, Yunnan Province. They are around 125 miles from their home nature reserve after a 17-month trek

Drone footage that went viral shows the Asian elephants sleeping with their babies on June 7

During their journey, The 14 Asian elephants have given birth to two babies, caused more than £760,000 of damage, gone viral for taking a nap, sucked in 400 emergency personnel, some 120 vehicles, and an armada of drones on their odyssey.

The trunk-swaying convoy got underway in March last year, leaving their long-standing natural habitat to traverse busy highways, city centres and housing estates, in a journey which stumped scientists. 

On the way, they raided shops, smashed doors, stole food, entered people’s homes and even took a group nap in a widely-shared photo that was taken earlier in August, which scientists now believe demonstrated how exhausted they were. 

After reaching the outskirts of Kunming, a booming metropolis filled with businessmen and tourists, they turned south again.  

It’s common knowledge that elephants are incredibly intelligence creatures, something which makes the unprecedented journey as mystifying as it is is fascinating.

During their journey, The 14 Asian elephants have given birth to two babies, caused more than £760,000 of damage, gone viral for taking a nap, sucked in 400 emergency personnel, some 120 vehicles, and an armada of drones on their odyssey 

Pictured: Roads were blocked in June using lorries while 18 tons of pineapples and corn were scattered in an attempt to lead the elephants to safety

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