A wildlife official feeds the baby elephant milk (Picture: Sabah Wildlife Department / AFP)
The orphaned pygmy elephant pictured trying to wake his poisoned mother appears to be on the road to recovery.
Three-month-old baby Joe looks to be having fun again at an animal sanctuary after fears from animal experts he was dying from a broken heart.
His mother was among ten elephants from the same family found dead after being poisoned in Malaysia’s Gunung Rara Forest Reserve last month.
The Borneo pygmy calf was losing weight fast, despite around the clock care, before being introduced to keeper Augustin David at Lok Kawi Wildlife Park who has become his surrogate mother.
‘He has clear likes and dislikes,’ he explained. ‘He loves suckling people’s thumbs – just like a human baby, it calms him.
‘But he doesn’t like showers, so we have to wash him in his pen. At the moment he is losing his baby skin so he likes to rub against anything because he’s itchy.’
Malaysian authorities have offered a $16,000 (£10,000) reward for any information over the poisoning of the elephants that died of internal bleeding.
Officials overseeing Joe’s recovery say it is too soon to know if he will recover completely it but say ‘he has a strong will to survive’.
