Meet Ndume the elephant.
When he was just 3 months old, Ndume was knocked unconscious by tribesmen armed with sticks and machetes, trying to protecting their crops. His mother died.
Joseph Sauni, the trust's head keeper in the southern sector of Tsavo East National Park, oversaw Ndume's rehab.
He came back to visit once in a while, though no one had seen him since 2007. Sauni and the others didn't know how he was faring, or even whether he was still alive.
Until a very tame elephant wandered onto a Tsavo film set in 2014.
Deeble and Stone, longtime friends of the trust, called to see if the elephant keepers would come and take a look.
Sauni saw Chota and knew it was Ndume. Both the elephant keeper and the elephant seemed elated.
Ndume appears in good health, according to Sauni and observations by the filmmakers who found him.
Deeble wrote:
Ndume's reappearance is extraordinary. That he is fully-integrated is unquestionable – occasionally he turns up with two other bulls, older and more battle worn – but it is clear that he leads them. We've seen him mating. He is in great physical condition. His tusks are wide-set and sweeping. He carries no scars from poachers' arrows. He is unmarked.
Together again at last.
Watch Sauni's euphoric reaction to encountering Ndume.
