Photo gallery for Ely: Wanted, Alive!

Peter Dennis asked in a recent comment, "how Ely is doing?" Good question. Those of you who have seen the first of the three-part BBC Echo of the Elephants TV series will remember Ely as Echo's fourth calf, the heroic little fellow born in 1990 who overcame a birth defect that crippled his front legs for nearly a week until after innumerable tries he forced himself to stand.

Ely was born with his carpal joints (front 'knees' effectively) bent severely back in a rare condition known as 'flexure of the pasterns'. Cynthia tells us in her 1992 book, Echo of the Elephants (London: BBC Books) that the condition is known in domestic animals, including horses, but had never been described before in an elephant. Another first for the project! And a great moment of joy when Ely was at last able to suckle properly and keep up with his mother and the rest of the family.

Ely was officially dubbed an independent male in 2002, and was last photographed in January 2003 (see mug shots, above). We all fervently hope that he has just taken his independence very seriously -- rebelling from his home-body mother -- and is alive and well, say, in Tanzania. Later on in the year, Martyn Colbeck (see note on the current Animal Planet filming project), Cynthia and the research team, spent many hours looking for Ely during the filming of Echo-III. But, no luck.

So, anyone having information concerning the whereabouts of Ely please contact his mother (or AERP staff) immediately.