WARNING: long post. read it if you wanna. it's an essay i happened to think up on the spot when i had nothing to blog about :) it'll take you but a few minutes to read it.
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Tempratures ranging over the savannah, was a common scene. It was high noon and none, even the allusive hyena, had been spared from the blazing fireball in the sky and its emmisions of intense heat. But despite all the circumstances, despite all the adversities, a miracle was happening; the miracle of birth. It was season now and all the calves had to be born in synchronisation, so they would not be picked off by predators. I stared in amazement as the matriach of the herd stooped to brng forth yet another life into this amazing world we call home. It lasted but a few minutes, but the calf had been born and i could tell it was a male.
Now, it was natural for wild animals to be able to stand soon after birth, they weren't born defenseless like we were. I watched closely the hours passing as the matriach and her family nudged the calf to get up on its feet. After what seemed to be forever, the calf got up on its hind legs, and it seemed like success beamed just across the horizon for the young male. It was shortlived, however. Though the calf stood up on its hind legs, its front ankles were not as strong yet and the poor baby was shuffling around on its knees.
The wild is a cruel world where only the fittest survive, and soon the herd had to move on, with or without the calf bolstering its ranks. The herd took up a slow march towards the distance and i thought it was all over for the calf which was to be taken by predators if it were abandoned. As the giant mass of elephant moved, i noticed some weren't; the matriach herself and one of her daughters had stayed behind with that calf. The herd marched up for what seemed about a hundred metres before it realized it was missing its matriach. Such was the bond between a mother and her child that the matriach would not leave her calf even if it meant she had to stnad by him when no one else would.
At this point i noticed the distraught in the matriach's daughter. She was caught between a dillemna of joining the herd, or rescuing her little brother, who was still struggling on his knees. She walked towards the herd, turned around, walked back towards her brother, then walked back to the herd. At the slightest trumpeting of the calf she would run straight back to his side even if it was just a small cry. It moved my heart.
Days passed as the herd moved very slowly, with the calf still shuffling on its front knees. I did not know elephants would wait this long. The mother walked by his side all this while and when he fell or stopped moving, she would lift him back up with her trunk. I could not bare to leave the herd now. Patience is a virtue that is often underestimated because on the third day of slow desert trotting, the baby elephant stopped moving. The scars and open wounds on its knees were not at all discreet. The herd did not move either. They watched him as if something was going to happen. I steeled myself to observe the death of the beautiful animal that came to know the world just three days before.
The calf let out a small cry, and with the help of its mother, it raised itself onto its front feet, all to my suprise. Was it possible? It didn't seem so because the calf fell straight back down. But that didn't stop him and on his second try it stood up tall, the ground below its feet. Alas, the calf was on its feet walking. It wasted no time at all in discovering its new strength, and within minutes it was running around its parent.
They say elephants dont forget, but to me, it was the elephant that made sure i never forget. Never forget the strength of a family and the miracles that life on this planet can bring. Thinking back to my own family, i often wonder why i did not have the treatment the calf had. Are humans incapable of such noble deeds? Perhaps what we once thought was human did not belong to us in the first place.
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thanks to the National Geographic for inspiring me with a real documentary on this. sorry about spelling mistakes lol.
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