There may be hope for ailing elephant Noor Jehan however her survival hangs by a thread – Pakistan

Elaborating on Noor Jehan’s diagnosis, Dr Khalil told Dawn.com that the team conducted an endoscopy, ultrasound and blood tests on Wednesday. “During the sedation, Noor Jehan fell down which was very risky […] we nearly lost her yesterday.

“But luckily, as a precaution, we had a crane which was used to lift the elephant and bring her back into a standing position […] we then gave her reverse medication [to wake her up] and succeeded in completing the procedure,” he said.

The vet shared that in the last few months, the elephant suffered either trauma or injury, the reasons of which are yet unknown, leading to internal bleeding and a hematoma — a collection of blood within a confined tissue space — inside the abdomen.

“Other organs in Noor Jehan’s body have also been impacted because of this.”

Dr Khalil said that the team has started administering medication to the elephant, but at the same time contended that this was not the only thing the animal needed.

He regretted that Noor Jehan had lost a lot of weight and muscle mass in the last few months, recommending that the elephant required more movement, exercises, and high-pressure water massages.

The vet further stated that the elephant could not be moved to the Safari Park until her health improved. “Noor Jehan is very sick and weak. If moved now, she will die on the way.”

Elephants are known for their size and strength, but those who have seen Noor Jehan in recent days have seen her health deteriorate rapidly. The elephant’s mass has shrunk, her spine appears disfigured while her legs appear crooked.

Apart from medication, there was a lot more the ailing elephant needed. For one, a good night’s sleep.

“Just like humans, animals too have instincts […] Noor Jehan knows her legs do not have sufficient strength […] she knows that if she sits down she might not be able to get back up,” Dr Shehla, a private veterinarian closely working with the Four Paws team, told Dawn.com.

For the medication to work, she explained, Noor Jehan needed proper rest. “But in all these days, until the team arrived, she was leaning against the bars of her enclosure while still on all fours and this has tired her out.”

For this purpose, the vets have asked the zoo staff to place a mound of sand inside Noor Jehan’s enclosure to provide her with support while resting.

Mathias Otto, a member of the Four Paws team and an elephant trainer, told Dawn.com that elephants were intelligent animals and needed to be taken care of in the same way.

“In the wild, they travel for kilometres searching for food and water. At the zoo, we don’t understand what elephants see […] they see how can they play with the keeper, they think about ways through which they could get rewards from their keepers, and they learn every day […] for an elephant, the whole day is an exertion.

“This is why, as much as physical enrichment, an elephant also needs mental enrichment,” Otto said.

To put it precisely, elephants should never feel bored, otherwise, they become irritated and isolate themselves, and could even get depressed.

In Noor Jehan’s case, Otto suggested that tyres and wooden planks be placed inside her enclosure so that she keeps herself moving and occupied. He also recommended that mahouts come up with new ways of feeding her, which would provide her brain the enrichment it needed.

The enclosure Noor Jehan is presently residing in is barren and has a lone tree inside. It houses a pond lined with cement which is mostly empty. At night, the elephants are moved to an even smaller space, which too is made of desolate cement, and are kept chained until dawn.

During the last two days, while Noor Jehan underwent treatment, her only roommate and long-time best friend Madhubala remained anxious and uneasy.

From a separate enclosure, Madhubala kept sliding her trunk towards Noor Jehan, trying to reach out to her friend. Her mahout Samiullah told Dawn.com that the two have been living together for over a decade now.

All four African elephants in Karachi — Malika, Noor Jehan, Madhubala, and Sonu — were brought to Pakistan from Tanzania in 2009. They were captured from the wild when they were merely two-years-old.

All four elephants lived together at Safari Park for a year before Noor Jehan and Madhubala were separated and brought to the Karachi Zoo.

Dr Khalil of Four Paws said elephants are social animals who live in herds. In the wild, these animals travel in groups, make deep bonds, cry at the deaths of their loved ones and bury them.

Explaining Madhubala and Noor Jehan’s bond, the vet explained that the former had taken over the position of the matriarch and considered the latter to be her child.

“When we came yesterday, after the procedure, Madhubala came to touch through her trunk the swelling on Noor Jehan to see if we had hurt her friend,” Dr Khalil recalled, adding that this was the reason the two elephants could not be separated.

“They also need to be reunited with other elephants … this psychological factor is also very important for the health of these animals.”

With all the other factors, one thing that remains the same is that elephants are animals not meant to be domesticated or kept in cages.