In 2016, we wrote about a preview for the BBC Earth/PBS show Nature’s Miracle Orphans in which a growing baby elephant named Moyo was causing absolute chaos in her adoptive home at the Wild Is Life Zen Sanctuary in Zimbabwe. In another clip from that same episode, Moyo is shown to be finally able to conquer her fear of water with a refreshing splash in the river under the caring guidance of her adopted mom Roxy Danckwerts. This seemingly simple swim took over 15 months of therapy to accomplish, as Moyo had been originally found alone and orphaned on the shores of Lake Kariba where the tiny pachyderm suffered a great deal of trauma.

Moyo was our first elephant that we rescued. She was found alone, as a tiny little baby on the shores of Lake Kariba. Efforts to find her herd were fruitless and there were no elephants in the area. After a 4 days of being alone Moyo was followed by a pack of hyenas. ZEN therefore decided to intervene. We flew a plane to Kariba and collected Moyo and brought her back to Harare. She was extremely small, weighing only 56kg on arrival!