Ely the elephant, son of the late Echo the famous matriarch of Amboseli, was born in 1990, crippled in his front legs. He walked on his knees for 3 days before his legs loosened up and he could get on his feet. His mother & sister, Enid stayed with him when the rest of the herd had to keep going for food& water, and he survived. I just saw this post on Cynthia Moss's blog for the Amboseli Trust for Elephants with an update about Ely! Moss has been researching the Amboseli elephants for almost 40 years, she was there to film Ely when he was born and she was able to follow him until he went independent at the age of 10. After that, she rarely saw him. The last sighting of Ely in Amboseli was in April of '01. Almost 9 years later, Moss and her team saw Ely this past Monday! He is healthy and very handsome! I love his story so much and I love that Cynthia Moss has researched the Amboseli elephants for so long that you can watch an elephant like Ely grow up and beat the odds!

Here's a little clip from the PBS Nature series, there's just a quick shot of Ely, walking on his knees behind Echo & Enid



And here's Ely now!! Such a handsome bull..


Here's the Amboseli Trust for Elephants blog, Cynthia Moss updates it regularly with Elephant sightings and whatnot.
http://elephanttrust.org/blog/15

It's very exciting to think that some of these elephants migrate into Tanzania, I would be honored to see some of Cynthia Moss's elephants!