Game reserve devastated as Thandora the elephant dies

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

A sombre mood has descended over the Gondwana Game Reserve outside Mossel Bay following this week's passing of the much-loved elephant, Thandora.

While a post mortem will reveal the cause of death, reserve owner, Mark Rutherford, says its believed that she may have succumbed to botulism on Thursday morning.

"We were contacted on Tuesday evening and told she was struggling a little bit to stand up and we went across to see her. We thought it was another case of colic. When we got her up and walked her we realised that there were different symptoms," Rutheford said.

"She moved quite well, we got her to water, we hydrated her and gave her some food but unfortunately at about six o'clock on Wednesday morning she laid down again and we were unable to get her back up."

"We treated her from Wednesday morning with the vet. We had her on endless amounts of fluids. We treated her with a variety of different medications to try and target whatever was hassling her and unfortunately I think it was just a little too much. It looked like botulism from what we can see but the test results are not back yet," he added.

Rutherford said everyone at Gondwana Game Reserve was "absolutely devastated."

"She became a real part of the family. She became in icon and she was nicknamed Miss Gondwana and she was everywhere. Everybody knew her and she was an absolute icon. She became a very special part of our family there."

"So, people are taking strain at the moment and we just need to reconcile and learn from what has happened and hopefully can do so much more with other elephants going forward. But, she'll never be forgotten. She'll always be a very, very important part of the spirit of Gondwana," he said.