LILONGWE, Malawi — Lots of mothers wake in the middle of the night to feed their babies, but not many get up to give a bottle to an infant elephant.
Jenny Webb adopted a baby boy elephant who was just a few weeks old in February.
The orphaned elephant calf was named Moses after being found in the grasses of a riverbed by game rangers at Vwazi Wildlife Reserve in northern Malawi.
The calf’s mother was probably killed by elephant poachers.
Moses weighs 220 pounds, and each day he drinks 6.3 gallons of an infant formula that is boosted with coconut milk and 14 other ingredients.
Like many toddlers, Moses likes to go outside. Webb, the founder of the Jumbo Foundation, an orphanage for large animals, takes him on daily walks with the family dogs.
“The dogs are like his herd,” she said. “He socializes with them in the day and likes going for walks with them. He quickly established dominance with them. But at night, he herds the dogs outside. He doesn’t like to sleep with the dogs. He likes to sleep with the cats, and me.”
As soon as the sun goes down, Moses lies next to Webb on a mattress on the dining room floor.
And when Moses is 5 years old, Webb plans to reintroduce him to life in the wild, possibly in the national park where he was found.
