Fiela's Legacy Lab Fund
Fiela’s Legacy Lab was established to aid research while honouring the memory of a baby elephant, born at the Knysna Elephant Park, on the 5th of March 2013. Fiela was rejected by her mother, Thandi, at birth, and had to be hand-reared and bottle-fed by her adopted human family (AERU and Knysna Elephant Park staff and volunteers).
For three months, this family provided 24-hour care and nurturing, bottle feeding her every two hours. The fund was originally set up to provide financial assistance for the specialised milk powder we needed to feed her. Generous donations from all over the world helped us give Fiela the best possible care.
For three months she grew rapidly bringing joy to everyone who met her. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, she suddenly fell ill and passed away on the 3rd of June 2013. A post-mortem also revealed several organ defects, indicating she may have been born prematurely and had never developed properly. This would also explain her mother’s rejection, a behaviour typical in many mammals when their offspring are not capable of survival in the long term.
She touched thousands of lives in her short life and continues to do so through her legacy via Fiela’s lab, which is now used for monitoring and maintaining the health and welfare of other elephants – not only at Knysna Elephant Park, but at other facilities too.
If you would like to contribute, please click the donate button to pay via Online payment or PayPal. You can email research@aeru.co.za for more details.
