World Unique: Rescue and Long-Term Care of an Abandoned Forest Elephant in Nigeria
Support the local conservationists of Okomu National Park (Edo State) in their so far successful effort to raise a male elephant to adulthood and ideally to return it to the wild.
Forest elephants are critically endangered throughout Africa, with only a few dozen left in the entire vast country of Nigeria. The life of each individual is extremely valuable. It has never been possible to raise a forest elephant without its family in human care, and therefore there is very little advice and instructions on how and what to do. Raising related savannah elephants (and also Asian elephants) is not easy at all, but there is already a relatively reliable methodology for doing so. The forest elephant is still waiting for such a precedent. Therefore this support will not only help this particular baby elephant, but also the overall knowledge of its species and the possibilities of how to proceed in similar cases elsewhere.
Since November 2025, the park managers, the Nigerian non-profit organization Africa Nature Investors (ANI) Foundation, in cooperation with the Nigerian government, have been caring for the life of a baby elephant who was left without his family in an unexplained incident. Poaching has not been confirmed and is not even suspected, because fortunately, thanks to good protection, elephant killing no longer occurs in this zone. The male is estimated to be about a year and a quarter old today and is starting to grow like crazy. He is named Agbaibor, which means "Brave" in the Ijaw language. Despite all the pitfalls, he is thriving and in the coming weeks he will be moving to a new large enclosure right in the rainforest, where he will have more opportunities to learn about his natural life in the wild - for a few more years, of course, with human guides. He will be drinking milk for at least another 3 years!
Save-Elephants learned about the baby elephant Agbaibor a few weeks ago and coordinator Arthur Sniegon, who is active mainly in the “nearby” Congo, Cameroon and Chad, went there as soon as possible. He will spend two weeks in Nigeria in the company of the baby elephant and national park workers and other partners, with whom he will develop possibilities for cooperation on this unprecedented task. Meetings and mutual consultations are already underway and are very constructive. Save-Elephants wants to help the Okomu National Park obtain additional financial and other resources for this unplanned project and continue to be in the loop so that we too can learn as much as possible about forest elephants from this situation. It will certainly be useful elsewhere in Africa in the future.
Kindly thank you for your support (from left): Mr. Peter Abanyam (ANI Foundation Project Manager for Okomu National Park, Nigeria), Mr. Amos Hamman: (Conservator of Parks, Okomu National Park) and Mr. Arthur Sniegon (Save-Elephants coordinator).
Will you help us? What do we need to procure and pay for in such a project for little Agbaibor?
- EUR 2,300: The price for special milk and other nutrition for the current size of the baby elephant for one month.
- EUR 900: Is the monthly payment for the local caretaker who spends all his time with the baby elephant. Currently there are three caretakers and ideally there would be 5 people who will participate in the care. An elephant requires constant and focused care and that is really not easy, physically or otherwise.
- EUR 1,700: Will cover the international logistics for the urgent mission of an elephant expert and their nutrition.
- EUR 39.000: Is the price for a complete, largely completed facility for the baby elephant and the care team further away from people in the depths of the rainforest.
Thank you for your generous support! 🐘
