Matilda

The Baby Elephant Who Needed a Home

Matilda is a baby elephant who lives at the Elephant Transit Home, or ETH, at Udawalawe National Park in southern Sri Lanka. The ETH rescues orphan elephants and returns them to the wild when they are ready. In January 2007, Matilda was just over one year old when she was rescued and brought to ETH, where she enjoys life as one of the facility’s younger elephants.

Life as an Orphan In the Wild

Matilda was probably separated from her mother and family herd when villagers chased them off their land to protect growing crops. This is a big problem in Sri Lanka, and both people and elephants can suffer.

Exhausted and malnourished, Matilda was found roaming with a herd of domestic water buffalo who had become her surrogate family. She was too young to survive on her own without her mother's milk, care and protection.

Luckily, villagers captured Matilda, and local park rangers contacted Dr. Suhada, the ETH's talented veterinarian and manager. Without delay, he and his team drove to collect the little orphan in their special elephant ambulance, a unique Land Rover rescue vehicle donated by Born Free.

A Second ChanceMatilda – named by ETH staff after Madilla, the town where she was rescued – was scared of humans and is still nervous, hiding in the middle of the herd of orphans at the facility. But with the expert care of Dr. Suhada and his team, Matilda is adjusting to her new surroundings.

Elephants have a lifespan similar to humans, so Matilda really is just a baby! She needs 40 pints of milk every day and is fed every three hours, around the clock, by the dedicated staff at the ETH. Her short life has been full of tragedy, but today, it is transformed. Matilda sleeps, eats and plays with her 25 friends at the ETH, and her confidence is gradually growing. She spends each day in the ranging area, a corner of Udawalawe National Park, where she can graze, browse, bathe in the reservoir and hang out with the other orphans.

Matilda will rely entirely on human care until she is grown and ready to be returned to the wild. Through her adoption, Brady Communications is helping provide Matilda’s daily care and protecting elephants worldwide.