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Young elephant spent up to four days stuck in the mud in Zimbabwe and tourists and safari guides tried to save him

Len Taylor, a guide at a nearby lodge, climbed into the mud with the bull and spent six hours battling to free him

Rescue attempt: Len Taylor, a guide at Gache Gache Lodge, climbed into the mud with the elephant and spent six hours trying to save it

Stuck: The helpless young bull had spent up to four agonising days trapped in the mud and had been using its trunk as a snorkel

Hero: Guide Len Taylor, who spent six hours trying to rescue the young elephant, climbed onto its back to take a rest from the mud

Caked: The poor young elephant was covered in mud in Zimbabwe from top to bottom after being stuck for up to four days in the hot sun

Guides from Gache Gache Lodge on Lake Kariba, only a few minutes from where the elephant was stranded, risked their lives to climb into the mud with the animal in order to tie a rope around his body, getting slapped by his trunk in the process. Guests also took shifts in the race against time to save him.

Found: This was the scene when tourists and guides found the young elephant stuck in the mud. The tractor in the background was later used to try and pull it out

Trapped: It’s thought the elephant had been stuck in the thick mud for up to four days in the African sun, causing it to become dehydrated

Creative: Len tried to get the rope under the elephant’s belly using long sticks while the terrified animal tried to hit the men with its trunk

‘I did not want to have to free him and only then have to shoot him in self defence. As it was, he was too weak to come after us.’

Len, 40, and the rest of the rescue team did their best to get the elephant on to his belly once he was out of the mud – giving him the best chance of getting up on his feet to eat and drink.

‘An elephant will struggle to get up if he lies on his side, unless he has an ant hill or something to lean against,’ Mr Taylor said. ‘We managed to get him propped up on his belly and left him alone to recover a bit overnight.

‘But when we went back the next morning, he had not managed to get up and he was just weaker. By midday, he was just suffering and had no chance of getting up, so we decided to put him out of his misery. He was dying and stressed and it was the right thing to do for him.’

Race against time: Melissa Mackenzie, who was a guest at the lodge, posted pictures of the desperate battle to save the stricken bull. Alongside this picture, she wrote: ‘Gets dark so fast here, had to act quickly’

Stumbling blocks: The biggest problem was trying to get a rope around the stricken elephant’s belly because the mud was so thick

Progress: Once the rope was tied around the elephant’s neck without strangling him, the men tried to pull the young bull out of the mud

Ray Townsend, who works at the lodge, said: ‘Even though he was eventually pulled out, he could not stand, could not get up by himself.’

‘Time is as always crucial in these matters and he was stuck in the mud longer than we thought – three to four days with dehydration, no water, in the hot sun and slowly exhausting himself from trying to get out,’ he added. ‘In the end, putting him down was the kindest thing we could have done for him.

Mr Townsend explained that the decision to put the exhausted animal down came after it became clear he wouldn’t be able to stand up or survive his ordeal.

Fears: Len said: ‘Once it looked like we could get him out, my biggest fear was that he would try and kill us once he was free’

Efforts: The men, covered in mud themselves, pulled the exhausted young bull out of the mud but then had to stop it falling back in

‘After an extremely long wait for this boy to get up, bearing in mind that an adult or sub adult elephant cannot be left down for too long, the decision was made by Parks and Wildlife department to euthanise him,’ he said.

Melissa Mackenzie, who was a guest at the lodge, posted an album of dramatic pictures of the desperate battle to save the stricken bull online.

She wrote on her Facebook page: ‘Although we managed to get him out, he was too weak and exhausted to stand, and unfortunately didn’t survive.

‘Although not a happy ending, it was still nice to see a group of people give up their time and come together to give an animal a second chance at life. They couldn’t have tried harder.’

Worry: ‘Elephants are extremely aggressive when they are distressed and he of course had no idea we were trying to save him,’ Len said

Struggle: The elephant had spent up to four days with without water in the hot sun and slowly exhausting itself trying to get out

Unhappy ending: The decision to put the animal down came after it became clear it wouldn’t be able to stand up or survive the ordeal

In a story that seems straight out of a thrilling mystery, a viral sensation has taken the internet by storm—the discovery of a giant snake that hides a shocking secret. What began as a typical wildlife sighting quickly morphed into an unimaginable twist, sparking discussions around the world.

It all started in a remote, dense jungle in Southeast Asia. A group of local hikers stumbled upon what they initially believed to be an unusually large snake. At first, it seemed like an everyday encounter with nature’s wonders. But as they ventured closer, they realized this was no ordinary reptile. It was massive—incredibly massive—even for a species known for reaching substantial sizes. With its scales shimmering under the sun, it was like something out of a cryptic folklore.

As the hikers cautiously observed from a safe distance, they noticed something even stranger: a faint, rhythmic pulse emanating from within the snake’s body. The curious—and slightly unnerved—group decided to take a closer look, driven by a mix of concern and intrigue. To their astonishment, they found a way to open up the snake’s enormous, bloated form, expecting to find the typical remains of its last meal.

What they uncovered was beyond their wildest imagination—a woman wrapped inside the belly of the beast.

The woman was alive, though disoriented and weak from what appeared to be days of confinement. Covered in dirt, bruises, and with only a faint glimmer of consciousness, she was rushed to safety and later revealed that she had been abducted by a mysterious group weeks prior. According to her story, she had been drugged and transported to the jungle where she was subjected to the unthinkable. The group responsible for her kidnapping had believed that a ritualistic act involving the snake could somehow alter their fates. The woman’s survival inside the snake’s body was miraculous—somehow, the snake hadn’t consumed her, but instead had sheltered her within its massive form, its slow digestive process protecting her from death.

The mystery of how she ended up inside the snake and whether the group that abducted her is still out there remains unsolved. Experts have speculated that this particular snake, which had been growing rapidly, might have been lured by the smell of food or a strange set of circumstances, such as the woman’s presence or her proximity to the snake.

A MAN was mauled to death by his pet lion in southern Iraq, just days after bringing the animal home in hopes of taming it in his garden.

The victim, 50-year-old Aqil Fakhr al-Din, was known locally for keeping lions and other wild animals on his property for years, according to police.

Mufid Tahir, a spokesperson for local police, told Rudaw news outlet, “Today in a garden in the city of Kufa in Najaf, a citizen was attacked by a lion in his own garden and died immediately.

“The lion had eaten a large portion of the man’s body, and because the lion refused to leave the remains, we were forced to shoot and kill it.”

According to local TV reports, the victim’s neighbour intervened before authorities came, shooting the lion seven times with a Kalashnikov rifle and killing it.

Al-Din was immediately taken to Al-Sadr Medical City Hospital in Najaf but did not survive due to the severity of his injuries.

A clip of the lion lying dead in the garden went viral on social media, sparking outrage over the man’s ability to keep the animal in his garden and raising concerns about Iraq’s lax rules on private ownership of exotic wildlife.

Al-Din had bought the lion to raise and tame it at home, local reports claim.

Iraq has long struggled with illegal wildlife trafficking, driven by a strong market demand along with years of weak law enforcement.

In the absence of effective regulations, hunters and smugglers continue to capture and trade rare species.

A baby elephant who fell into a steep-sided watering hole in Africa was determined not to die.

Bruises appeared on her battered body as she struggled to get free of the hole that could have been her final resting place.

It was early morning on August 14 in Kenya when people from the Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary noticed the baby elephant, totally alone and fighting her impending fate, near the Godoma settlement.

Godoma

Conservancy scouts from the sanctuary immediately pulled the baby to safety.

Then, they waited. They hoped that her herd would return for the baby, so young she was still dependent on her mother’s milk. But it was unclear how long the baby had been struggling and there were no signs of a herd in the area.

Godoma

They brought sorely needed elephant milk formula for the baby, as well as hope for her future. “The most testing time for us is during a rescue. Our teams must ensure they are ready and prepared with the medical supplies, equipment and treatment needed for the flight and rescue operation,” Brandford said.

In a bittersweet but necessary decision, with her family nowhere in sight, the lost baby elephant was flown to DSWT’s orphaned elephant nursery for longer term care.

“She cried much of the night, missing her lost family enormously,” DSWT wrote on Facebook. “With the reassuring company of the rest of the Nursery orphans along with loving tender attention from her keepers she eventually settled.”

The baby was named for the valley, Godoma, near where she nearly lost her life, by the incredible people who found and rescued her.

Godoma is just one of many elephants impacted by external threats. “Elephant poaching kills one elephant every 15 minutes, but the issue of human-wildlife conflict and habitat destruction also poses a real threat to all elephants that should never be forgotten,” Brandford said.