Safari Guide Jamie Paterson:

…” Mom’s now giving herself a comforting sand bath. Little one reaching up touching her, learning its mother’s smell, forming that bond that is going to be a lifelong one. Oh, look at its little shaky, wobbly legs. …The cow’s back legs are still damp. This calf is just dried off.”

…”Oh, hang on. I said it was a girl, I think it is a boy. This is such a tiny baby it can only be, I don’t know, four or five hours old. Look at it reaching out, touching mom. Mom is hungry, she’s got to replenish her energy.”

…”I cannot believe we’ve started off our afternoon like this. I’m going to have a smile on my face all week. It’s incredible, the end of 22 months of investment from this mother. She’s carried that little thing for 22 months, nearly 2 years.”

“She’s got her whole family around to support her. Hasn’t quite even learnt which side the milk bar is on and she (mom) is going to try to direct it ever so slightly. We are so lucky that she (mother elephant) trusts us like this. …Okay, whoopsie, little wobble. That’s okay, little one, wobbles happen, gonna have lots more of them in your life. Bear in mind this thing is only a few hours old and its just learned to walk.”

“I prefer that it wouldn’t walk in our direction though, to be completely honest. Not that I’m not completely and utterly in love. Oh, a little boy! Welcome to the world! This is so confusing for you. No, no little one, milk’s on the other side.”

Hours old baby elephant protectively surrounded by his elephant herd after he takes a tumble down a slope       Image: SafariLIVE / Barcroft from The Daily Mail

“What on earth is going on inside this tiny creature’s head? See what I mean about their incredible proprioception. They never hurt each other unless it’s intentional which, of course, is very seldom. She knows her little baby’s there. Look at that size difference. Actually, beyond words in this sighting. Really, I don’t think that there’s much you can say about a situation like this, just that we are unbelievably lucky. ..Young bull is about to come past us. This is unbelievable, I mean… Oh, look at its little wobbly legs.”

” Elephants have always been one of my absolute favorites. …Gently guiding him. Now he has already fed, obviously we saw him feed earlier and I noticed she has suckle marks on her nipples, on her left hand nipple as well so he has fed a few times already now. This new big world is very big and very scary and there’s all these giants around me (Jamie speaking of newborn elephant’s perspective.) She keeps reaching back, constantly checking on him.”

“I keep picturing that fall over and over in my head and the way they rushed towards that little one. Not just the mom because you can understand mom, of course, that maternal instinct is so strong. But the way that all of them, all of the adult females went running towards it, protect it to make sure that it’s okay.”

“We might not have seen a live elephant birth but we’ve come very, very close and we’ve experienced one of the most magical moments. This is the youngest baby elephant I’ve ever seen. I’m very glad that we could share it with you. Oh, look at it exploring its world. And that trunk is just mysterious extension on its body. And slippery feet. Uh Oh! Upsy Daisy. Lucky mom’s there. …And off goes one of the most extraordinary little creatures. Oh dear! Speed wobble. Got a little overconfident there. And protected by the massive bulk of Fang behind them.”

Fang, Mama Elephant & Hours-Old Calf       Image: Daily Mail SafariLIVE / Barcroft

(Camera pans to Jamie in her jeep) “That was amazing.That was absolutely amazing. This is so cool. I’m obviously not going to follow them. That to me makes total sense. I’m sure you’ll all agree. I’m not going to go dashing off behind them. We’re going to leave that little one to do their thing, leave mom to do their thing. We’ve been unbelievably fortunate to have experienced that; just sitting and waiting and the fact that they did pop out. I thought they would but I didn’t dare hope.”

“Unbelievable… I’m actually shaking. That was so incredible. ..How incredible was that? Okay, now what? I’m done. I might go home, you know, have a little lie down, have a maybe cup of tea and steady myself after all of that. Okay. Oh, bravo. Can you believe that it is Fang’s herd ? The one thing I do feel guilty about is that Brent found the placenta but it was truly a team effort that we just experienced. I hope you all enjoyed it. I’m going to recover myself slightly. In the meantime I’m going to send you across to Brent and his buffalo….”

Images: Newborn Baby Elephant (featured) & Fang, Mama Elephant & Hours-Old Calf: SafariLIVE / Barcroft from The Daily Mail Online

Watch video from the aforementioned transcribed text here.

“SafariLIVE: Adorable New Born Male Elephant , only a couple hours old Amazing Oct 12, 2016” same video as above only this video starts with baby elephant tumble and edited (Safari Guide Brent discovering the elephant afterbirth is edited out)

See Daily Mail Online “What a Dumbo! Adorable Newborn Elephant Takes a Tumble Down a Hill As He Tries to Keep Up With His Herd – Who Rush to Help Him Back to His Feet” for more photos and video.

Learn more about Safari guide Jamie Paterson here

See Djuma Private Game Reserve “Live Web Cam / Djuma Waterhole” here