Visits to the Kruger National Park can come complete with a wide variety of emotions. Seeing these amazing animals in the wild is awe inspiring, exciting, and often quite sad.
In this case, Regadt Grobler spotted this young wildebeest calf at the Crocodile Bridge, and sent the footage in to Latest Sightings. Abandoned for unknown reasons, the calf was casting about for its mother in a sighting which is sad to watch.
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Small And Shaky
This young wildebeest was so small that it was still shaking on spindly little legs as it repeatedly tried to nurse from the bottom of the car. It clearly wasn’t sure where it was going wrong as it kept trying to poke its head underneath the car and coming up empty.
No doubt hungry, the little wildebeest tried all down the length of the car, and even when it became clear it wasn’t going to find anything, it kept trying, just to be sure. The whereabouts of its real mother remained unknown throughout the footage.
Without its mother, or the rest of the herd, this poor baby must have felt extremely exposed and vulnerable, which would help explain why it clung so fiercely to the car and refused to leave its side, even when it started to pull away.
Keeping Up With Mom
There are only a few reasons why a mother might reject a calf in the wild, and one of these is that the calf is unable to keep up with the rest of the herd as a result of a deformity, or disability. That didn’t appear to be the case here.
Despite only being small, this wildebeest calf was able to keep up with the car as it gently pulled away, and even ran alongside it for a surprising distance. It might have looked wobbly on its feet, but this calf would not have had any difficulty keeping up with the rest of the herd.
This made the absence of the mother, and the cause of separation between them, an unsolved mystery. It also made it incredibly sad to watch the poor calf trying to keep up with the car, clearly thinking that it’s keeping close to its mom.
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A Case Of Mistaken Identity
Clearly very confused, the young calf was casting about in various directions for its mother, and after the first car presumably left, it latched onto another as a potential maternal figure.
At various points it was seen trying to nurse from a silver car, chasing that same car, before also following a navy blue car along the road and staying close to its side after it stopped. Driving away from the poor calf seemed almost cruel, but the visitors to the park wouldn’t be able to stay forever.
The survival chances for this calf were low, as predators would have singled it out even if it had a herd to keep it safe, and without one it would be easy pickings for any meat-eaters in the area looking for a quick snack.
Unless this wildebeest managed to reconnect with its mother and her herd, its existence on this planet was unfortunately doomed to be a short and unhappy one.