Two huge tusks sticking out of a sea of mud in the middle of the savannah.
A scene seen from the plane that cannot go unnoticed and that immediately activated the rangers of the Big Life Foundation.
So the great Tim, the iconic elephant of Amboseli Park in Kenya was miraculously saved from a dramatic quicksand situation that was swallowing him up.
An operation that lasted a whole day, with moments of discouragement and a lot of tiredness, especially from the exhausted but happy animal.
Given the size of the specimen and its weight (over 5 tons), the rescue operation was really difficult, especially since there was no way for any type of vehicle to approach the swamp, to get it out or dig it out.
And it wasn't just the danger of the mud, but the nervous stress that could kill Tim as time went by.
First the rangers along with KWS had water gushing out of a well on a nearby hill.
In a short time the water reached the imprisoning pond, enough to make the elephant move but not enough to solve the problem.
It was with the arrival of a tractor, positioned 300 meters from the mud lake, that the recovery operations began: for five times the straps hanging around Tim's neck by the experts of the David Shaldrick Foundation broke, with the tired pachyderm unable to cooperate, even knowing that this would have complicated things. Eventually, the tractor was joined by two off-roaders on the ground that had become a little more solid.
Three powerful engines pulled the elephant in a race against time for its stress and fatigue.
Before dawn, finally, the decisive blow.
Thanks to these passionate angels of Africa and its best inhabitants, Tim will slowly resume his life in his immense home.