A ranch owner in Zululand, South Africa, recently found an unexpected visitor in her garden: a 10-day-old runaway elephant.
The young tyke, dubbed Tom by the chef who found her, showed up at Francoise Malby Anthony’s Thula Thula Private Game Reserve last week, reports The Telegraph.
Tom is believed to have wandered some 30 miles from her mother and the rest of her family before ending up at the ranch house tired, thirsty and hungry.
“I have owned this ranch for 15 years but I have never experienced anything like this,” Anthony told the paper. “She must be like the littlest hobo as baby elephants never ever get lost from their herd.”
Soon Anthony and her staff figured out what had happened, and the youngster was reunited with her mother, resulting in a happy ending for everyone.
Coincidentally, Tom’s mother was rescued by Anthony’s late husband, Lawrence, years before.
“Her mother — who we rescued from a neighboring reserve, which was going to allow a hunter in to shoot her — was delighted when Tom was finally reunited with her.”