Moses the orphaned elephant being raised by human mother in Malawi

In February, Jenny Webb, 48, adopted a few-weeks-old baby boy elephant named Moses.

The elephant had been found alone and close to death in a riverbed's grasses by game rangers at Vwaza Wildlife Reserve in northern Malawi. After two days of searching for Moses' family, rangers concluded they must have been killed by elephant poachers in the area.

According to the New York Times, conversation groups say tens of thousands of elephants are killed each year in Africa for their ivory tusks.

Malawi's national parks couldn't afford to raise the young pachyderm, so Webb, founder of the Jumbo Foundation, an orphanage for large animals, took him in.

"When we got Moses we found there is a desperate need for an orphanage for large animals. Elephants, hippos, buffalo, rhinos...there is no place for those babies to go if their parents are killed," she told the Associated Press. "There are some places in Zambia and Kenya, but no place here in Malawi, so that is what I am working for."

Webb gets elephant-raising advice from veterinarians and from the Elephant Orphanage Project in Zambia.

Caring for 100-kilogram Moses is an around-the-clock job. The elephant drinks 24 litres of formula a day and requires nighttime bottle feedings every two hours.

Moses' official blog, explains that the animal has three caregivers:

"Moses is now living at their house, Matimat, the cook, looks after him from 7am until 12 am, Nyson, the groom, looks after him from 12 until 5 and Jenny looks after him from 5pm until 7am as he has to have somebody with him 24 hours a day."

Moses sleeps beside Webb on a mattress on Webb's dining room floor at her home in Lilongwe, Malawi. Moses paces around the room when he's hungry, and nuzzles against her when she drinks her morning coffee. To simulate a mother's shelter, Webb drapes a blanket over the elephant.

"Elephants are extremely sensitive," Webb told the Associated Press. "It amazed me. We think of elephants as big, strong creatures but they are very emotional. Moses picks up on my feelings. If I am sad, he is nurturing. If I am angry, he quickly gets upset."

In a few weeks, Webb hopes to have Moses eating solids foods: hay, grass, bark and horse feed. He'll be off formula completely by the time he's 4. Webb plans to reintroduce the elephant into the wild, likely at the national park where he was found, when he's 5, the Associated Press reports.

In the meantime, Webb must raise funds to build a boma, an African-style corral, where Moses can live when he outgrows the house. By the time Moses is 2, he will no longer fit through the door of Webb's house.

Follow Moses' story on the Jumbo Foundation's blog.