A middle-aged woman interacts with an adult Asian elephant indoors, wearing a light blue shirt and white pants. A vintage suitcase and a wicker basket with greenery are visible in the background. 2:44
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Yes, baby elephant, you can bring your spoon

Roxy keeps telling Moyo how clever he is. The baby elephant, meanwhile, has found a stick and is holding it in his trunk. more

Moyo is 14 months old and lives at Wild Is Life, the rescue center Roxy founded in Zimbabwe. She has spent nearly 20 years helping sick and orphaned animals, from African cats to primates and birds. Moyo is her biggest challenge yet.

A baby elephant holds a stick with its trunk while standing on a paved surface near greenery. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Moyo, 14 months old, holds a stick in his trunk outside at the rescue center.

Right now he is having a quiet moment on the veranda, on his favorite sofa. He's getting a little big for it, and Roxy thinks it might break soon.

He came to her when he was just a few days old. He's thought to have been washed away while crossing a flooded river with his herd, and he nearly drowned before rangers found him and brought him to Roxy. She has been his surrogate mother ever since, and he follows her everywhere.

A middle-aged woman interacts with an adult Asian elephant indoors, wearing a light blue shirt and white pants. A vintage suitcase and a wicker basket with greenery are visible in the background. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Roxy keeps telling Moyo how clever he is.

Everywhere includes the house. He's very curious, so he grabs a tea bag and decides he doesn't like it at all. Then he pees on the floor. With most animals it's a little puddle, Roxy explains, but this is a very, very big one.

He has outgrown the house, but old habits die hard. When he was smaller, Roxy made his milk in the kitchen, so he followed her in there, and he still knows the way.

He finds the salt. He finds a strawberry. He wants a chocolate brownie, and Roxy tells him none of this is good for him. He knows he's being naughty, she says. Spoken like the mother of a toddler.

A woman in a light blue shirt stands indoors near a window with red blinds, appearing to speak. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Roxy says Moyo knows he is being naughty as he goes after the strawberry and the brownie.

Getting him out takes a lot of "come on" and "let's go," and people watching say she has the patience of a saint. It turns out he loves silver, which is how a spoon gets involved. "Talk about an elephant with a silver spoon in his mouth," Roxy says.

Roxy doesn't argue. "Yeah, you can bring your spoon," she tells him. "Come, let's go."

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