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A baby elephant like this one was rescued and reunited with its mother in October 2012.
NAIROBI, Kenya. In order to pull a baby elephant out of a deep, muddy hole, you will need a strong rope, several people, and a truck. It's not easy, but the reward is getting to see a frantic baby elephant sprint to its waiting mother.
A rescue of that order took place in a Kenyan national park on October 8, 2012, after a baby elephant had fallen into a shallow well in the park that rests in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. The rescuers had a dangerous faceoff with the mother elephant at the outset, and then a difficult struggle to get her calf out of a 5-foot hole.
Vicki Fishlock of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants faced down the mother with her Land Rover. As Fishlock positioned the truck, she made a high-pitched "aye-aye-aye" call to help drive the mother off. Two men were in the hole with the 8-month-old calf, struggling to secure a rope around it so the truck could pull the animal out of the muddy situation. After 30 minutes, Fishlock was able to put her vehicle in reverse and pull the animal free from the hole.
"Relief! Rescues where [the elephant's] family members are around are stressful, and I'm always happy when everyone is safely back in the cars. I have to admit that the reunions always bring a tear to my eye," said Fishlock. "The [strength] of their affection for each other is one of the things that makes elephants so special."
The trapped elephant underscores the increasing problem of human-animal conflict. Populations of elephants across Africa are in trouble as human settlements expand. The hole the calf fell in was a well with about 3 feet of water in it. It was dug by the Masai tribe. The tribe lives near Amboseli National Park. The baby elephant was too small to crawl out on its own and would have died without the help of rescuers. If the elephant would have died, it would have ruined the well. That would have angered the Masai tribe.
The day after the dramatic rescue, another elephant calf fell in the same well. The Masai scared away the calf's family before the Amboseli Trust for Elephants arrived to rescue the calf. Once rescued, that calf had to be sent to an elephant orphanage in Nairobi.
The Amboseli Trust for Elephants has been studying elephant families since 1972. Fishlock said she recognized the mother elephant in the October 8 rescue from a mark near her ear. The mother, named Zombe, was trying to protect the trapped calf. Fishlock knew that pushing Zombe away from her baby with the Land Rover was a dangerous venture. At one point, Zombe almost sat on the truck, backing into it with her massive body.
The uplifting conclusion to the rescue was a muddy baby elephant sprinting to Zombe. Fishlock said that despite the confrontation at the beginning, she thinks Zombe understood after the rescue that humans were only trying to help.
"She didn't charge us, she didn't run away. Eventually, after five minutes, they just walked out. I think she did understand," Fishlock said. "I certainly felt like she had forgiven us for our very impolite behavior."

ST. LOUIS, Missouri. The Mississippi River is not just a body of water. It is also an important trade route. If the Mississippi—the nation's main inland waterway—dries up, will trade dry up too? That's the question officials in the Midwest were asking themselves. The region experienced a drought in 2012. As of January 2013, after months of little precipitation, the Mississippi River was approaching the point where it would become too shallow for barges that carry food, fuel, and other commodities. That, officials said, could have a dramatic effect on the nation's economy. 
The situation was at its bleakest point in December 2012. A lack of spring and summer rain had already had a negative impact on crops and water supplies. As the weather grew colder, an unusual lack of snow indicated that the drought was far from over.
Meanwhile, the Mississippi River had begun to dry up, as did the Missouri River, which runs into the Mississippi from the west. In late November, to ease the situation in the Missouri River, the Army Corps of Engineers began reducing the outflow from an upper Missouri River dam in South Dakota. This meant even less water for the Mississippi. By December, the Mississippi River was 15 to 20 feet shallower than normal. This caused concerns about barge transport, trade, and the economy. At the time, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri expressed concern.
"There is going to be a dramatic ripple effect to our economy if the barge traffic grinds to [a] halt, which [it clearly] will if something is not done to [avoid] this crisis," said Senator McCaskill.
Lawmakers began to fear that if the water level got too low, they would have to shut down parts of the Mississippi. The river is the major artery in a transport system that has existed since the 19th century. A shutdown, they said, would halt shipments going south to the Gulf of Mexico. It would also block transports from the Illinois and Ohio Rivers headed north to Chicago and Minneapolis. Seven million tons of farm products are shipped via barge in a typical December through January period. In that time, barges also carry 3.8 million tons of coal, 1.7 million tons of chemical products, 1.3 million tons of petroleum products, and 700,000 tons of crude oil.
If the river were closed for a lengthy period, experts said, losses could climb into the billions of dollars. Deliveries of goods would be delayed, and the cost to consumers—in stores and on utility bills—would be higher.
River shippers braced for the worst. They considered train and truck alternatives to move this staggering volume of cargo, if necessary. But switching from river to rail isn't that easy, especially on short notice.
"We'll look for other sources of transportation,…but…you can't just snap your fingers and replace [barges] with trains," said Rick Calhoun of the food company Cargill, Inc. "There aren't just trains sitting around. They're already pretty busy with [the] business on their books."
The situation improved somewhat in late December. States on the Mississippi River complained. The Army Corps agreed to restore the flow of water from the Missouri to the Mississippi. In addition, parts of the Midwest received a blanket of heavy snow. Some areas received a foot or more.
Despite this good news, the drought was far from over. One foot of snow equals only about one inch of water, experts say. That means the late-arriving snowfall didn't help farmers much, nor did it restore the rivers. The region would need far more snow—about 150 inches—to relieve the drought.

A family of legless amphibians known as Chikilidae makes its home deep underground in the remote forests of India.
NEW DELHI, India. Tiny creatures are making big headlines in the science world.
Not long ago, biologists identified a previously unknown family of legless amphibians living in the remote forests of northeast India. Now, scientists in the region are eager to learn more about the animals, which they have named the "Chikilidae." The discovery has provided new evidence that India could be a hotbed of unknown amphibian species just waiting to be found.
For thousands of years, the Chikilidae lived in obscurity in northeast India. They were unknown to researchers and rarely spotted by locals. That changed in early 2012, thanks to a team of biologists led by University of Delhi professor Sathyabhama Das Biju. The team had been scouring the monsoon-soaked soils of northeast India in hopes of finding undiscovered species in the region. After about 2,600 hours of digging, the scientists saw a tiny amphibian squiggling away underground.
"It was backbreaking work," said researcher Rachunliu Kamei, who once passed out from exhaustion during the expedition.
The scientists have classified the Chikilidae as part of the most primitive of the three amphibian orders. (The other two are frogs and salamanders.) However, much less is known about Chikilidae than their more famous amphibious cousins. So far, Biju's team has learned that an adult will remain with its eggs until they hatch, forgoing food for some 50 days. When the eggs hatch, the young emerge and squirm away, fully independent. Adult Chikilidae grow to be about four inches long. They have a possibly superfluous set of eyes that may them help them gauge light and dark. The lightning-quick animals live burrowed underground. They use their thick, hard skulls to ram through the region's tough soils. Even the slightest vibration can send the creatures shooting off deep into the ground.
"[Each one is] like a rocket," Biju said. "If you miss it on the first try, you'll never catch it again."
Chikilidae sightings are rare in northeast India. When they have been spotted, however, they are known to inspire terror and disgust. Farmers and villagers are said to chop them in half out of the mistaken belief that they are poisonous miniature snakes. In fact, Chikilidae are harmless. They may even be a farmer's best friends. The animals feast on worms and insects that might harm crops. They also churn soil as they move along underground.
Biju said that scientists need to devote more study to the Chikilidae, as many questions remain about how the creatures live. But time could be running out, as the Chikilidae's home in long-ignored tropical forests of India is facing drastic change. Currently, forestland is being cleared at breakneck speed in order to build roads and to generate industry for India's booming economy. Amphibian species, which have declined markedly in recent decades, are highly sensitive to climate and water quality. This leaves them particularly at risk when ecological systems are compromised.
Biju, who has been given the nickname of "Frogman" in India, is working hard to promote amphibian conservation efforts in his home country. Biju said there are too many cases of "nameless extinction" in India, with animals disappearing before they are ever known. He estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the country's amphibian species have yet to be found. He's optimistic, however, that news of the new discovery will spark scientific interest in exploring the region.
"This is a major hotspot of biological diversity, but one of the least explored," Biju said. "We hope this new family will show the importance of funding research in the area," he added. "We need to know what we have, so we can know what to save."