Ela mainly takes care of apes, including gorillas, chimpanzees and gibbons, but she also finds time for water chevrotain, the smallest deer species in the world. But she is predominantly known as the wet nurse. Mother Ela would enter the stage whenever any animal mother at the zoo abandoned her young. She would stay up all night to devote all her time to her little charges. And it is only through her commitment that several dozen animals, including monkeys, antelope and pigs, but also lions, cougars and even a wolf, were given a chance to survive.
Respect and esteem
Her story began several dozen years ago. Ela worked as a carer at the Zoo. As it was summer, gorillas were released to a special island. I gazed at these fantastic animals and their carers with adoration. And then Mrs Hanna Gucwińska aked me If I would like to join the team," she recalls.
"This was like a celebration to me! Christmas, name day and birthday rolled into one. A dream come true," she adds, visibly moved. It soon turned out that Elżbieta showed a real talent and a great approach to animals. She showed no fear of animals, and they both respected and liked her. "I treated them with respect and showed no anxiety, and they soon felt it and we formed a really powerful bond," says Elżbieta.
I was crying like a baby!
Elżbieta's adventure with the Wroclaw Zoo began when she was nineteen. "I was not admitted to a programme in Biology at the University in Poznan, and I didn't want to waste a year of my life. I decided to work in a zoo, and Wroclaw proved the closest. Both geographically and to my heart. I thought I would work for a year and finally get to a university," she says. As she applied for a job, her father helped her to sort out the formalities.
"I was extremely brave as long as my father was with me. But when I had to come to the zoo the next day, I was overwhelmed by terrible fear. I remember that as I took a bus to the zoo I cried like a baby. The tears were literally running in streams. It was raining at the time, and I thought to myself: it's good because no one will realise I was crying," says Elżbieta Gajewska laughingly. "On my first day at the zoo, I was sent to a crocodile pen. I was asked to collect the stones. And all of a sudden the sun came out. Everything became bright and luminous and I knew everything was going to be fine."
She raised quite a herd
She became a wet nurse by accident. Someone had to take care of an abandoned Ankole-Watusi calf. Ela was this someone. She bottle-fed the baby. The little cow survived. "When she grew up, whenever she saw me, she would always run to me and moo terribly and happily at the same time. She was a darling. Then I took care of chimps, lions, little foxes, fawn, a whole array of tiny animals," she adds. Elżbieta was always patient and had time for her charges. She did not have a family or children, so she would agree, as if by default, to raise each abandoned little animal. It is now wonder that people soon started calling her: Mother Ela.
Naughty son
Once she also took a little wolf under her wings. The cub was found in a wolf pen with two dead sisters. The mother wolf abandoned her young, as she felt she was too old to raise them. Only one little wolf survived. Mother Ela was called to resolve the emergency. She had to take care of the blind little baby which had only limited chance to survive. The situation gradually improved. Lupus, because that's how she called the little wolf, was a real pedagogical challenge. Even though he was completely domesticated, he would be stand up to his guardians. He treated Ela as a part of his pack, as his wolf mother. However, he wanted to dominate her after some time. He lived in a pen next to the administrative building, and he spent his entire life in a way that is untypical of a wolf, as a guard wolf.
Holiday throughout her life
Elżbieta Gajewska admits that she was not able to find a work-life balance. "I have no private life," she admits laughingly. But she is hardly resentful. She knows all about shedding teeth, bottle-feeding, nappies or sleepless nights. She went through all this with her little charges. She is sad whenever she recalls those animals that already passed away. "My family albums contain only few photographs with people and thousands of pictures with animals. I can safely say that my job is my life. But I am happy because I do what I like. In fact, I'm on holiday all the time."
Here comes the Mother!
It's a new day in the chimp pavilion. Large apes are lying on their sides. They stretch themselves lazily and wake up after a full night's sleep. It is still peace and quiet in the pen. Suddenly a human voice resounds from the path leading to the building. As if on cue, all the monkeys get up, clutch at the bars and start screaming happily. They know they will see her in a moment. And a normal day will soon begin. Feeding, play as well as massage and treatment to improve their health and well-being levels. And all this happens under the watchful eye of their carer, nurse and playmate. To put it simply, their mother.
