Two More Elephants in the Forest

The past few days have been exciting for our herd of five elephants because there have been two new elephants for them to socialize with! The chief of Huay Pakoot is an elephant owner and he has had two elephants, a mother named Mae San Jap, and her infant calf named Mario, back home in the village since March.
For the last two months they have been living in the forest, and for the last few days they have been staying near and socializing with our herd. Song Kran, our youngest infant who is a year and four months old, has become good buddies with Mario, who is about the same size as Song Kran. They have been playing together every day, wrestling and touching each other. Volunteers have even observed allomothering and Song Kran breast fed, or at least attempted to, from Mario’s mother.
Our other infant, Bpee Mai, has also been socializing with Mario a bit but it is Song Kran who has made a new best friend. We hope that Mario and his mother can stay in the forest near Huay Pakoot and do not have to return to work in the near future. The chief and his son, along with GVI, are working to bring ecotourists to the village to help fund Mario and his mother and help keep them in the forest.

Two More Elephants in the Forest