All 6 eles meet in the forest
All 6 eles meet in the forest
By Leah, USA
My very first hike to visit the elephants was a really
exciting one for long-term volunteers and newbies alike. We were treated to what I’m told was a
relatively easy hike—most of the steep inclines were on a nice dirt track, and
the parts through the bush were pretty level—with good visibility and fantastic
weather. Upon locating the elephants, we
got right to the delightful business of feeding them bunches of bananas we’d
brought. It didn’t take long before they
had polished them off and were snuffling around for more. When they realized there were none, they
moved off and began browsing nearby.
Within a couple of minutes we heard some other large animals
tramping toward us through the forest off to our right. It was San Jap and Mario (the Conservation group elephants), who had presumably
caught wind of the banana feed. At first
everyone was a bit startled because the team had never observed the two groups
interacting in the forest, and San Jap and Mario didn’t have a mahout with them
to help divert them if things got tense.
After a few low rumbles among the elephants and a bit of sniffing around,
Thong Dee and Boon Jan moved on into the forest a bit. Mah Nah, Bpee Mai, San Jap and Mario stayed
behind in the clearing. The two
youngsters seemed to really be enjoying playing around together, and their
mothers stood calmly off to the sides.
Eventually the elephants moved on, and we hiked back to the
village, everyone chattering excitedly about what we had seen. Little did we know that we would get a repeat
visit from San Jap and Mario the following day too!
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