Celebrating Irresistible Baby Elephants
I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful one-hundred percent! Dr. Seuss
Baby elephants Reteti Elephant Sanctuary
Baby elephants score high on the cuteness scale in my books. Those ears, their tiny trunks and their fuzzy heads can steal your heart. Have you noticed that elephants’ back legs bend like a human knee joint, not in the reverse direction like a dog or cat’s leg.
Their knees allow them to crawl and even sit for a good bum scratch.
Elephant calves play like puppies – all rough and tumble. I can’t resist their antics. Whenever I see a tiny elephant clambering over a friend or hauling itself out of a water hole, I am fascinated by how they use their knees.
The orphans at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary enjoy playtime after every bottle feed. Their rambunctious behaviour shows they find healing and comfort playing with their friends.
There’s so much to love in these little eles. Those huge ears …..
And don’t get me started on their eyelashes!
There’s good news coming from Northern and Southern Kenya. The rains have finally come. Rivers are flowing and grass is growing. Elephants have enough to eat. When elephant cows have enough nutrition, they come into estrus and accept a mate. Elephants have the longest gestation period of any mammal, 22 months. They conceive in times of plenty without any guarantee that there will be enough food to support a nursing mother when the calf is born almost 2 years later.
The last successful rainy season was in early 2020 when I encountered hundreds of elephants in Amboseli. Two years later there was a bumper crop of births. Unfortunately, Kenya experienced its worst drought in 40 years in from 2020 to 2022. Amboseli was a dry empty dust bowl last June, survival was hard. Now the land is green again and there is enough grass for the elephants. Let’s hope there is adequate rain over the next two years to support the next generation of baby elephants.
