Coming of Age in an Elephant Camp
Dear All
Today's story is all about birthdays and coming of age, it just so happens that we've had two fairly momentous events (that weren't photographed) and one low key one that produced a beautiful photograph - such is the way of life.
Firstly, the camp has it's first baby!
Well, 'first' if you discount the kittens, the puppies, the countless chickens, the odd pheasant and all the other stuff I try to rear for conservation and the mahouts rear for food. That the baby is human should do nothing to lessen the excitement, he was (presumably) concieved and borne in camp (though we did let him go to hospital to be born without-an-e).
Those of you who know Yom will know Jamrat, the proud father, and we think Yom is glowing with Grandmotherly pride though she fairly glows the whole time now, the conception can't have happened since she retired, I've done my sums (I went to enough biology classes to know that humans have a ridiculously short gestation period - i.e. not 22 months!) - so we'll have to have a word with Jamrat for having his mind elsewhere when he was supposed to be working.
We went to visit the newborn and mother yesterday, the tough mahouts weren't interested so it was a bit of a feminine outing (except for the chauffeur) - Amp and Oi, various wives, mothers and the real grandmother - we dug a Ronan Keating C.D. (Aoy's, honest) out from somewhere and sang all the way to the hospital.
Mother and Baby are fine.
Second coming of age is an elephant, Lynchee (the four/five month old baby) who, apart from not sleeping much at night because there are too many insects to chase, is thriving. The other day she got her micro-chip! I'm not sure there's a human equivalent though perhaps some governments are considering it but now, as part of a scheme by the Thai Government (administered by Lampang and Surin vets working together - a quiet milestone) all elephants should have a grain-of-rice sized microchip inserted behind the left ear from about this age - now she's un-thievable and all her details will be stored on a central database.
In the same visit Boun Liang got his as he had lived outside the legal world for so long before we bought him that, although he had an old, tattered passport he had never been chipped.
The third was just a human anniversary of birth rather than an important birth day, Jason over at the Four Seasons added another year to his total and his staff organised 9 monks and 9 eles to mark the occasion. Whilst Jason's birthday parties might have made the news in the past for other reasons this was a chance for me to have nine of my charges in one place at the same time and standing still - we didn't do Plai Tawan's hair for the occasion but we did let him show off his skills by asking him to fetch and return Four Seasons' shiny shoes. He also discovered an urge to ride a bicycle but was discouraged - may have bent the frame!
Today's story is all about birthdays and coming of age, it just so happens that we've had two fairly momentous events (that weren't photographed) and one low key one that produced a beautiful photograph - such is the way of life.
Firstly, the camp has it's first baby!
Well, 'first' if you discount the kittens, the puppies, the countless chickens, the odd pheasant and all the other stuff I try to rear for conservation and the mahouts rear for food. That the baby is human should do nothing to lessen the excitement, he was (presumably) concieved and borne in camp (though we did let him go to hospital to be born without-an-e).
Those of you who know Yom will know Jamrat, the proud father, and we think Yom is glowing with Grandmotherly pride though she fairly glows the whole time now, the conception can't have happened since she retired, I've done my sums (I went to enough biology classes to know that humans have a ridiculously short gestation period - i.e. not 22 months!) - so we'll have to have a word with Jamrat for having his mind elsewhere when he was supposed to be working.
We went to visit the newborn and mother yesterday, the tough mahouts weren't interested so it was a bit of a feminine outing (except for the chauffeur) - Amp and Oi, various wives, mothers and the real grandmother - we dug a Ronan Keating C.D. (Aoy's, honest) out from somewhere and sang all the way to the hospital.
Mother and Baby are fine.
Second coming of age is an elephant, Lynchee (the four/five month old baby) who, apart from not sleeping much at night because there are too many insects to chase, is thriving. The other day she got her micro-chip! I'm not sure there's a human equivalent though perhaps some governments are considering it but now, as part of a scheme by the Thai Government (administered by Lampang and Surin vets working together - a quiet milestone) all elephants should have a grain-of-rice sized microchip inserted behind the left ear from about this age - now she's un-thievable and all her details will be stored on a central database.
In the same visit Boun Liang got his as he had lived outside the legal world for so long before we bought him that, although he had an old, tattered passport he had never been chipped.
The third was just a human anniversary of birth rather than an important birth day, Jason over at the Four Seasons added another year to his total and his staff organised 9 monks and 9 eles to mark the occasion. Whilst Jason's birthday parties might have made the news in the past for other reasons this was a chance for me to have nine of my charges in one place at the same time and standing still - we didn't do Plai Tawan's hair for the occasion but we did let him show off his skills by asking him to fetch and return Four Seasons' shiny shoes. He also discovered an urge to ride a bicycle but was discouraged - may have bent the frame!
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