After a very tasty buffet lunch taken in one of he local hotels and sitting on the balcony overlooking the river sipping a cool beer it was time to make my way to the main part of the sanctuary to witness the bottle feeding of the baby elephants. They were led into the arena like film stars and were individually tethered by a light chain to one back leg. Not sure I really approved of that but judging by the difficulty that some of the mahouts experienced in encouraging – well pushing and shoving – these babies into position it was clear that left to roam freely pandemonium would have ensued.
Great piles of fresh branches and vegetation were available, presumably for the older babies to begin to wean them from the milk. The photo shows one of the babies who was determined to have his share of these tasty branches before his milk and succeeded in stretching his trunk to collect a branch which when successfully retrieved he waved in triumph. Every time he succeeded the mahouts moved the pile further away and for a time this thwarted the youngster but when their backs turned he succeeded again and a great cheer went up from the crowd followed by much trumpeting from the baby elephant. Was this part of the act? I wonder!
The milk arrived and the main feeding began. If you blinked you missed it since each baby swallowed a litre of milk in less than 30 seconds! The milk incidentally is powered and dissolved in water to which other nutrients and minerals are added to keep the babies healthy.
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