Merry Christmas from all at ENP / Save Elephant Foundation!!!!
Deck the hills with banana balls, bundles of cornstalks and trumpets of joy! It’s Christmas day and all is well at Elephant Nature Park. Here are a few highlights from this morning’s action with the herd:
Tong Suk (Jungle Boy) is bringing in the holiday season with a bout of moda musth and sporting slight temporin for the past few days. But never fear, his condition has not yet affected his temper. He is still on the ‘nice list’ cooperating well with his mahout, politely backing up to have his food delivered, even laying down when asked so that his collar could be removed. Thanks to the ever friendly Sao Yai, Tong Suk is rarely lonely and enjoys her company greatly.
Sao Yai is the perfect pal to have around, fitting into the ‘friend with benefits’ category. Mintra has been visiting Tong Suk more often lately and, as they had a mutual crush for a while after Mintra arrived, ‘JB’ is always happy to have her companionship.
Fatty Faa Mai is often quite flirty with our handsome tusker, lingering in his area, before and after the rest of her family has arrived or passed through. She is much too young to be so flirtatious, but it seems that she cannot resist. Besides the flirting, Faa Mai is definitely ‘nice list’ material.
Chang Yim, always teetering on the edge of the ‘naughty list,’ enjoys hanging out with ‘JB’ and sometimes appears to be secretly comparing his budding tusks with that of the bigger bull’s, possibly wondering if one day in the future he might be the more impressive tusker! He tries to act overconfident but really he is a bit intimidated by Tong Suk. Chang Yim will often try to instigate a pushing match with ‘JB,’ but when the going gets tough, the youngster will conveniently put his mom, Dok Ngern, or grandma auntie, Mae Sri Nuan, in between himself and Tong Suk.
Hope, on the other hand was working at getting on the ‘naughty list’ this a.m. and acting a bit defiant and rebellious, pretending not to hear Gawn’s commands and shaking his head while Gawn was sitting on him. Gawn dismounted and Hope took off running, possibly just to make sure that Gawn got some exercise in on this fine Christmas morning. What could have become a bit of a situation was resolved quite quickly when Hope’s sense of cooperation kicked in and he decided it was not so bad to just do what he was told after all. Soon the pair were up at the platform and Hope was getting his ration of pumpkin and bananas after which they strode off majestically, a knight and his attendant (Sir Hope is the knight of course and Gawn the loyal attendant) heading back to his quarters for a rest until his appearance at the river after lunchtime.
Little Navann is doing what he does best — making people smile! He is rather elf-phant-ish on any day, with an innocent twinkle in his eye, shuffling at top speeds from one end of his shelter to the other when not rolling around in Mae Sri Prae’s cornstalks or experimenting with tasting her watermelon or bananas. His high-on-life personality radiates like the rays of the sun! Navann = nice list’!!
All around the Park there is a festive hustle and bustle. Mahouts in santa hats, roasting ‘kaao lam’ (sweet sticky rice cooked in bamboo) on the fire and swishy volunteer coordinators all a-glitter. Preparations are being made for the yearly ENP Christmas Pageant. Oh, what a show it will be, complete with traditional hill tribe dances and a lady boy show among other things!! Stay tuned for pictures and video highlights from this festive event.
At this utopia where beings of all races and species intermingle, there really is the feeling of ‘peace on Earth and goodwill towards all’. And what really brought us all together?? Elephants. THE Asian Elephant, a tremendous, caring and emotionally complex creature, and our love of them.
May the next year bring more hope for a better and brighter future for ALL the elephants left on this planet.
