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Each time a new elephant arrives at the Sanctuary we post her progress on-line, in a diary. As she adjusts to her new life, entries in her diary are less frequent. On-going entries continue to be posted whenever a new or interesting event occurs. This diary began January 2, 2004 when our elephant transport trailer was delivered to the Chehaw Wild Animal Park in Georgia, in preparation of the move of Tange and Zula, our first African elephants. Most recent entries appear at the top. Archived 2006-2007 African Ele-Diary
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Ele-Buzz - the new internal weekly newsletter from The Elephant Sanctuary
It's the Simple things!
The caregivers noticed that Flora was not out exploring, but standing near the barn. When she came inside she was agitated and tusked the bars of her corral, which is a typical behavior displayed when an elephant is disgruntled about something. Flora has not acted agitated about anything in many months, so the caregivers were acutely interested in what was going on. At close look, a caregiver saw an area of raised skin, a bump you might say, on Flora’s chest between her front legs. She seemed very agitated and kept rubbing at it. Photos were taken and several people tried to identify what might have caused the bump. It did indeed look like, and Flora’s reaction made us suspect, a bite. Since the temperature has been so cold, the bite from a poisonous snake was ruled out. Fire ants would not cause such a reaction, nor was there any known plant in her habitat that would cause such a reaction. The only thing that might have caused the injury is if Flora had slipped and fallen on her chest while running or climbing and slammed down hard on something like a rock or sharp stump of a tree…heaven knows the African habitat has lots of tree stumps. Over the course of three days the bump doubled in size. Flora was given remedies to reduce the pain and swelling and after 24 hours she seemed to ignore the unsightly bump completely. After three days the swelling was gone and Flora was on to new adventures. Since the completion of Flora's acres, Tange and Flora have been spending a considerable amount of time together. Their relationship was always amiable but now they are becoming truly dear friends. Well matched both physically and in personality, these two ?kids? spend hours engaged in rough and tumble play. True to their species, the face to face contest of strength is their favorite game. They are so evenly matched that neither is the winner on a consistent basis. Since Tange is not easily intimidated she does not back down if Flora starts to bully her, in fact she either bullies back or simply changes the game.
A leisurely wallow in a mud hole made for two mammoth beauties is how Tange and Zula spent their day…their anniversary day. What a fun-loving pair these two have turned out to be. Their adventures are constant as they wander the wilds of their sanctuary world. They have become expert mud hole excavators, never missing an opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their efforts…covered with mud from the tips of their trunks to the hairs on their tails.
Tange and Flora have a good time in Flora's Acres.
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