The Vegetable
Family has another new arrival. Celery
has had a baby girl!
When we saw Celery
several weeks ago, we noticed that she had engorged breasts. Given that she did not have a calf, we were
fairly certain that she must be pregnant.
Little did we know that in just two weeks, she would be giving
birth. Like the matriarch of the family,
Artichoke, Celery returned to our river bed to have her baby (blog 14). But, unlike when Artichoke gave birth, the rest
of the family was not there to lend support.
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| Celery and her new baby girl -- just a few days old |
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| A few days later, Celery was reunited with her family |
When we met up
with Celery, again, a few days later, she had wandered a few kilometers from the
house but was still on her own with only the new calf and the two young boys
that she “adopted” when Garbanza died. Knowing
that she had lost her previous calf when it was only a few weeks old, I was
quite concerned to find her still wandering on her own. But, much to my relief, the next time we saw
Celery, she was reunited with her family with a healthy looking baby in tow. The first few months of a baby elephant’s
life are the most tenuous, but we are hopeful that this time Celery’s baby will
survive.
We recently came
upon Alabama (whose story was featured in blog 10) for the first time in quite
a while. She, too, has a brand new
baby! Unlike Celery, Alabama is a very
experienced mother who has managed to raise two calves – Mississippi and
California – on her own after the death of the family matriarch caused her
family to splinter.
