More Good News for Lewa Elephant

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

Celery and her new baby girl -- just a few days old

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.

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.