Like all of
northern Kenya, Lewa is experiencing drought conditions -- very hot and very, very dry. Meteorologists are saying that “better than
average” rain is coming. But, in the
meantime, elephant are struggling to find enough food.
 |
| We are hoping that the supplemental feeding will help Stilton's calf to survive |
We are
particularly concerned about two new babies of first time mothers in the Cheese
family – a little girl named Emmental, born to Mozzarella in March, and
Stilton’s baby boy who is only two months old.
Due to the lack of nutritious food, Stilton has very little milk. It is heartbreaking to watch her tiny, new
calf trying to suckle and giving up after only a few moments.
As the saying
goes, drastic times call for drastic measures.
 |
| Camembert stuffs her "snack" in between her trunk and her tusks |
So . . . . at our feeding station that the Cheeses visit
on a regular basis, we have upped our game and rather than using the usual cut
grass with a bit of molasses, we are putting out high quality hay along with lots
of tasty, sugary molasses. From time to
time, we are also supplementing their diet with lucerne which has a very high
nutritional content. We are hopeful that
this additional food will help these precious little elephant survive.
 |
| Camembert often takes more than her fair share |
On a lighter note,
it has been extremely entertaining to watch different elephants’ techniques for
ensuring that they get their fair share (or, in some cases, much more than
their fair share) of the treats.
 |
| Havarti has adopted her mother's technique for storing food |
Camembert, for
example, has developed a clever method of stuffing as much hay or lucerne as
possible between her trunk and her tusks.
She stores that bunch away for later and then, as quickly as possible,
eats what is on the ground. On one
occasion, she actually stuffed both of her tusks, grabbed a big mouthful, took
another big bail of molasses hay in her trunk and then walked far away from the
others in hopes of eating undisturbed.
Camembert’s daughter, Havarti, has just recently started to copy her
mother’s technique.
 |
| Asparagus grabs some food and runs as quickly as possible away from the group |
Asparagus’s strategy
is to get in early, grab a big bunch and then run as quickly as possible away
from the group – hoping to go unnoticed.
So far, he has been quite successful.
The other day, Mozzarella decided not to take any chances; she grabbed a
bundle of lucerne and carried it all the way across the river so that no one
could steal her breakfast.
 |
| From time to time, Camembert comes to the car to say "hello" |
It has taken many,
many years to slowly earn the trust of these elephant. They still remain completely wild and make
contact with us when and if they chose -- and always on their own terms. But, as any friend would do, Camembert sometimes
comes over to the car just to say “hello.”
Despite this, I
was utterly amazed the other day when Celery decided that she could not wait
for us to off load the hay that was on top of the car. So, she walked right up and helped herself!
 |
| Celery was too impatient to wait for us to off load the hay and molasses, so, much to our surprise, she helped herself! |
