Drought Tactics -- Ours and Theirs

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!