The Cheese and Vegetable
families have been giving us some exciting news along with some very unusual
behaviours.
I recently saw a young female
coming up the driveway with a brand new baby – and she was all alone. As I have previously mentioned, elephant
seldom give birth alone, and the arrival of a new family member is usually cause
for tremendous celebration.
So, needless
to say, I was very curious to discover who this solitary new mother was. I
could not believe my eyes when I realized that it was Artichoke’s daughter,
Spinach! I had suspected that she was pregnant
but was shocked to see her alone with this tiny, little calf – clearly not more
than a day old.
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| One day old Butternut stands in the shade of her mother, Spinach |
Because we were experiencing
very, dry conditions with little forage for elephant, we gave Spinach some
lucerne. Then, knowing that her mother
was at the feeding station, we hurried down in anticipation of filming the
joyous reunion. However, to my
astonishment, Spinach never came down, and Artichoke headed up toward the
forest along with the rest of the family. This
was particularly surprising as Spinach is one of those elephant that never
strays far and has always been seen with her mother.
The next few times that I saw
the Vegetable family, Spinach and her calf were not with them, and I grew
increasingly concerned. However, I am
happy to report that Spinach and her little girl, who has been named Butternut,
managed to survive, despite being on their own, and are now reunited with the
family.
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| Although quite small for his age, Ricotta manages to keep up with his mother, Stilton, and the rest of the Cheese family |
As I wrote in the last blog,
Mozzarella has had her first baby, a little girl named Emmental. Stilton also has had her first calf during
these difficult times. She remains with
the Cheeses lately, although Mozzarella still spends most of her time with the
Vegetable family. The dry spell has broken,
and both Emmental and Ricotta survived the hard times. I am sure that both first time mothers benefited
from being part of strong families headed by wise matriarchs.
I do, however, remain a bit
concerned about Ricotta as he is still quite small for his age and, despite the
fact that new, nutritious grass is abundant, Stilton still appears not to have
much milk. So, only time will tell if
little Ricotta will grow to be the healthy young bull that we are hoping for.
In the meantime, Celery and
the two boys remain with Camembert who has been coming to the feeding station
on a regular basis.
