Comments on: "A very spoilt little ele"

"A very spoilt little ele"

vegartanipla — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:02:12 -0800

A blog about raising (and co-sleeping with) a baby elephant named Moses: Rangers at Vwaza Wildlife Reserve noticed a baby elephant on his own running around frantically trying to find his mother. Moses is now living at Jumbo Foundation founder Jenny Webb's house, alongside her children and pets.

By: k5.user

k5.user — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:08:09 -0800

Too bad we never got all the story about the mefite who raised tigers..

By: Kabanos

Kabanos — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:22:17 -0800

When we brought Catherine home we held her down low for Moses to meet her and he was very sweet and gentle. He ran his trunk gently over her and rumbled softly – the same greeting that he gives to Louise and I. When she was in her pram he came and stood near rumbling softly and running his trunk just above her and then he came to supervise her bath putting his trunk into the water next to her ( Matimat says he was checking that the water was the correct temperature) and he remained in the bathroom until the whole process was over – just wish I had a camera with me at the time as it was rather a special moment. Okay I'm going to show this to the cat and ask WHY CAN'T YOU BE LIKE THIS WITH BABBY KABANOS?? Yes, okay, okay, I'll feed you.

By: mightygodking

mightygodking — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:33:27 -0800

So basically this is just to make elizardbits collapse into a diabetic coma, right? Right? (WHERE'S MY ELEPHANT I WANT MY ELEPHANT)

By: ChuraChura

ChuraChura — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:44:14 -0800

My advisor apparently helped rescue a baby elephant whose mother had been poached while he was doing fieldwork in the Ivory Coast. The baby was still young enough to be nursing, so they asked the closest Nestle powdered milk factory to donate a lot of powdered milk. They used an empty (clean) oil drum and fashioned a nipple out of a condom with a hole in it. After she got a little older, she was transferred to the zoo in Abidjan, but unfortunately she died in 2000. I hope Moses does better!

By: mkb

mkb — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:06:49 -0800

Born To Be Wild portrays an elephant shelter where this is also common.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:12:33 -0800

It may not be ideal but being part of a family is certainly important for a baby elephant. It should be interesting when he gets older and still wants to sleep in the house with his "brothers and sisters".

By: inigo2

inigo2 — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:27:43 -0800

This seems like an alright place to drop this video of a rescued baby elephant with a happy ending.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:27:59 -0800

At some point the family will just start refusing to discuss this with each other or anyone else.

By: dragonplayer

dragonplayer — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:37:21 -0800

I love the pictures of Moses and the dog.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:53:26 -0800

When that elephant is, like, 30, he will use Google Maps to find his mother.

By: dlugoczaj

dlugoczaj — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:27:50 -0800

That picture of the little guy poking his trunk into the baby's bathtub is priceless. I feel like that should happen to every little kid.

By: Squeak Attack

Squeak Attack — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:39:25 -0800

I love this little guy - and the way the blog describes his personality. But please, no one tell my dogs (60 lbs and 45 lbs) about the elephant getting to co-sleep.

By: zia

zia — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:49:57 -0800

Its worth watching the video.

By: bukvich

bukvich — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:50:47 -0800

Have you ever seen a grown up elephant piss puddle or dump up close? (My own theory is that was the last straw on posting images to metafilter.)

By: talitha_kumi

talitha_kumi — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:22:57 -0800

This past week has brought a lot of amusement to the carers as Moses starts to explore his "family" and seems to be relating what he finds to himself. It started off with him spending a long time in the middle of the night exploring my face with his trunk and then exploring his own face. He felt all over my face and then all over his, felt my eyes then felt his, tried to put his trunk in my mouth and then in his, pulled and felt my ears and then his and then he got to my nose....... He then spent ages feeling all over his forehead for his nose, went back to pulling my nose and back to his forehead. You could almost imagine him wondering why I had one of those funny things and he didn't – he seems to relate my arm and hand to his trunk as I use it to demonstrate splashing in water, playing in the dust, picking things up etc. His fascination with noses has continued all week with him feeling Louises nose, the cats nose, the dogs nose etc.

That is one extremely clever little elephant.

By: uberchet

uberchet — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:49:18 -0800

We are gradually discovering just exactly how smart elephants are. Here in Houston, there's a GREAT new habitat at the zoo for them. You can get pretty close -- enough to almost-but-not-quite touch. The best part was when little baby Baylor was born. He got a kiddie pool. It was awesome.

By: HyperBlue

HyperBlue — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:13:18 -0800

Please keep posting excerpts here. That website's font choice hurts.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:20:35 -0800

Orphans No More: After the trauma of attack and loss comes healing—and a richer understanding of the emotions and intelligence of elephants.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:22:51 -0800

Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits

By: BlueHorse

BlueHorse — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:02:12 -0800

I want a baby elephant in a swimming pool!

By: vegartanipla

vegartanipla — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:52:35 -0800

Some of my favorite bits:

He and I spend the nights in the dining room – initially it was me on a mattress and Moses on a grass bed nearby but he soon decided that he would far rather sleep on a mattress thank you and made himself quite comfortable on the mattress gently pushing me onto the grass – we have compromised by putting 2 matresses together on the floor of the dining room and sharing them! He does however insist on having sheets on the mattress and if the sheets have not been put on he just wont go to bed... _ He is also becoming a lot more sensitive and responsive to emotions and I have to be careful of controlling any feelings of frustration or tension when I am with him as this does result in him becoming more restless and confrontational. Conversely he responds to any feelings of affection with calmness and a rubbing of his trunk all over me and rubbing his tongue on my hands and to sadness with wrapping his trunk around me and gently swaying. It really does bring home how very emotional these animals are and how the person looking after them does have to genuinely care for them and not just go through the motions of providing food and a presence. _ I was given a "serious lecture" yesterday evening as I was helping Louise set up for the David Kelly exhibition and so arrived home just after dark to be met by a very cross little elephant who lay next to me rumbling and grunting for nearly an hour with his trunk wrapped tightly round my arm as if he was telling me exactly how irresponsible I was to leave him with Matimat when according to his routine it was my turn to be on duty. He did get over his grump though, fell asleep and by the 8 o'clock feed everything was back to normal.

By: Doktor Zed

Doktor Zed — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 04:11:15 -0800

Baby elephant rescued from water well in Kenya.

By: taff

taff — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 05:22:39 -0800

A two year old elephant toddler, of 500 kilograms accidentally crushed and critically injured his adoring keeper in Sydney's Taronga Zoo today. I predict this will also not end well. SMH article.

By: inigo2

inigo2 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 06:40:51 -0800

Another fun baby elephant video. Will I ever grow up?

By: SpacemanStix

SpacemanStix — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:23:32 -0800

I'm going to guess that the normal arguments about the dangers of co-sleeping with babies don't apply here.

By: vegartanipla

vegartanipla — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:48:47 -0800

Well, the dangers are still clearly there - for the mom. Apparently he likes to try to sleep on her head.