And finally there she was.· Momma and her two daughters, whose birthday, Mr. Maearhae said, was 8 October. The very rare luk chang fad, in person.· (Baby elephant twins.)
Mom gave us a hard look but she seemed fine.· She had a chain on her left front foot and so I wondered why she was hard to find in the jungle, but I didn’t ask if she was tied up out there.· (Should have asked.)
Mom’s name is Maekummoon and she 32 years old. I asked about the dad, and Mr. Maearhae said the dad was Maekummoon’s brother, and the calves are incest babies.
After a few minutes, Maekummoon let out a loud purr that elephants sometimes do, and so I thought it was safe to come close, and the two men said it was okay.
The babies just looked at us but didn’t come close or seem concerned.· If your mom is an elephant, a grizzly, or a woman with a shotgun, there isn’t much to be concerned about.
The men said that Maekummoon was having some kind of eye problem and they had called the elephant doctor down in Chiang Mai, and he was on his way.· Talk about a house call.· I asked how much it would cost and they said it’s free.· That sounds like a story for another time.· (The higher resolution photos are made with a Canon Mark IV 1d and a 5d Mark II.).
To nurse, or to play, that is the question: the babies couldn’t seem to make up their minds.
The luk chang fad would not stray farther than about the range of momma’s trunk.· They often stayed between her front legs or under her stomach, but if you came close they would come out to play.· The twins don’t have names yet.· Maybe one of those Thai naming competitions might unfold.
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