This orphaned baby elephant at the David Sheldrick Foundation is out for a little play time with the tourists, but always under the careful watch of his surrogate mom – who also happens to be a male human. “The psychological aspect of hand-rearing elephants is just as crucial as everything else, the human Keepers substituting for the orphan’s lost elephant family, with the babies 24 hours a day, traveling with them as a group during the day, and sleeping alongside them within their stable at night.”
Conserve Nature explains, “Elephant babies typically get to their feet within a half hour after birth and are able to follow along with the herd not long after that… If it is a female baby, she will typically remain together with her mother right into her own adulthood and will likely never once be separate from her until the mother dies in old age.” The males will stay with the herd until they are about 12, when puberty kicks in. Then their desire to mate and dominate causes them to be pushed out of the female herd and on to their bachelor life.
Check out this article on the elephant orphanage of Kenya and see more elephant photos at Explore.org.
