The orphaned baby elephants are being raised by their caretakers, who spend all day and night helping them thrive.
They are from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT), and they even sleep near the elephants so they can wake up at night to feed them.
One keeper said: “It feels like the same to me as having my own babies in the same room.
It feels a lot like when they (his children) were babies, waking up for hours to feed and change them.”
“The baby elephants cry at night, especially the very young ones,” said another keeper.
“The babies are also very restless, like human babies, and wake up frequently.”
Caregivers make sure babies are covered with blankets when the air gets cold.
“When breeders used to sleep on mattresses on the floor, a few years ago now, elephants would pull blankets off their keepers to wake them up for milk and touch their faces with a wet trunk,” added another.
When a baby wants milk, they often lose their own blanket! “Every three hours, you feel a trunk come up and pull your blankets off!” one person said.
Many sitters who have been doing this for a while now know exactly when babies want to be fed, “It seems like their minds are set up to wake up every three hours.”
After being fed, they would watch over the babies until they fell asleep again, “Sometimes they snore, they trumpets and fall asleep so fast, and kick their legs when they dream.”
They not only snore when they sleep, but they are also very irritable, so owners have to get used to the smell in the sleeping area.
“Back when we used to sleep on a mattress on the hay, an elephant almost dropped poop on my face while I was asleep. I woke up, and it was right in front of me! ”
It is essential that owners stay with the elephants throughout the night, which gives them peace of mind and is the next best thing after having their mother there.
“You are like a mother to them, and being there helps them sleep comfortably. When they sleep comfortably, it allows them to grow healthy. ”
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