Feeding and Family Time with the Elephant Herd

That's Pisa. He's already out for the morning feed. He's enjoying the plants. Up there on the ridge. Giraffe. Giraffe's behind there. This is Lundi. I'm showing out here. Actually, they were out in the morning. Starting their morning feeds. So I've got Lundi here. And then I've got the sun, Mambo. He's up there. We're not that far from the homestead. I've got a few of the guys down there. I've got Pisa. We've got Bube there, Bishan. A few of the guys seated there. You can see our homestead over that side. Soon they're out from their homestead. They're already starting feeding. Until we're going to cover their distance of the day. The food now is available. There's no need for them to travel long distance. They can start to feed as soon as they're out from their homestead. And then starting feeding. Going and going and going. Until to the sunset where they'll be making their way, walking back to the homestead where at night they're given a supplement of food. They'll be given the bell of lucerne. That's one of the highly good grass, nice nutrients. And then also the banana grass. And also we put the addition to balance their diet of what they get in the bush, which will be the branches. We do have some addition of the cabbages sometimes. Some of the local farmers, we find some cabbages for them. Just to balance their diet. We've got Glaseri over there. So elephants, not always they feed with the branches. They also get the time to feed with the grass. So if you see them feeding with the grass, you can check not only grass alone. There's some other plants also they feed with it. They really love them if they're still green. They'll be still tasting good. And then also they'll be still having good nutrients. So they really feed with the grass more if they're still green. Once they're dry, they're not really their choice. They go on the trees, push down, get some roots, or strip off the bark and then get all those kinds of minerals that they really need on their bark or on their roots. So going along that side, there's this Limpopo, which is the first baby of the Maitreya Tokwe. And then in the middle here we've got Fishan. And then we've got the Maitreya Tokwe. She's there dropping the dung. It's pooping time. So that's Tokwe there. Go along, I'm approaching Bubi. Bubi is also one of the female in the head. She is the mother of Zindoga. There is Bubi here. You can see how she's collecting the grass. She's really enjoying. This one of our elephants has got very long eyelashes. If you can allow me to get a little bit closer, I can show you what we talk about the eyelashes of elephants. You can see how long the eyelashes are. Very long eyelashes. Thank you, Bubi. So going along to meet some other guys this side. On the far left, that's Mambo. And the little one there in front of Mambo is Temisa. In front of Temisa is Glaseri. We've got the female Lundi. The one that's got a cut on the ear. That's Lundi. And I'm approaching here is Kumbura. So Kumbura is also a young female. It's an orphan baby joined us 2009. She's doing very well in the head. And here is Satombe. Satombe is the big female in the head. So, as one of the females, has to take some responsibilities of looking after the babies that we can find need support in the family. So Satombe is also one of the foster mothers of the orphan babies. And then here, we've got Sunshine. You know what I'm talking about. We've got Kanyisa. This is the little female. The baby one that we have. The baby that was found in a difficult time, strapped in a poacher's net. We look here nicely on her ear. It's a different ear. She lost about a quarter of the ear right on the top of the right ear there. You can see. But she's doing very well. This is also one of the female babies that we are looking forward to. To change all the language of the heads. To be more in support. To make sure that they are here to look after each other. So the baby is doing very well. So, the one that is scratching herself here is Glaserie. Glaserie is the daughter of Satombe. She's also one of those youngsters in the Jabulani head. So in the head, we've got also some youngsters. The male is Ndoga. Ndoga is approaching this side here. This one is also the friend of Osoma Pani. And then this is the boy also. They do a lot of wrestling with Mambo. But their fight took longer. And then sometimes Osoma Pani or Bishan, they interfere to try to stop them fighting. It could be for so long. So guys, this is the head. They are already starting feeding here. They are really enjoying the grass. And then going along the side, there's one female that is along the side, which is Pisa. Pisa is the second baby for the Maitreya Tokwe. So this is her second baby. So yeah, I've got a beautiful flower here. It's a biscuit flower. It's really beautiful. I'm not so sure if the elephant will feed with it. Let's open it up. It's a beautiful flower. Beautiful, beautiful. The flower is next to Kraseri. Nice one. So yeah guys, here is the head. They are here, starting feeding, enjoying themselves, making their day. Due to the sunset, they'll be making their way back to the warm state. So approximately 10-15 kilometers a day they can cover. The food is available, water is available, so they don't need for them to travel longer, long distance looking for food. So in a short distance, they'll be getting enough. Thank you for watching.