Waking up with the Elephants & the Amazing Marula Tree Bark Buffet

We start our days very early in the bush. The sun determines the time. Since it is winter, we have a little more time to sleep in as the sun rises later. But even so, we are up at at least 5 am to head to the orphanage by 5:30 where our amazing team of carers are keeping Khanyisa, the herd next door, and Lammie & Nungu safe and sound. Mambo and the herd are all still mostly asleep but as the sun lifts a bit more we move over to the orphanage and see Herman and Willinton busy at the nursery - with Khanyisa not wanting to leave the warmth of her bedroom just yet.

Morning duties include making milk, feeding Khanyisa, jotting down Khanyisa's bathroom habits, cleaning out the nursery lucerne and hay, removing dung and droppings, and washing down the nursery floor... Other duties include filling up the water trough with fresh water, taking leftover bana grass from the nursery to the bigger elephants to finish, so that nothing is ever wasted. Even the grass, lucerne, branches and hay, and elephant dung, are all recycled into new purposes in some way.

Khanyisa pretends to help Herman with the rake but gives up when she sees Adine's coffee flask, and gives the flask a stamp of her big foot. Lammie and Nungu are waiting for their friend and Khanyisa heads off in their direction. It is a very cold and overcast morning - the kind of morning when you struggle to bend your fingers. Khanyisa is wrapped up and the sheepy pals are protected by their convenient wool covering. Lammie and Nungu are both very resilient and hardy breeds of sheep and handle the weather changes well.

Later in the day, Adine meets up with the elephants in the bush, as they devour a fallen marula tree. Previously in the week, the elephants knocked over the tree, and have been eating from it for two days. No doubt the wild elephants may have passed by the tree too. Most of the bark has been eaten but the herd have at it in full force - first with just Lundi and Khanyisa and Limpopo, and soon with Tokwe, and then Somopane, Kumbura, Zindoga, and Timisa.

It's amazing to watch the elephants stripping the bark from the fallen tree - they make use of as much of the tree as possible and what they don't finish, the other herbivores in the bush will eat. In this way, nothing goes to waste and the elephants help smaller animals to feed. Lundi demonstrates using her trunk and her tusks to strip the bark and pull it off to slip into her mouth. Her sturdy molars take care of the rest. The bark is very nutritious and full of roughage for the elephants, helping them to survive these dry winters.

Eventually little Khanyisa gets a piece of fallen bark and picks it up with the amazing prehensile tips of her trunk and puts it in her mouth before she heads off to follow her adoptive mother, Lundi.

We hope you enjoy these new scenes of the rescued herd out in their wilderness!

Видео Waking up with the Elephants & the Amazing Marula Tree Bark Buffet канала HERD Elephant Orphanage South Africa