Elephant bull, Jabulani's unique bond with baby elephant orphan, Khanyisa #HERDFathersDay

In this 10 minute video you can see a few flashback clips of Khanyisa's early days with Jabulani, before she started to spend more time with her adoptive mother, Lundi. Jabulani may be young, at only 24 years of age, but he has a beautiful reliable demeanour and in human terms, fatherliness that he displays toward little Sunshine. He has a lovely influence on her in the herd, and he has on us. As an orphan himself, rescued in 1997 at 5 months old, he understands the journey Khanyisa is on.

When it comes to fathers, Jabulani is still a little boyish... but he is an extremely affectionate, interested, engaged and supportive figure as a bull in the lives of the little elephants around him. He was the first elephant to show great interest, for instance, in Khanyisa while the calf was rehabilitating at the orphanage. So when it came time to start to gradually integrate her into the herd, Jabulani was the first to take the step to meet Khanyisa trunk to trunk without the fence between them. It was a sensational moment for us and a little scary but Jabulani showed absolute calmness, patience and openness to her.

FOSTER JABULANI FOR FATHER's DAY on 20 June: https://jabulanisafari.com/fostering/jabulani/
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Read more about his journey with Khanyisa here - https://herd.org.za/elephant-bull-jabulani-visits-albino-elephant-khanyisa/

As second in hierarchy among the bulls, Jabulani is gaining in respect and status in the herd and stepping into more of a role of discipliner, like Sebakwe, Fishan and Somopane, keeping the young bulls, Mambo and Zindoga in check. Each of the bulls disciplines the youngsters in their own way.

While most of us know that elephants live in herds, what we may not know is that you get female herds and male herds, two separate groups that rarely meet, and beyond that there are bond groups and clans. In the rescued Jabulani herd, the females and males live and stay together, a very unique setting that all the elephants have accepted harmoniously.

The basic family unit in a wild herd of elephants, with anywhere between 6 and 20 animals, consists of the matriarch with her calves and grand calves. While the females often remain with the herd for life, the young bulls stay until around 12 to 15 years of age, when they reach puberty. They will then start to become more independent until they leave their herd completely, to either roam alone or find a loosely-knit group of male elephants to join.

The bulls in the male herd have only one responsibility, to get big enough to breed. Male elephants seldom mate successfully until they are in their 30’s as larger males will simply chase them away from any receptive cow. They spend their adolescence and young adulthood learning from older, more experienced males. The wisdom of elders is essential. These older males are important in maintaining discipline in the young bulls who have been known to randomly attack villages and rhinos without provocation during musth.

Studies have shown that the presence of the much older bulls prevents the youngsters from entering this state of extremely high testosterone levels that is normally associated with a readiness to mate and aggressive behaviour.

To foster Jabulani and assist us with supporting him: https://jabulanisafari.com/fostering/jabulani/

Видео Elephant bull, Jabulani's unique bond with baby elephant orphan, Khanyisa #HERDFathersDay канала HERD Elephant Orphanage South Africa