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She is a calm elephant with a very gentle demeanour. When Jarunee
first arrived, as was customary, she was taken out in to the main area
of the Park where under the supervision of the mahouts, she could meet
the elephants already residing at Elephant Nature Park. As one of our
most socially confident eles approached her, it became evident that
Jarunee was actually quite shy when it came to socializing with other
elephants. She turned around and started running in the opposite
direction! As we never force the elephants into social situations where
they don't feel comfortable, we allowed Jarunee to choose her friends at
her own speed. The first elephant that she became friendly with was
Jungle Boy. Being a young elephant, Jarunee wasn't afraid of him when he
started showing an interest in spending time with her, and they
developed a relationship where she became a part time auntie to the
young tusker. Jarunee's gentle, accommodating, nurturing manner was a
welcome change for Jungle Boy from his overbearing, domineering auntie,
Mae Keow. The pair spent many mornings together, but Jungle Boy is
always moving about, and no firm bonds were formed.
As Jarunee settled in, she decided her comfort zone was up in the
front corner of the Park, away from the confident family groups who
spent most of their time in the main area of the Park, near the feeding
platform. There are a few other females who share the same shy, reserved
personality as Jarunee who also feel safer staying on the sidelines, and
we hoped as time passed that Jarunee would possibly become friends with
one of them. At the time of this writing, Jarunee has been living at
Elephant Nature Park for just over one year, and only over the past few
months has a wonderful breakthrough occurred; she and Mae Geao have
become friends and both ladies are currently part of a family group
including a leased mother, Mae Boonchu and her baby, Tong Kham. Once
Jarunee got over her shyness with Mae Boonchu, she quickly became quite
attached to both her and her baby and has assumed the number one auntie
position. This has been a wonderful opportunity for Jarunee to open up a
bit and we hope that being in this family group gives her more
confidence in future social situations.
*Records and official documentation of
elephants of more than 10 years ago are sketchy at best. The dates we
use are our best estimates. |
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