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Sadly the new year of 2010 has brought with it a
horrible tragedy. Lovely young Rara, who only arrived on
October 2nd died suddenly on the morning of January 6th.
At noon on Tuesday, January 5th it was noticed that she
seemed a bit unwell because she didn't want to eat her
lunchtime fruit and vegetable basket. Her mahout Gawn
brought this to the attention of our vet right away, and
Dr. Pac immediately came to examine her but there were
no outward signs of any problem. Besides this she acted
normal, playing in the river and trying to walk trunk
and hand with western female visitors, but towards the
end of the day when Lek approached her and offered her
some tamarind candy, which Rara loves, she refused it.
At this time she was once again examined by Dr. Pac. It
was thought that Rara had a bit of a belly ache as this
can happen with elephants from time to time, and they
usually recover within 24 hours. Rara was taken to her
shelter at the normal time and was given her night time
grass ration. Gawn came to check on her at approximately
8:30 pm and she seemed ok at that time, though she
hadn't eaten much of her grass. On the morning of
January 6th when Gawn came to release Rara for the day,
her pupils were dialated and she had no balance
whatsoever. She tried to walk, but stumbled and fell
down, after a minute she got up, took a few steps only
to fall back down again. One last time she was able to
get up and take a few unsteady steps and Rara went down
for the last time. She was gone within a few minutes.
The appearance of being 'drunk' and the dialated pupils
were signs indicating that Rara had somehow possibly
ingested some sort of toxic substance. How this happened
is now under investigation.
Rara was only seven years old and in perfect health. She
never left the park property and her mahout was never
more than 6 feet away from her. Gawn (her mahout) loved
her dearly and always paid attention to what she was
doing. Rara demanded this as she was like a child in
that if Gawn focused his attention on something else,
even for a minute, she would do something that would
force him to bring his attention back to her, even
though he was right next to her.
An autopsy was performed on her body and organ samples
will be taken to a lab to be examined by Dr. Pac, our
resident elephant vet.
We at ENP are still in shock and can't believe that
Rara is gone. Her passing is truly something that will
be felt around the world as in her short life she has
touched so many hearts and brought much joy to all who
have met her during her years at the Sheraton and during
her all too brief stay here at ENP. Everyone from the
Sheraton (who generously bought Rara and donated her to
the park so that she could live a more natural life) and
all of us here at ENP thought we would be watching Rara
make elephant friends, live happily, grow up, mature and
maybe have babies with Hope for many many decades to
come, but devastatingly, her life was cut short. |
