Ging Mai -
The Healing Time
March 2002
He is now more than 3 months old. His weight is 185 Kilos compared to 80 kg at the time of his rescue. He is more confident and is beginning to act become like an adult elephant. The gate to his pen now is open 24
hours, he only really uses the pen for sleeping. Lek and the volunteers made a big mud bath for him and also a swimming pool beside the mud. His main
daytime activity is playing in the mud bath, running to the pool and rolling in the sand . He also starts to walk though to the jungle and around the surrounding hills. He has
conquered his fear of trees.
Ging Mai with the new friend
At the farm house Lek rescued a puppy which is also orphan. The pup and
Ging Mai grew up together and are very friendly. It is unusual as
elephants generally dislike dogs and horses. Ging Mai loves play with
the young does. Some
time
the team would find them sleeping snugly together in the pen.
Prepare to introduce him to a foster mother
After three month baby elephants start to eat
the
mother poop. This helps digestion. Lek brought Mae Perm's dung
(
the future mother ) for him. He was very excited using his trunk
to
smell and explore the poop. His body and muscles shook with
excitement. He uses his trunk to scoop it
into his mouth. The volunteer worry, afraid that he will
get
sick from eating the poop, Now the volunteers bring the
foster mothers poop to Ging Mai every day. He eats only a little bit.
Now he starts to eat the banana and other
fruits
shakes. [ Sleeping ]
Ging Mai sleeps more often than before, both during the day and night. He feels more
safe to
lie down and sleeps for a long time. Some time he only lies down
to
play with the volunteers. Before sleeping he like to play with the
volunteers using his trunk to touch their heads
before
nodding off. He likes constant attention like a little baby.
His nightmare ordeal has been placed at the back of him mind and he is
enjoying life.
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