Elephant Orphanage

The elephant orphanage cares for babies who are motherless.  One of the  elephants was only 3 days old and was rescued  as it was being attacked by lions.  The mother had been shot for the ivory tusks.

Marje liked petting the elephants, who look up at you with their big eyes. 

Baby bottles all lined up for feeding time.  Visitors are only allowed in in one hour per day to view the feeding time. Elephants are very sensitive and can become very attached to caregivers.

The "babies" sleep in these stalls.  The bunk is for one of the caregivers to sleep with them.  The babies need to be feed every 3 hours.  They are kept here until 3 years old when they are ready to be reintroducted into the wild. The care givers rotate sleeping in the stalls with different animals, again to prevent them becoming too attached to just one caregiver. 

Look how well they line up!

Oh how I love reading the signs. 

One of the older babies, about 2 1/2 years, will make a good mother.  She takes  on a protective role with  new comers.