For the second time in 2 weeks another new baby elephant was successfully born at the Elephant Safari Park in Taro, Bali. He has been named Ganteng, which in Bali and Indonesian means Handsome. He was born exactly 2 weeks after our previous baby elephant, Jegeg and there was only a 45 minute difference in the time. He was born at 1.15am on Sunday 29th March and weighed in slightly larger at 85 kilos and a little bigger standing 87cm tall and being 115 cm long. He is a truly handsome young fellow and after an easy rescued by us from Way Kambas, Sumatra in 1997 as a 3,5 year old and is one of our star attractions at the park, being renowned as a wonderful painter and an exceptionally intelligent animal.

However motherhood was a bit of a surprise for Ramona, who took almost 24 hours before she could successfully breast feed her frustrated and hungry baby. Park staff spent hours trying to help the baby get its first feed, while supplementing it with milk formula. Ramona seemed to not understand that she had to keep still for the baby to feed and being the hyperactive young elephant she is, this was hard to achieve. Still, all’s well that ends well and persistence by myself and Park Manager Dedi Rahman finally paid of and Ganteng is now feeding from his mother.

The father is yet again Seng Wong our very potent and sexually active dominant male elephant, who is also the father to Jegeg and the other baby elephant also due in October this year. With these naturally conceived and born elephants, I think we can now claim a very good success rate our breeding program that was implemented just 2 years ago at the park.

Both babies and mother are on full display at the park for guest at our new nursery area. For more information contact me at nigel@baliadventuretours.com or see on youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEaThPiRfLU

Nigel Mason

Managing Director

Elephant Safari Park & Lodge

Bali Adventure Tours

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