Picture of the latest baby elephant in Ayutthaya
Some good news today from the Elephant Kraal in Ayutthaya that I visited the other month. 30 year old elephant called Sopa, who has been pregnant for the last 22 months, finally gave birth last night at exactly 11:59 p.m. The baby weighs a healthy 80 kilos and both mother and baby are well. I believe this is the 55th baby elephant to have been born here. I saw the mother on Channel 3 morning show last week and her belly was enormous. There was speculation at the time that there might have been twins inside.
Picture from the Facebook Page of Ewa Narkiewicz who is one of the mahouts that work there
Ewa and I first came to the Elephant Kraal in Ayutthaya as tourists 11years ago. We came back to work with the elephants as mahouts a couple of years later. I was working as a Zookeeper at Melbourne Zoo at the time. Because of the care we were giving to the elephants while we were at the Kraal the director of the foundation asked us to come and work for the foundation and start a program to retire their old elephants. So we went home and sold up everything to come and live here at the Elephant Kraal 7years ago. Ewa and I started, setup and manage the Elephantstay program. Because I am no longer working as a zookeeper does not mean I am no longer qualified. To say Ewa is not a mahout and sits in an office not working shows me this person has no idea what goes on at Elephantstay. If it was not for the work Ewa does and has done for years we would not have had the 3000 people come to Elephantstay and have the experience they have had. Yes Ewa and I would love nothing more to work with the elephants all day but that would be selfish as it does not feed them or bring in the money they need to look after them.
She is not a mahot. Obviously you didnt stay long, she just works in the office. Well, sits in there anyway.
Thanks for the correction. Though from what I understand, she went there as a volunteer mahout to start with but then stayed to help run the program.
@Richard Barrow. Ewa and her partner are the Directors of Elephantstay. Sopaa’s baby is birth no 51 :o)
You obviously have had nothing to do with Elephantstay at all to be making a comment like that. Ewa is one of the Directors!!! Have you ever run a not for profit program? Trust me, there is a lot of administration involved. Who do you think manages all of that? Yes, the person who sits in the office!! She started as a volunteer “mahout” and then was asked to manage a program along with her partner and it has been a very successful program since May 2006 and all of the behind the scenes stuff (in the office) is what creates, manages and maintains a successful program like Elephantstay.