Luk Chai Celebrates His First Birthday

Sunday 4th July 2010

There was a feeling of anticipation at Taronga Zoo’s elephant exhibit today as the keepers prepared special treats for the elephants to celebrate the first birthday of Luk Chai – the first elephant calf born in Australia.

Despite thousands of waiting well wishers and a great Thai theme throughout Taronga’s ANZ Rainforest Trail, birthday calf Luk Chai was busy going about his usual business as if there were no fuss until he started to get a little excited during the 1pm elephant.

While NSW Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Ms Angela D’Amore, spoke about the success of the elephant conservation breeding program at Taronga thousands of zoo visitors and the Thai Consul General could hear the female elephants trumpeting as they watched their keepers positioning special elephant birthday treats.

After the elephants walked int the paddock,  Luk Chai was a little reluctant to approach his banana frond-covered box of treats filled with apples, bananas, palm fronds and pumpkin but it didn’t take long for his mother, Thong Dee and aunts to pull it all apart to reveal the contents which were much to Luk Chai’s liking.

The herd were happy to eat the treats, while provided younger calf Pathi Harn was struggling to pick up a single apple that continued to roll away from him. He found much more fun getting his feet caught in the remnants of cardboard boxes and straw that were scattered around the paddock.

Luk chai was curious of a giant blue ball that was in one of the boxes,  just like his favourite soccer ball. He scrambled over it and pushed it around before going back to what seemed the better option of tasty apples and pumpkin before the older females ate it all.

Photo album at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/taronga/

- Zoo Communications

 

Bull Elephant Gung Also Celebrating Birthday

Wednesday 7th July 2010

Taronga’s bull elephant, Gung, is also celebrating a birthday this month following his son’s, Luk Chai, first birthday last Sunday.

Gung sired Luk Chai and the bull’s birthday is in July when he turns 10.

He’s doing very well too and is already a whopping 3200 kg.

He’s now the second biggest elephant in the TZ herd which isn’t bad considering he’s the youngest except for the calves.
This tells us he’s going to be a big boy.

Potentially, he’ll weigh over 5000 kg by the time he’s 20-25 years old.
Gung swims almost daily in his two pools and his keepers spend a lot of time with him.

Gary Miller, Elephant Manager

 

Gung 2 640

Three Months On And Going From Strength To Strength

Thursday 10th June 2010

At three months of age today our second elephant calf Pathi Harn now clocks in at a whopping 226kgs and is a healthy bundle of fun, energy and noise.

He’s a really great calf with so much to learn. And learning is something that he’s doing a lot of by constantly mimicking mother Porntip, the aunts and companion, Luk Chai. Things such as watching them drink from the moat, eating pineapple tops or seeing Luk Chai balance on a log is what Pathi Harn attempts to do only moments after watching the behaviours himself. 

When they are all out in the elephant paddock together, Pathi Harn tends to hang out with Luk Chai who turns one in July and weighs a considerable 438kgs. That's nearly half a tonne! Where you would think that the older calf would be the one to hassle and play rough. in this case it seems to be the other way around. The more mature of the two, Luk Chai, goes about his business with Pathi Harn in tow making sure he doesn’t miss out on anything. They can generally be seen playing on the dirt mounds, in the mud wallow or over and around their favourite logs, which Luk Chai is great at balancing on. This can sometimes seem as his place of rest away from Pathi Harn who cannot yet maintain his balance on the long logs. 

It has only been in the last couple of days that Pathi Harn has discovered that he can make noises. As with any youngster there isn’t too much control of what comes out but we can say that in Pathi Harn’s case he’s doing it a lot and it’s getting louder. He has a habit of putting his little ears forward, lifting his trunk up in the air and making a tiny squeaking sound that'll one day be a fully-fledged trumpeting. This vocalising is generally due to excitement and can sometimes happen after a little gallop around.

- Zoo Communications

Taronga's Elephants Get Special Buddhist Visit

Tuesday 25th May 2010

As pineapple tops were scattered throughout the paddock, Taronga’s female elephant herd along with Luk Chai and Pathi Harn had some very special onlookers.

Taronga was visited yesterday by Most Venerable Somdet Phramaha Muniwong, Member of the Buddhist Governing Council of Thailand. He was one of the first pioneering Thai Buddhist monks who came to Australia in 1973 and was accompanied by other Buddhist Monks from Thailand and Australia and His Excellency Kiattikhun Chartprasert, the Royal Thai Consul General. Taronga Zoo believes it is important to maintain the cultural ties that exist between the Thai people and our elephant herd which came from their country. 

They watched on from the Stilt House above the elephant paddock as Luk Chai and Pathi Harn played on their dirt mound under the watchful eye of mothers and aunts. There was playful head butting and tail twirling before the mud wallow was stocked with fresh water which, of course, meant fresh mud! Luk Chai was running from one side to the other which in turn created what looked like a set of mud-coloured gum boots all the way up to his knees. His mother, Tong Dee, was happy to be hosed in the mouth with her trunk held high and along her back keeping well out of the way of Luk Chai’s antics. As all this was going on Pathi Harn was content with his mud hill as if he was the king of the paddock, standing with his ears flapping forward and trunk flopping around like crazy.

-Zoo Communications

Dust Bath and Tyre Tricks

Monday 3rd May 2010

Youngest calf Pathi Harn spent the time after his bath today making sure that he added a nice dusting of dirt over all that clean skin. This is something all elephants do and often thought to add a nice protective barrier against sun and insects for the rest of the day. Pathi Harn is just getting the knack of grabbing trunk-fulls of dirt and tossing it over his head and back. Mum Porntip sometimes adds a bit more. Meanwhile, it was time for nine month old Luk Chai to have his bath with his mum Thong Dee and Aunty Tang Mo. Luk Chai spent most of the time playing with a tyre that was suspended from the roof for his enjoyment. He put his entire back leg, up to the belly in it, then 'hopped' around on his other three legs, sometimes tripping into mum's side and basically having a hoot. Just when zoo visitors thought he might actually be caught, he popped out the back leg, inserted a front leg and started the game all over again.
 
Both calves are growing very well, Luk Chai is now 416 kg and Pathi Harn weighed in at 186 kg today.
 
- From Zoo Communications