Graphic footage of the first ever elephant birth filmed in Bali, Indonesia.
The founder of the Elephant Safari Park at Taro, Bali, Nigel Mason talks us through the experience. You won't regret watching this. Message from Nigel: For all the kind people who have watched this video and asked various questions, particularly, how is the mother and baby doing. Here is a little bit more information. The mother Nicki and her baby are both doing extremely well and Riski has turned out to be quite a character. This is 18 year old Nickis first baby, Nicki herself being one of the group of nine elephants that were first rescued from the island of Sumatra in 1997 and brought to Bali. She was then an orphan of four years old and is now part of the herd of 30 elephants that live at the Elephant Safari Park & Lodge. Nicki has turned out to be a very caring and protective mother to her new very cheeky baby, who is now almost one month old. Riski has now joined the other two babies in our Nursery Area and enjoys playing with them and swimming twice a day in one of the parks lakes. To answer the question, were we going to help the mother the answer is of course yes. However I felt that under the situation it was best to let nature take its course first, as often babies taken from mothers at birth are later rejected by them. I had allowed for three minutes for Nicki to sort it out before we intervened. However she brought the baby to life herself in just under 2½ minutes after the birth. Of course all elephants would be best left in the wild in a perfect world, but in the case of the lesser known sub-species of Sumatran elephant, this is far from reality. Massive deforestation has depleted their island of jungle and the few highly endangered remnants of the thousands that originally lived their are in big trouble.
When they roam onto the newly cultivated land areas that were originally their home they are killed usually be poisoning or by cruel traps that give them a slow and painful death. The government tries to help by capturing them before this happens and putting them into camps, but the life expectancy there is not good, as they lack funds for food, medicine and other care needed for the captives. Its from these camps that we rescued twenty seven elephants when we first created the Elephant Safari Park, at Taro village in Bali. This being documented in the acclaimed TV film Operation Jumbo, which has been aired on the Discovery Channel. Although the park cannot be a re-creation of their former jungle homes, it is a tropical environment where they are looked after very well, (or we wouldnt have had three babies born this year), and they can live out a comfortable and full life, by helping to support themselves as part of a tourism and educational facility. For the people who want to know more about where Riski was born let me explain.
The park was created in 1997 and is a full elephant experience where guests can get to know all about Sumatran elephants. Tourists can hand feed, touch and even ride the elephants and watch daily elephant talent shows and generally get up close and personal with them, unlike zoos where you can only view elephants from a distance. The park also includes many facilities for guests and elephants alike. For instance there are two lakes set in botanical gardens, shade houses and a laboratory amongst other elephant facilities and for guests there is an elephant museum, restaurant, shop, arena and even a 25 room 5 star lodge (hotel) to stay at overnight with the elephants. Guests can either visit in the daytime or come for a Night Safari ride with dinner. For information regarding this please go to our website www.elephantsafariparklodge.com or www.baliadventuretours.com I hope this answers some of the questions asked or others that people are wondering about. Nigel Mason, Managing Director, Elephant Safari Park & Lodge.
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