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While Pupy has been settling in over in the female African habitat, the other elephants have been having laid-back days that could be happily classified as uneventful. They haven’t shown much of a reaction to Pupy from what we humans can see, but we feel it’s incredibly likely that they’ve been “talking.” Elephants can communicate in ways that humans cannot. So here’s a brief peek into what they’ve been up to:

The five elephants at sanctuary tend to stick in their two small groups at this point: Maia, Bambi, and Guille, then Rana and Mara. Essentially, they stay at opposite ends of the property most of the time. They vocalize a lot at night, so clearly there is communication between the two groups that we don’t see during the day. Still, there isn’t a lot of face time between all of them at once. 

During a recent afternoon, Mara and Rana–who had been spending time at the back of Yard 4–came over near the barn, as did the other three ladies–who had been in Yard 5. It ended up that Mara and Rana grazed in Yards 1 and 2, while Guille, Bambi, and Maia took Yard 3. Rana came into the barn to have her foot soaks done, and Maia came down to the end of the treatment chute part way through. Maia was mostly quiet, seemingly interested in seeing if there were any snacks to be had. After that, she took a standing nap in the shade that the barn offers in that spot. 

When Mara realized that Guille and Bambi were just on the other side of the common fence line, she walked over and made a few vocalizations, perhaps in an attempt to be engaging. Neither Bambi nor Guille seemed interested in interacting with Mara, though Mara hung out near them for a little while. Once Mara realized that no one was responding to her, she walked away back toward Rana as Rana was leaving the barn. After waking up from her short nap, Maia went back to Bambi, who never left her spot in the yard to head toward the barn. Eventually, everyone went back into their respective larger yards.

Ultimately, not much came of the little pass-by that happened; the groups didn’t seem too interested in each other, which is the benefit of the autonomy that sanctuary allows. Providing the elephants with enough space that they don’t need to hang out together if they don’t feel comfortable is essential to their emotional, and perhaps physical, safety. With Bambi’s insecurities, she currently doesn’t seem to be open to Mara, though she gave Mara many chances to build their bond earlier in their relationship. Bambi may be finished with trying to mend that friendship with Mara for now, and that’s her prerogative. 

Photo of Bambi and Maia standing side-by-side