Thank you for your reply! It must be hard not to reach out and touch them since that is human nature. It’s really generous how you put their needs first always.

Relationships are nuanced and can go back and forth, like with Bambi and Mara, or the elephant might prefer her own company, like Lady. We always follow their lead and that means letting them decide how much affection and interaction they want with us. Of course, we love interacting with them, but it’s not about what we want. It’s about what they need. And it’s true that captive elephants are often drawn to humans because they associate people with food. Guille many times will head toward the 4-wheelers here, in hopes of a snack.

I’m aware that you have one or more elephants that haven’t integrated well with other elephants. Since elephants tend to be social by nature do these loners reach out to the humans for affection at times? At other sanctuaries a lot of the elephants seem to show affection for their caretakers but this may be learned behavior to get treats.

Thank you for all of your hard work taking care of these animals.

I squizzed some time now to try to give you back some of the beautiful consideration you give to me

I Just read the post about their time together – the girls. Now I read this one about privacy, space, protected contract

I understand what you mean and I feel so proud of you, the whole team. No, the word is not proud, I feel so happy with GSE.

I have written before and I will do It again, there are so many layers of educational, emotional, cognitive and spiritual perspectives that GSE touches that It would take a book to explain all.

Muito obrigada!

I understand, also, the philosophy of respecting the elephant and their development. It makes complete sense to me, especially with the vast space you have there. Let them decide what their world and their life is going to be.