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Guillermina has been continuing to display her childlike silliness, and the others are remaining mostly patient with her. The older girls seem to understand that this new, somewhat large kid, has a lot to learn. Part of that learning curve means finding out what the limits are for some of her playful behavior. 

During a recent dinner, Guille walked over and took some of Bambi’s hay, which Bambi wasn’t particularly thrilled about. Bambi stepped forward into Guillermina for just a minute, setting a boundary in a calm, but definitive way. While Guille sees the behavior and gets the message behind it, she doesn’t always choose to listen, and the other girls seem to understand this as well.

Guille’s current favorite play friend is Maia, though Maia may not necessarily be playing along with her all of the time. Guillermina will back up toward Maia, sticking her tail straight out, and even swiping Maia’s face with it. It seems that Guillermina just wants a response of some kind – like a little kid pushing someone’s buttons to see just how far they can take things before getting in trouble. This is something we have seen between other elephants in our past and often develops into a big and little sister dynamic, with the “older sister” somewhat enjoying the playful corrections they give. She definitely could be “correcting” Guille more, so for the time being Maia may be intrigued. (Maia did give Guille a gentle smack on the bottom a couple of times, which only dissuaded Guillermina for a little while. It seemed like a playful game between the two of them.) 

The two elephants have such similar personalities that they could end up being best friends or, perhaps, start to irritate one another. For now, their interactions seem harmless and charming – and we’ll be interested to see how things continue to unfold between our two youngest elephants. 

Photo of Pocha and Guillermina