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Caregivers here at the sanctuary spend only a portion of their days around the elephants. There’s a lot of cleaning, food and medical preparation, and general maintenance that are part of a care team’s day. Of course, everyone–human and elephant–sees one another at meal time and during daily check-ins, but the main interactions with the elephants are at breakfast, dinner, and training or medical sessions. That’s why so many of our stories revolve around daily meals (where we’re directly interacting with the elephants) or more distant activities like pond playtime (when we can film from afar without disturbing the girls’ actions). All in all, we do our best not to let camera time impact what’s going on naturally with the elephants. Much of their days are spent out in the habitat, far from human eyes, and that’s what we always hope for. 

So, we’re coming to you once again from dinnertime with Rana and Mara. Rana found some hay that was left in the habitat for her the night before, and Mara was by the pond; neither girl seemed particularly interested in their prepared meals and they just hung out in their respective spots for a while. Mara moved over into the shade and she turned toward one particular tree and put her trunk up on it, shaking the whole tree. Her trunk was over her head which was stretched high.

At that point, Rana decided she was interested in her meal and walked toward the fence. Mara stayed put, continuing to gently rattle the tree back and forth. After presenting Rana with her food, the caregivers moved toward where Mara had positioned herself, and she finally decided she was hungry. They ultimately ended up placing her food down where she was rather than asking her to join Rana. So, both girls had dinner across the yard from each other, which is rare. It does go to show that even the closest of friends want to do their own thing every once in a while.