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Not too long ago, we related a story of Guillermina and Maia “discussing” whether Guille should pass Maia, while on a walk. Eventually, Guillermina got her way and walked around Maia – but Guille isn’t always getting her way these days. It seems that perhaps she is taking lessons from each experience with the other elephants, hopefully with a positive effect. 

In this video, you see Guillermina meet Rana and Bambi on a pathway. There are no noises, there is no touching, and no conversation that we can hear. But, even so, some sort of communication is happening that lets Guille know that Rana and Bambi are content where they are standing. As we’ve seen before, Rana has a very quiet way of working with others, getting her message across more passively. In this scenario, Guillermina is moving forward with a lot of youthful energy, but stops when she meets the others on the road, contemplating her next move. Bambi and Rana hold their ground, basically telling Guille that she can move, turn around, or go another way. You can see Guillermina take a few seconds to think about what she should do before walking in another direction. 

There are times when Guillermina can be somewhat pushy, but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t learning little lessons every day. She is still working to find what is socially acceptable within the group setting – which is something that all elephants need to learn when they arrive at sanctuary; Guillermina’s lessons are just different from the others. Whatever message Rana imparted to Guille, it is all part of her experience in learning to live with others.