Mammoth Bundle of Joy

NOTE: Click on the baby jumbo pix on the right panel for some elephant sounds....

Seems like Mama is planning another outing for us. We are going to the zoo! To see the baby elephant!!!

The whole world is now talking about this humongous baby that was born on 4th of July. Definitely a very joyful occasion that's being celebrated all over the country too. It has been a very long wait as the mother elephant was pregnant for 22 months.



We also heard Mama speaking in Thai while asleep. "This is worse than her Christchurch dreams," I thought.

Apparently, the zoo has asked everyone to name the baby. The main prize is very tempting - tickets for 2 adults + 2 kids to Thailand plus stay at the Lampang Elephant Conservation Centre. Using my paws to count, hmmmm...that seems to be the perfect number for our family - Mama, Dad, Brad & I! yeay!

Imagine this vision: Angelina riding elephants.....aaah....bliss!

Here are some clippings from the news:

TARONGA Zoo's newest pampered star has finally made his public debut in front of adoring fans.

The yet-to-be named baby elephant, weighing in at 96kg, was born at the Sydney zoo on Saturday at 3.08am (AEST).
At lunch time today, escorted by his mum Thong Dee and adopted aunt Tang Mo, the youngster plodded a little unsteadily around a pond and waterfall near the lower viewing deck of the zoo's elephant enclosure, much to the delight of excited onlookers.
It had been a different story yesterday, when he remained tucked away inside his enclosure.
But after his first shower and bath this morning, overseen by zoo keepers inside a heated barn, the first baby jumbo born in Australia was happy to venture into the open
"There was a lot of oohing and aahing," Taronga Zoo's director Guy Cooper said.
Cooper said Tang Mo watched as Thong Dee delivered the baby calf in the early hours of Saturday morning, and has since taken on the role of doting aunt.
"We suspect Tang Mo has witnessed the birth of calves before," Cooper said.
"On the night (the calf was born) she was making noises. Her actions were like 'let me in there, I've seen this before, I can lend a hand'."
Thong Dee and Tang Mo are two of five elephants brought to Taronga Zoo from Thailand in 2006 as part of an elephant breeding program.
Thong Dee is the first elephant to give birth in Australia, while two others, Porntip and Pak Boon, are due to give birth in early 2010 and 2011.
Pak Boon and Porntip were allowed into the same enclosure as the baby elephant on Monday morning.
"That went very well," Cooper said.
"We are very comfortable that we now have one happy and steady family."
However, the baby elephant's father, Gung, is unlikely to play any role in his upbringing. He now lives in an enclosure some 150 metres from the females.
Taronga Zoo is inviting members of the public to name the baby elephant via its website.
So far about 2,300 suggestions have been received.
"What we've been asking is that names that are submitted are Thai, to reflect the cultural heritage of the animal," the zoo's spokesman Mark Williams said.
"We will be disregarding names that don't fit that category."
It will be up to the zoo's elephant keepers to select a name from the long list, under guidance from the Thai Consulate General's office.

For those of you keen to keep tab on this baby's journey, check out: http://babyelephant.taronga.org.au.

The Elephant Song (by Kamahl - Malaysian-born Aussie singer)

Tell me said the elephant
Tell me brothers if you can
Why all the world is full of creatures
Yet we grow in fear of man
Tell me said the elephant
tell me why this has to be
we have to run from man and hunter
never safe and never free

refrain:

-people kill without regret
although they fly by jumbo-jet
let the word all may remember
let the children not forget.

Gentle is the elephant
Pulling loads and everything
we love to hear the children laughing
when we,re in the circus-ring
Happy was the elephant
Happy was his jungle life
and then they came, the cruel hunters
with their rifle and their knives

refrain:...

Listen, please listen, said the elephant
if we want the world we know, to stay alife
Then man and beast, we must work together
And together we will survive

Listen said the elephant
It is conservation time
So take the warning when we trumpet
For the future of mankind

refrain..