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Taronga Blogs

Luk Chai is Blessed!
Saturday 15th August 2009
Our little Luk Chai received a traditional Thai blessing today from eight Monks followed by an ecumenical cermony to celebrate his birth. The herd enjoyed their morning feed in the paddock while watching the traditional blessing ceremony which involved chanting and prayers. Luk Chai seemed quite unaware of anything unusual. He was more interested in the bamboo shoots mum was eating and seeing what mum and the aunties where up to.At the end of the ceremony Luk Chai, Thong Dee and chief aunty, Tang Mo, followed us Keepers into the barn for the final part of the ceremony. The Monks sprinkled water on Luk Chai’s head to bless him and wish him good health and success. Luk Chai was very interested in the Monks, saying hello and checking them out with his trunk.The Monks offered Luk Chai some bananas, but of course he’s not quite ready to eat them yet. Tang Mo and Thong Dee were only too happy to look after them!
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A Special Visit
Friday 14th August 2009
A very special event today - Thong Dee and Tang Mo's former owners flew in from Thailand to attend a blessing ceremony this weekend where Luk Chai will be blessed by Buddhist monks. Tang Mo and Thong Dee had not seen their former Thai mahout for three years. The mahout, Mau, had grown up with these elephants and spent two years working alongside the Taronga team in Thailand before the elephants were imported to Australia.The elephants were at first very surprised to see him, and then affectionately surrounded him, smelling him and inspecting with their trunks. Mau spoke to them in Thai and they immediately responded, doing anything he asked. Clearly they're still very fluent in Thai!Mau said all the elephants looked incredibly healthy and he was happy for them. They introduced him to Luk Chai and Mau gave the calf a big hug, declaring him 'perfect'.
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Elliott Makes a Nest
Friday 14th August 2009
Today we gave our flock of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos a phone book to play with. We hung it up on the side of their aviary and at first they weren’t too sure about it.
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The Calf Plays Ball Games
Monday 10th August 2009
The calf has found a new game! We rolled an inflatable ball towards Luk Chai. After a few goes he got the hang of it and kicked the ball right back to us using his feet and trunk.Aunty Pak Boon was very interested in his new game. She kept an eye on us and wanted to have a go too, but she’s too big to play soccer with the calf just yet.
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Climbing Aunty Tang Mo
Sunday 9th August 2009
Now that Luk Chai and conquered climbing rocks, logs and a tyre, today he tried the biggest mountain of all. Mum and Tang Mo were lying on their dirt mound in the paddock and he thought it would be great fun to clamber over them.Tang Mo loved the attention. She helped him climb right over using her trunk and the calf came off her back like a slippery dip. Once he was back on the dirt mound he rushed back around to her belly to start all over again.
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Moving Logs
Friday 7th August 2009
Luk Chai has been playing grown-ups again.During the play session, mum was tugging a huge log with her trunk and Luk Chai decided he’d have a go too.He’s been watching the other elephants push the logs around. Luk Chai tried to push the log with his trunk and feet, but of course it didn’t budge!
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Leslie the Condor Soars High
Friday 7th August 2009
This was a very exciting week for us! Leslie, our beautiful Andean Condor, went for a huge fly above the bird show amphitheatre ‘wowing’ our visitors.
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Luk Chai Interrupts Aunty Pak Boon
Wednesday 5th August 2009
We weighed Luk Chai this afternoon and he’s now 132 kilos!
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Luk Chai Has Stubble
Friday 31st July 2009
I just stroked Luk Chai on his back to say hello and noticed he’s a little prickly! He’s loves spending time underneath mum and the auntie’s bellies. He’s there so often that he’s lost a few baby hairs from rubbing his back across their tummies.
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New Tasmanian Devil Conservation Centre Opens
Thursday 30th July 2009
The next chapter of Taronga Zoo’s involvement in helping save the Tasmanian Devil is here. We’ve just opened a state-of-the-art centre to breed Tasmanian Devils and show zoo visitors the plight of this endangered species.
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