Taronga’s
Asian Elephant Conservation Breeding Program reached a milestone today when Australia’s
first elephant calf Luk Chai turned two.
Luk
Chai was born in the early hours of July 4th 2009, to first-time
mother Thong Dee who was originally a street elephant in Bangkok, before coming
to Australia with the help of the Thai and Australian Governments.
“Two
years of age is a bit of a milestone for baby elephants. Once they make it past
two-years-old, they’re pretty much on their way to becoming a juvenile. Up
until two years of age, they can be more susceptible to some diseases.” said Taronga
Elephant Manger, Gary Miller.
“He
was born at 96kg and he’s now a whopping 830kg. He’s grown like a little weed. He’s got a great personality- he gets on with
everybody very well. We’re really happy with him.”
“Luk
Chai is kind of a golden boy and he can pretty much do no wrong. Everybody
loves him - all the female elephants think he’s great. The only one who
actually chastises him at all is his own mum, and that’s usually over food,
because he wants to eat her food, and she goes “Hey, eat your own!” But other
than that, he just gets on well with everyone.”
Luk
Chai was the first of three elephant calves to be born at Taronga Zoo since the
herd arrived in 2006. Miracle calf Pathi Harn is now over a year old and 620
kilograms and female calf, Tukta, is just over six months old and 436
kilograms.
“He
loves the other two calves dearly. He lies down and lets them climb on him and
he’s a good role model. He’s teaching them how to play and how to swim and
stuff like that. He’s a real mentor to the little ones,” said Gary
Luk
Chai is the son of Gung which also arrived from Thailand in 2006. Now a mature
bull, Gung resides in his own custom-built exhibit next to Taronga’s recently
refurbished and heritage-listed Elephant Temple. He is visited throughout the
day by keepers who who spend lots of time with him. In the wild, bulls live
separately from the herd except when mating occurs.
“I
guess one of the neat things is that we’re able to take Luk Chai, his mother,
Thong Dee, and Tang Mo, over to visit Gung. So Gung has actually met his son,
and they get on very well together. Luk Chai is a little bit of a clone of his
dad, and they have a lot of fun playing together so it’s really good,” said
Gary.
To
mark his first two years, Luk Chai was given his favourite food treats to eat
and share with the other members of the herd.