Introducing Siyana

Cleber and I had heard about an elephant orphanage in Karen, so at the end of teh day we made our way with Amos to discover this nursery for abandoned elephants and rhinos. We arrived and were greeted by a lovely man who naturally proposed us to visit the nursery, as well as the opportunity to adopt an elephant as the entrance fee just also happened to be directly associated with the adoption fee. Cleber and I enthusiatically agreed and set off to choose our child. We were brought to a small open area where the elephants woulf be passing through as they were coming in to eat. Within moments a scuffle was heard and about 9 small elephants charged our way and did a little turn about as if on the cat walk and made their way to their stalls which they all knew by heart. Then the older elephants appeared, ever though only 2-3 yrs old they still gave my heart a jump. The orphange is a part of the National Park and the workers spend the night in the stalls feeding the animals throughout the night. These small elephants are up to 2 years old, any time after 2 years they are then transfered to another area where they are slowly re-introduced into the wild. In a small pen, 3 2-3yr old elephants were gathered together and being fed by the park workers, they apparently are kept together as if separated they begin to cry. It's in this pen where we fell in love with Siyana a young 2 year old elephant who had been found at 1 month in a well. A hyena had bitten off a portion of her trunk as it was the only piece of her to remain above ground. Needless to say we welcome her into our home and are hearts... We have pictures so please enjoy them once we get them posted.