Now the fun begins (as if this hasn’t been enough fun already). We head over to the family with the baby. A 2 year old boy – Navann – who is a playful thing (as all babies tend to be). We spend a great time watching Navann with his mother Sri Prea and nanny Kahm Pan while they mill around, eating and just socializing. As we mentioned before, elephants are very social animals and tend to stay in a pack or a family. They roam together, eat, sleep and play together all the time. As a matter of fact, this family came together after Navann was born when Kahm Pan, who was sort of wild and a little uncontrollable, fell in love with the baby and became his nanny.
But this family is also what Goy calls the “handicapped” family. Navann’s mom’s back foot was blown off by a land mine (about 2 years ago before she was rescued). Another elephant in this group has the same problem. Another elephant has permanent shoulder damage from being ridden all the time. So sad.
Navann’s mahout has been with him since he was born. They love each other, they play, and the mahout even gives him Thai massage. We get a great exhibit of this while we watch – Navann starts to come after us, but the mahout quickly corrals him into a massage….adorable!
But, Navann definitely keeps his handler busy. Because once he is up on his feet, he’s coming after us again, with his handler hot on his heels, trying to cut him off. Navann is just trying to play – but he just doesn’t understand the difference between us tiny little humans and his huge girth. Cute, but also a little stress inducing as we are scattering around, avoiding not only Navann, but also some of the other grown elephants who have decided to be on the move as well.
Our last visit before lunch is to an elephant who has a broken leg/foot from a logging accident. She is pretty mobile, but her foot is just awful, all folded up underneath her leg.
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