In exciting news, and thanks to the generous supporters of wildlife conservation through @ayansartforconservation, I just wanted to let you know that we have managed to adopt another elephant at Thula Thula named Mabula. Mabula is one of the most famous elephants, in the famous Thula Thula herd. He was part of the original 7 elephants that came to Thula Thula in 1999, and is Frankie's oldest son. You can see the Thula Thula elephant herd's family tree in a previous blog on the search for a new matriarch.
Mabula
Mabula was born in 1990 and in his teenage years Mabula was a feisty young male, with a bit of attitude. When Thula Thula brought in the alpha male Gobisa to the reserve, Mabula was annoyed. He challenged Gobisa to an elephant duel which lasted 2 whole days, and in the end was defeated by the mature elephant. Eventually Gobisa became Frankie's companion, and so in a way, he was Mabula's step father and taught him the ways of well-mannered gentlemen elephants.
Mabula & Gobisa Rumbling
Today, Mabula has the most fun personality in the herd. He is know as the "Entertainer" as he does the craziest things like cool yoga poses to entertain visitors at Thula Thula. Even though, he is one of the biggest bull elephants in the herd, he sometimes likes to "hide" by standing very still, like a statue. He seriously thinks no one can see him, and then he does these sudden, hilarious mock charges on game vehicles, which aren't for the faint hearted. Mabula is also a dancer. As big as he is, he has nimble toes and uses them well to do a slow, mesmerizing elephant dance.
Mabula's Yoga Poses
We adopted Mabula with the generous donation from Ellen Olson Brooks. Ellen is an animal lover, and recently commissioned portraits of her 2 beloved senior dogs that she adopted many years ago. The first commission was for Baby Girl, and the 2nd, which helped us adopt Mabula - was for Banjo. Thank you Ellen, and hope you enjoy the portraits of your furkids.
Baby Girl & Banjo
If you would like to read more about Mabula - check out his fact sheet.
Ayan,thank you for teaching us so much about African wildlife. I had no idea that elephants had attitude! I truly hope that when they know that wild animals have feelings too, poaching will stop forever. BTW I love the Baby Girl and Banjo portraits.