Bandara

 

Bandara joined the MEF herd in November 2011. He is a 30 ish year old Male with no tusks.

Bandara has previously spent 15 years working in tourism using the dangerous Howdahs and in logging. Bandara has some now healed wounds on his hips and legs from the working equipment and abuse. We are hoping to fatten him up a bit as he is underweight.

He was allowed to settle for a couple of weeks and get used to his new surroundings and the company of other elephants, the girls and Bandara were finding each other most distracting! So far things have been going very well for Bandara, on arrival to us he was reputed to have behavioral issues, probably caused by the ill treatment he likely received as a working elephant and he came from an area that had little water meaning he would have been dehydrated and unable to bathe properly. We have seen no evidence of this bad behavior and he seems very placid, Sunil and everyone here are very pleased at his progress especially with the enrichment and socialising projects that we are running.

His owners are very caring and will visit him every month, they were struggling to afford his upkeep which was why he ended up in the logging industry. We are hoping that with the love and care he will receive at MEF he will be a very happy elephant and that his personality will reflect this.

So far Bandara has been settling in very well and shows no signs of distress or aggression,  he doesn’t like a morning bath and prefers to wait until the afternoon when it is a bit warmer. In December 2011  he received treatment of daily massages with ayurvedic Kaolin balm to ease some muscular pain and swelling that was affecting the way he walked.