If a days’ old baby arrives in our care, chances are they might be assigned Joseph as their carer. He’s helped raise Toto, Korbessa and Lemeki to name a few, and each one requires a completely different approach.
As he says “We have to learn their favourite things, what they like and what they don't like. I remember when Toto was a tiny boy and he started to scream in his room in the night. In the wild, elephants sleep outside with their babies. I realised that to be inside was new for him. I started to bring him out in the night, while people were sleeping. Sometimes I brought his mattress out, so we could sleep under the stars.”
They're baaaaaack! It's been a long cold winter but our favorite farm animals are back in #LordsPark ready for the opening of Tefft Farm on Saturday 30 May! And this year they're joined by some very special friends ... look carefully and you may see them in the background!
Laughter is anti-inflammatory. Crying is regulating. Hugging is immunoprotective. Singing is vagal toning. Dancing is neurogenic.
Joy is a biological necessity.
A long time ago my Biology professor told me I would dilute the academic gene pool if I ever got my Ph.D. in Biology, and as such she could not recommend me for future study. So I went to see the head of Food Science, told him my story and asked him to support me. I would get my Ph.D., but it would be in Applied Chemistry. I only had Chemistry I, and so the university senate decided that I needed Organic Chemistry II and III as well. So I did those courses at the same time as the first two years of my Ph.D. It was 5 years before I graduated with my Ph.D., but graduated I did. As I walked off the stage in my red gown, the Biology professor apologized to me. It didn't matter any more.
Lemeki used to be found sprinting around the Kaluku Nursery chasing after the guinea fowl. Now she takes life at a more sedate pace, lounging atop the dust pile.
She was rescued from the Mara River in March 2018, a few days old, after being swept downstream in flash floods. Eight years on, she is a picture of peace and contentment at our Voi Reintegration Unit, mid-soil bath.
Lemeki is one of 327 orphaned elephants we've given a second chance at life. Dive headfirst into her story: https://t.co/WD8dDHWOSd
Dung beetles save American ranchers $380 million a year by doing a job nobody else will: burying cow shit.
A fresh cow pat is a problem. Cattle won't graze near their own waste, so every pat left sitting kills the grass beneath it and fouls the ground around it. It's also a nursery for the flies and gut worms that torment the herd.
Dung beetles drag the whole mess underground. The grass grows back, the soil gets fed, and the flies and parasites lose their hatchery.
Free fertilizer and free pest control, all run by an insect that most of us think is gross.