Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00 (dog growling)
00:02 And baby Nandita has been woken from her nap.
00:06 No siblings to play with,
00:11 she heads straight for her dad, Ang Bo.
00:14 (playful music)
00:28 (playful music)
00:31 - He's great with his baby.
00:34 I mean, this little girl can do
00:36 pretty well whatever she wants to.
00:38 She'll pull his tusks and she'll push him
00:45 and he'll allow her to do that.
00:46 - In the wild, bull elephants choose
00:55 to remain separate from the family.
00:58 But here, Ang Bo is a hands-on dad.
01:02 - You can see him moderate his behavior
01:08 because he knows he's interacting with a little one.
01:11 But he gets something out of it, she loves it.
01:14 So, I mean, it's really nice to watch.
01:24 - But being an only child has its problems.
01:27 Without other young elephants to play with,
01:31 Nandita could be missing out on some important life lessons.
01:35 - The main bulk of their behavior is learned.
01:38 Males learn off the males, the females learn off the females
01:40 and that's what they do.
01:42 Play behavior is like with children,
01:44 it's crucial for their development.
01:46 And it's no different with an elephant calf.
01:50 She hasn't got a playmate,
01:52 so she's missing out that little bit.
01:55 (gentle music)
01:57 I think it would be hugely important for Nandita,
02:00 you know, for there to be more calves born to the family.
02:03 - The responsibility for fathering more calves
02:09 falls to Ang Bo.
02:11 He's about to enter a phase known as must,
02:19 a stage of heightened sexual excitement.
02:21 (gentle music)
02:24 - Ang Bo, you know, he looks great,
02:26 he's great with calves and he can make the babies.
02:30 So that's, he's ticked all our boxes.
02:32 - He may have set his sights on the females,
02:39 but they are playing hard to get.
02:51 He tries his luck with Sundara,
02:53 but she needs more convincing.
02:59 - He is very confident,
03:04 not actually worried about what he thinks,
03:07 we're more worried about what the cows think.
03:09 When he comes into their area and they're like,
03:15 "Well, why are you here?"
03:20 - After some gentle wooing, his advances finally pay off.
03:25 - You know, we wanna build these big social family groups.
03:34 The males are so important in that, you know,
03:35 he's gotta be able to do the job,
03:38 but he's gotta be the boss, he's gotta be in charge.
03:40 He's a lot bigger than some of the cows,
03:45 he has five tons of elephants.
03:47 So he's gotta be quite careful while doing it.
03:50 - The next few weeks will reveal
03:52 if Angbo has been successful.
03:54 - Him getting everything right is so important for us
03:57 and the herd.
03:58 (cow mooing)
04:01 (upbeat music)
04:04 (cow mooing)
04:06 (upbeat music)
04:09 (upbeat music)
04:11 (upbeat music)
04:14 (upbeat music)
04:17 (upbeat music)
04:19 (upbeat music)
04:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]