Elephant calf, Luk Chai.

We’re delighted to show you a special video of our baby’s early steps in the barn with Thong Dee. We’d love you to share this with your friends and family taronga.org.au/littlethings

31 July 2009

Luk Chai has Stubble

I just stroked Luk Chai on his back to say hello and noticed he’s a little prickly!

He’s loves spending time underneath mum and the auntie’s bellies. He’s there so often that he’s lost a few baby hairs from rubbing his back across their tummies.

30 July 2009

Calf Enjoys Water Games

Luk Chai shared mum’s drink of water this morning. Thong Dee was having a drink of water from the hose and Luk Chai thought it was a great game. He got really excited by the big drops of water falling onto his trunk and stood right under her chin to catch the drips.

There was more water games later in the morning. After the warm baths in the barn he then had fun deliberately skating across the rubberised floor.

27 July 2009

Elephant calf named Luk Chai! Thong Dee’s little calf has a name! We’ve named him “Luk Chai”.



After going through over 30,000 entires that you all put forward in the naming competition, us keepers decided to go with “Luk Chai”. It’s pronounced Look- Chai.

We liked this name as it reflects his Thai heritage and means “my son”. A word that sounds similar to Chai also means triumph and our boisterous and inquisitive boy certainly is a triumph for the conservation breeding program.