How has Chen grown to be a elephant daddy?
Chen Jiming sits on the ground, with his 900-kg "daughter" Yang Niu gamboling around. Playing with the rescued wild elephant, Chen is at ease, without an ounce of fear.
Chen, aged 36, is an experienced mahout, or “elephant daddy”, as is called at his working place. He has taken care of the giants at the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center in south Yunnan’s Xishuangbanna for 11 years.
"When I first worked as a breeder 17 years ago, I got nervous at the sight of elephants," said Chen Jiming, recalling his leaning tour in Laos after graduating from junior high school. He wanted to be a mahout.
To get closer to elephants, Chen used to join elephant trainings, which aimed to enable them to re-familiarize with the wilderness. He observed their habits and learned the language. "The Dai language is used in elephant training, and it was not so hard because I belong to the Dai ethnic group.”
Feeding is the key. Chen Jiming said he quickly won trust from elephants by giving their favorite foods like sugarcane, bananas, and carrots. In addition, elephants have their sensitive zones. If you touch an elephant's bottom, it might hit you.
Having studied in Laos for 6 years, Chen mastered the skills in raising and caring elephants. His returning to China coincided with establishment of the Yunnan elephant center, where Chen has been working as an "elephant daddy” since 2008.
"Since the center was put into use, it has carried out 20 plus rescue activities for elephants in the wild." Chen said it was one of the rescues that allowed him to get to know about Yang Niu.
It was on the afternoon of August 17, 2015, when the newly-born elephant broke into a farmer's house in Xishuangbanna’s neighboring Pu'er City. The rescue team rushed to the scene, only to see Yang Niu was in a critical condition: infection, heart failure, and malnutrition.
In the ensuing days, the center selected 4 full-time "daddies" for the elephant rescued, all of whom have to be experienced in elephant breeding for more than 8 years. Chen Jiming was experienced enough and thus became a daddy of Yang Niu.
Taking care of Yang Niu is time-consuming. The weak baby elephant first needed to be cared around the clock, coupled with rehabilitation training in the mountain later. Chen Jiming already has two real babies, but he spent much more time with his elephant “baby”.
Whenever Chen got back home, the babies would ask about Yang Niu. "I am pleased that my work also made my family care about the wild elephant." Having worked with elephants for 17 years, Chen said that he takes the elephants as his family members.
By Gateway reporters