It was before dawn when the first elephants arrived at Bedfordshire’s Woburn Safari Park in 1997, after travelling for 40 hours from India. For the Duke of Bedford, it was a magical moment: ‘A crane lifted the crates off, we opened the doors and they just walked off, trusting and happy.’
Tarli was born to Damini and Raja in 2014 and ‘aunts’ Yu-Zin and Chandrika ‘all teach manners and reprimand bad behaviour, telling Tarli right from wrong’. They certainly have deep conversations. ‘I hear them talking,’ says the Duke, ‘a great rumbling that goes right through you.’
The females will go for a walk every day, meeting people, showing off their strength and agility. Only Raja lives in a separate enclosure: ‘Bulls aren’t reliable. When they come into musk, they can be dangerous, so we never run the risk.’
Of the female elephants, Damini is the most skittish — ‘she’ll wind the others up’ — but they’re all amenable. When Tarli got herpes, aged four: ‘The team was up with her 24/7 for a month and vets around the world were talking about her. She was stuck with a needle twice a day, which none of us would like, but she was such a good patient. She helped herself get better.’
Indeed, elephants are noted for their intelligence: ‘They may look prehistoric, but they’re sophisticated. We hide food around their enclosure and, if we put medication inside a melon, they’ll stand on it very gently to break it apart and eat it all except the pills.’
For something so huge, it’s strangely easy to lose them when they’re camouflaged against tree trunks. ‘You can be 50 yards away and not know they’re there until they rip off a branch to eat,’ notes the Duke.
‘Their feet are like incredibly soft leather and they walk gently, like a big cat, so you can hardly hear them coming. They’re bulky, but not clumsy.’
Credit: The Orangery at Longleat
Lady Emma's afternoon tea in The Orangery review: Longleat's latest attraction
One of Britain's best-loved attractions now has a fantastic extra string to its bow: an afternoon tea served in the
Port Lympne’s breathtaking Spencer Roberts Room: Where art and interior design meet a love of wildlife
The Spencer Roberts Room at the Port Lympne Hotel contains a spectacular mural that can teach us all something about
-
Brockfield Hall, the great Yorkshire house that's gone from Regency mansion to modern family homeBrockfield Hall in North Yorkshire is the family home of Charlie Wood and Hatta Byng, editor of House & Garden, who have transformed it since they came here in 2020, winning multiple awards in the process. John Martin Robinson reports on the restoration project that revived this compact Regency house as a modern family home. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
-
Barbour’s heritage jackets get a floral makeover courtesy of ErdemUtilitarian outwear has taken the fashion world by storm and now Britain's world-famous wax jackets are getting in on the act, inspired by some of our greatest countryside icons.
-
The penguins of London Zoo: Traditionally good parents, occasionally clumsy and strictly not monogamous'Once, the BBC was filming here and the penguins would take apart the equipment and run away with it, always the most expensive bits.'
-
The nativity camels: Unbelievably clever, a tad greedy and undeniably festive‘They know we’d never take them anywhere dangerous. They trust us so much.'
-
The Shetland pony who goes to the races‘The louder people cheer, the faster they go. It gets faster and faster all week – or my nerves get worse!’
-
The chickens of Wyken Hall: Mischievous, adorable and the best listeners a person could ask for‘In my left-leaning youth, they would attend meetings, but my comrades voted to remove them. That was when I realised my time there was up – the chickens were very concerned about the Albanian question!’
-
Britain's first giant tortoises: 'They’ve been around for 200 million years - we’re a blip to them'Adrian Graham is passionate about his pets, which can live for up to 250 years and grow to the size of a rather tall man.
-
Animal Magic: ‘For a while because the canal was full of buffalo – they had to close it for 24 hours to get them out!’Roger Alsop tells the story of his water buffalo, from buffalo mozzarella and local ice cream.
-
Rudi the otter: 'we had to convince Parliament to focus on clean water and the easiest way to do that was with a baby otter'Affectionate and loving he may be, but small-clawed otter Rudi has a purpose.
-
The Devil’s Horsemen: The stallion who's starred in Game of Thrones, Wonder Woman and The CrownOctavia Pollock visits Camilla Naprous of The Devil’s Horsemen to find out more about the horses they train for film.
