
How Baby Elephants Drink, Eat and Cool Off
Clip: Season 45 Episode 1 | 2m 37sVideo has Closed Captions
Elmo and friends learn how orphaned baby elephants are cared for at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
Elmo and friends learn how orphaned baby elephants are cared for, from specially prepared bottles to mud baths that help keep their skin cool and protected.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Major support for NATURE is provided by The Arnhold Family in memory of Henry and Clarisse Arnhold, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, The Fairweather Foundation, Charles Rosenblum, Kathy Chiao and...

How Baby Elephants Drink, Eat and Cool Off
Clip: Season 45 Episode 1 | 2m 37sVideo has Closed Captions
Elmo and friends learn how orphaned baby elephants are cared for, from specially prepared bottles to mud baths that help keep their skin cool and protected.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Where to Watch Nature
Nature is available to stream on pbs.org and the PBS app.
Buy Now

Explore More Ways to Watch
Bring the beauty and wonders of wildlife and natural history into your home with classic NATURE episodes.Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(upbeat music plays) - This is where we prepare the milk bottles.
- Um, do you buy all this at the grocery store?
- We prepare our own formula.
- [Elmo] Oh.
- The elephants need a special formula.
It is a human baby formula.
We add some minerals, some vitamins, and some porridge in the milk.
- Wait, it has porridge in it?
- [Mr.
Edwin] Yes, it has porridge, especially for those that are a little bit bigger.
- [Elmo] Ah!
- Are they picky about their milk, like babies?
- Yes.
- Like human babies?
- This milk has to be lukewarm in temperature.
Not cold, not too hot.
- They won't have it if it's cold or hot.
- They won't have it, just like you sometimes do.
- Yeah, maybe.
(Elmo giggles) - You want it when it is right, right?
- Yeah.
- And we, the mommies, have to make sure we give them what they want.
- [Elmo] Yeah.
- So that is what we feed them here to make them strong and healthy.
- Oh, look at those milk bottles!
They're as big as Elmo's head.
(Elmo and Abby giggle) - Well, yeah, the elephants are big babies so - - Elmo can't wait to see Nyambeni get some milk.
- All right, let's go.
- [Elmo] Yeah.
(upbeat music plays) - [Nina] Look, look.
Elmo, here they come.
(Elmo and Abby giggle) - [Mr.
Edwin] In the wild the baby elephant will get milk from the mother, but here we give them baby bottles.
- [Nina] Look at that one.
She already finished the first bottle.
She's trying to get as much as she can get.
- They are hungry.
- They're so cute.
- [Abby] It looks like she's got a milk mustache.
How's she gonna get that off?
(Elmo giggles) - Immediately after the milk, it is bath time.
- Bath time?
How did they take a bath?
- Elephants will roll in the mud to cool themselves and also to protect the skin from the bugs.
- [Elmo] You know, Elmo notices that not all of the elephants are playing in the mud.
How come?
- The elephants only go in the mud when it is warm enough.
Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.
- Goodness!
I wish we could take a mud bath instead of a water bath.
- Yeah, Elmo too.
Ooh, ooh, can we - - No, no, no, no, no.
Don't get any ideas.
No mud baths.
- Oh Elmo thought you might say that.
- Mr.
Edwin, I have a serious question.
- Yes.
- Does an elephant drink water through its nose like a curly straw?
- Oh no.
(Elmo gasps) Doing that will mean that you are drinking water into your nose.
- Oh no, that's terrible.
- [Mr.
Edwin] They use the trunk to suck the water, bend the trunk, and blow the water into the mouth.
- [Abby] You mean like a nose hose?
(Elmo and Abby giggle) - Elephants have different personalities.
Some want to play in the mud, some want to play in the dust, and some want just to sit and watch.
- [Elmo] Ah!
- Just like you don't do the same things all the time.
- That's right!
- This is true.
- That's very true.
- [Mr.
Edwin] Yeah.
- I love your little eyelashes.
Keep smiling.
Look at your little smile.
So sweet.
(upbeat music plays) (Elmo giggles)
Preview of Sesame Street and the Great Elephant Adventure
Video has Closed Captions
Preview: S45 Ep1 | 29s | Join Elmo and the Sesame Street gang on a once-in-a-lifetime African safari adventure. (29s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
New Episode- Science and Nature

Explore scientific discoveries on television's most acclaimed science documentary series.













Support for PBS provided by:
Major support for NATURE is provided by The Arnhold Family in memory of Henry and Clarisse Arnhold, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, The Fairweather Foundation, Charles Rosenblum, Kathy Chiao and...

