Abu
Abu means "everything relating to elephants" in Setswana. Abu Camp has a mission of elephant conservation which is to return previously captive elephants to the wild. So at this camp, we took every opportunity we had to interact with the special Abu Herd instead of doing a lot of game drives. We met each member of the Abu Herd. We walked with them, rode on them, played with them, and fed them. We came to appreciate how intelligent these animals are. The little star of the herd, Naledi, is a playful one-year-old baby elephant. Born on an incredibly starry summer night in 2013, Naledi (which means ‘star’ in Setswana) was tragically orphaned just six weeks later when her mom passed away. Despite her difficult start in life, Naledi has grown to become a firm favorite of the camp with lots of love, care, and attention from the herd caregivers. We were lucky to celebrate her first birthday there during our stay.
Our last morning in Botswana was spent walking with the Abu Herd. The star baby, Naledi, made it especially memorable with her playfulness. She tried to steal milk from her caregiver and then tried to wrestle the manager for a can of coke. After both of these attempts failed, she joyfully ran towards us and tried to start a wrestling game with us.