How to Identify Klaserie, a Friendly and Curious Young Elephant Cow

Описание: Today we look at how to identify Klaserie! Klaserie was born to Setombe in February 2007, just six months after Limpopo was born. That means Klaserie is turning 16 next month!

Klaserie and Setombe have a very close bond, and the two are never far away from each other. Klaserie looks a lot like her mother, and she continues to look more and more like her as she grows up. There are quite a few features that the two share.

Klaserie and Setombe have similar face and head shapes – both have very prominent brow bones and particularly angular heads. As with all elephant cows, Klaserie’s head is becoming more angular with age. Klaserie and Setombe both also have very wrinkly faces.

One easy way to identify Klaserie is by looking at the two prominent notches in her ears. There’s one notch on the side of her right ear, and another notch at the bottom of her left ear. Like her mother, she has very large ears.

Klaserie’s tusks also resemble her mother’s tusks – her tusks are about as thick as her mother’s, and they curve in the same way. However, Klaserie’s tusks are still much shorter than her mother’s tusks. Her tusks are also shorter than Limpopo’s tusks, even though the two youngsters are close in age. Her tusks are about the same length as Pisa’s tusks. From the front, you can see that Klaserie’s right tusk is set slightly higher than her left tusk.

Klaserie has short tail hair, but her tail hair is not nearly as short and sparse as Limpopo and Pisa’s tail hair. Like her mother, she has uneven tail hair – the hair on one side of her tail is longer than on the other side.

Another feature Klaserie shares with her mother is her body shape and build. Like her mother, she has a large and bulky build. This is particularly noticeable when Klaserie is standing next to one of the other young cows of the herd, as they have more slender body shapes. Klaserie’s body shape also makes it easier to distinguish between her and Pisa, who looks similar to Klaserie from some angles. Klaserie is bigger and bulkier than Pisa.

See if you can start to identify Klaserie among the other elephants in our videos!