Vice Governor of Riau Dubs Youngest Calf “Tesso”
Tesso Nilo National Park, Sumatra – WWF’s Elephant Flying Squad Camp was the site of a big party March 1 in honor of the two calves born there last year. About 80 guests helped Nella celebrate her 1st birthday, while her younger, three-month-old playmate was officially given the name Tesso.
It is a tradition in, Indonesia, to have a naming ceremony ideally done when the baby is under a month old but still can be conducted some months after the birth. For Tesso, the name was bestowed on him by a VIP: the Vice Governor of Riau Province, where the Flying Squad is based.

Riau Vice Government throw a party for baby naming ceremony in the Flying Squad Camp, © WWF-Indonesia

When Vice Governor Wan Abu Bakar arrived at the Flying Squad Camp, he was greeted at the camp’s gate by a welcoming committee of the four adult Flying Squad elephants. Ria, Tesso’s mother, came forward bearing a string of flowers that she placed around the Vice Governor’s neck.
The Flying Squad – four adult elephants and eight mahouts – patrols an area along the boundary of Tesso Nilo National Park to keep wild elephants from straying outside and getting into conflict with local communities. It also educates communities on non-lethal ways to protect their crops from wild elephants.
In addition to honoring the tradition, the naming ceremony and birthday celebration had a serious conservation purpose. The head of Tesso Nilo National Park noted in a speech the success of the Flying Squad in minimizing human-elephant conflict around the park. The park head called for greater collaboration for effective human-elephant conflict mitigation in the park and for efforts to safeguard the national park. WWF is working to see the park expanded from 38,000 hectares to 100,000 to ensure enough habitat for a viable elephant population in Riau Province.
The Vice Governor, who also sits on the trustee board of the Provincial Team of Human-Wildlife Conflict Handling, promised to protect the forest in Riau Province that serves as elephant habitat. As shrinking habitat in Riau leads to greater human-elephant conflict, he said he hopes that the newly established Provincial Team will be a success in mitigating human-elephant conflict, just as the Flying Squad has done in Tesso Nilo.

Tesso and Nella, new members of the WWF's elephant Flying Squad, © WWF-Indonesia/SYAMSUARDI

And how do elephants celebrate? With brownies! Following tradition, Vice Governor marked the occasion by feeding the treats (baked especially for the elephants out of corn, palm sugar, mineral and oats) to Ria, Tesso’s mother, to mark the naming of her son and to Lisa, Nella’s mother, on the occasion of her calf’s birthday.
Guests then took turns feeding all four adult Flying Squad elephants. In addition to the two female elephants, the squad has two male elephant members.

New born, Tesso, playing around with its mahout © WWF-Indonesia/Desmarita MURNI

Tesso and Nella seemed mostly oblivious to the celebration going on around them, sticking close to their mothers’ sides. Tesso was born on 16 November 2007 and Nella was born on 23 February 2007. Both calves were fathered by wild elephants and the pregnancies were welcome surprises to the Flying Squad mahout team. Nella has already begun following along with the Flying Squad on patrol occasionally for fun, but still finds time to play - and squabble - with Tesso on a daily basis.
The Vice Governor and guests were enthusiastic to hear stories about the life of the Flying Squad elephants, all of whom were moved from government-run camps where conflict elephants are kept to work with WWF in 2004. It was a day of the elephant.
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By Syamsidar, communications manager, WWF-Indonesia Riau office
Link:
WWF’s Elephants Flying Squad