Saving Baby Elephants
Mishak rubs (擦) his eyes when he prepares warm milk. Like other people looking after babies, he is 1 . It is 5:30 a. m. , and he hasn't had much sleep. Mishak sits next to the baby elephant, smiles and makes sure she finishes the breakfast.
Mishak is a 2 from an elephant rescue (救援) center. 3 , many elephants meet problems, so they need rescuing here. For one thing, hunters 4 elephants for their ivory. For another, people build homes and plant fields where 5 used to live. Hungry elephants walk into the villages and fields to look for food. They often cause serious damage(破坏), so farmers kill 6 . As a result, adult elephants often leave their babies behind.
When a baby elephant 7 its mother, it's also in great danger. This is because it needs its mother's milk for about four years. 8 this milk, the baby has little chance to live. Research shows that elephants, like people, have 9 . If the mother elephant dies, the baby elephant often becomes sad and ill.
The center's job is to raise these baby elephants and send them back to the 10 step by step. First, keepers take turns looking after the baby elephants 11 they don't want an elephant to depend on one of the keepers too much. Then keepers take the elephants into the forest. This is a(n) 12 part of the process because the elephants learn how to eat in the wild and communicate with others. When an elephant is four and no longer needs 13 , keepers move it to the wild. This makes elephants become 14 . It often takes them eight to ten years to get used to the wild.
At bedtime, Mishak has to lie down and 15 with his baby elephant. Mishak says that when he leaves the babies, they cry. Does he need an alarm to wake up? "Oh, no," he says. "The elephants are our alarms. "
