Elephants Calves are Fast Learners
Posted at 11:10 am October 22, 2008 by Curtis Lehman
This photo, taken September 2007, shows a much smaller Vus’musi with mother Ndula and Curtis.
Most babies in the Animal Kingdom learn behavior by observing and then mimicking their parents’ behaviors. Well, the African elephant calves at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park have taken it a step further by associating an area and a signal from the keepers to perform a behavior that we consider one of the hardest behaviors we’ve trained our adult elephants to do. That behavior is the “down,” where we have the animal completely lie down onto its side, cued by a combined visual hand signal and verbal command.
Over the last three years we’ve successfully trained four of our elephants to perform this behavior using our preferred method of training known as shaping. Shaping simply involves breaking down the target behavior into small steps or approximations and thus “shape” the behavior by reinforcing all those steps until you have the final behavior. During the course of shaping a behavior, a signal (visual and verbal) is introduced so that the animal associates and/or discriminates the signal with that particular behavior.
You can imagine how difficult it is to get such a large animal to willingly lie down by trying to shape the behavior using positive reinforcement, which is the core of our training philosophy. Well, the first elephant we trained to do this was Vus’musi, trained by elephant keeper Erin. Lungile learned it next, trained by keeper Keith. Then came Swazi, also trained by Erin, and finally the bull Mabhulane, whom I trained. Two other adults are very close to finishing the behavior: Umngani via Mindy and Umoya via Keith. (It’s important to note that each elephant and keeper shaped and learned the behavior differently from one another). All the while, the three youngest calves were being held or trained nearby while their mothers, dad, and/or aunties were being trained. We knew they got to observe the behavior many times, but we didn’t think that they would simply put two and two together and “show off” what they’ve observed.
Well, one day all three of the youngsters (Khosi, Impunga, and Phakamile) walked over to the keepers by the dirt pile where most of the lay-down behaviors were trained. The keepers received them and decided to give them the signal to lie down, and wouldn’t you know it, they all did it! They made us look like super trainers!
Since then, we’ve managed to have the behavior trained rather solidly on signal with Khosi and Impunga, while little “Kamy” tries to recall what she did that day. The irony is that while their moms are learning to do the behavior, the calves are mostly finished with the behavior. In fact, Impunga’s mom, Litsemba, hasn’t even been started on the behavior! Isn’t it cool that the babies prove that how they would learn behaviors naturally can occur right here, even with a twist, at our very own Wild Animal Park?
Curtis Lehman is an animal care supervisor at the Wild Animal Park.
Watch the Park’s elephants daily on Elephant Cam…
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October 22nd, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I love when I come to the blogs and you have doled out another morsel about these beautiful creatures. What wonderful babies you guys are working with. Thank you for what you do, and THANK YOU for sharing! (BTW, the method of having babies watch while mom is trained has worked well for me with German Shepherds. But I can’t imagine doing it with an animal so large!)
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Wow! What an awesome and daunting job you elephant trainers have! You often hear how intelligent these creatures are. I think the little ones certainly proved that. Maybe you could reverse the scenario and have the adult ellies watch the little ones demonstrate the behaviour! They’d probably pick right up on it so as to not be one-upped by the youngsters!
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:04 pm
little ones have a way of surprising you quite often whether they are animal or human!!!! it just shows you how smart the young really are and how much they absorb just by watching and listening!! small children ape the actions of their parents and siblings and others they see. much more than we ever realize!
the same must hold true for alot of animals. plus elephants are exceptionally smart and have fantastic memories. how rewarding your jobs must be to work with these massive giants and be able to teach them things without having them perform in a circus. I feel so sorry for elephants that have to live in a circus, chained up most of the time except for practice and show times. no wonder you hear of them going crazy after years and years of this. it should be against the law. good luck with your training!
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
I just love these blogs. Thank you for sharing. Can you tell me what the ” lay down” behavior is used for? Is it for examination of the elephant or something else. Thanks
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Thank you so much for sharing another wonderful, although not really surprising, example of the intelligence of these marvelous beings. The Park’s policy of just letting them be elephants and using only positive methods of asking for behaviors that they would do naturally in the wild has shown time and time again that they truly are amazing and our being able to peek into their world and dynamics of family is truly a gift. Thank you ALL for what you do–your love and devotion to these precious pachyderms is so appreciated by all of us. We have learned so much from all of the blogs you have given us and we all eagerly await each and every one!! It must take your breath away whenever they respond in the way you had worked toward and hoped for. I’m sure each behavior learned takes them each one step further toward your being able to care for them in easier and healthier and safer ways, and also must reinforce the bonding that must occur in those times. I do envy you those moments. Thank you again so much!!
Blessed Be With Love, Judy J
October 24th, 2008 at 6:25 am
I am wondering what problems you may encounter when the 3 year old male elephant, Moose, comes of age at the zoo? will there be competition among the two males? or do you plan to relocate him before such time?
October 24th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
How is Lungile doing? Did you ever find out what caused her to have all the health problems with the birth of her baby? Has she always been a healthy elephant or did she have issues before?
October 28th, 2008 at 10:20 am
sad news from zoo Atlanta, their pregnant elephant Dottie died suddenly, she was to give birth in the spring. They are planning to do a necropsy to determine cause of death. Our Sympathys to all the staff at Zoo Atlanta
October 28th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
In response to Vickie (#4),
We used this trained behavior on Vus’musi and Lungile when we had to anesthetize them for surgery (a tusk/pulp surgery on Vus’musi and postpartum placenta removal on Lungile).
In reponse to Cathy (#6),
“Moose” is actually almost 5 years old (February 24) and he still nurses off his mother! The difference in his size and age from Mabhulane is so great that we don’t forsee any problems in the near term.
In response to Sara (#7),
Lungile is doing great. After she gave birth to her calf she never passed her placenta (with the other four births, this occured within 24 hours).
October 30th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Well, this just proves the age old saying about kids repeating what their parents do sometimes! Khosi, Punga, and Kamile have just proven that to be true when they did their laying down on their sides without too much training from the keepers. These three kids were very observant, and this also probably proves how good their elephant memories are after watching all of that training with the adult elephants. Great job, you all! Those 3 kids are full of surprises, aren’t they?
Got some sad news to report to all of you. I have read the statement from Atlanta Zoo today about Dottie, their African elephant who is pregnant with her first baby elephant calf. She has unexpectedly passed away almost without warning on October 28, 2008. The keepers and vet staff have been monitoring her health over the last several weeks to make sure that she was maintaining good health and that her baby was still viable going into her third trimester. The calf was due to be born sometime next year. Over the last couple of weeks, the vets and keepers have been noticing some things on Dottie that did not look right, and they started running blood and urine tests as well as other medical procedures to find out why she lost almost 800 pounds and having other health issues. They had her on antibiotics as part of her treatment, but for some reason nothing was working. Dottie was 26 years old at the time of her death. They will be doing a necropsy (animal autopsy) to find out the exact cause of death on Dottie and her unborn calf. This is a hard double loss for the AZ elephant staff because they were really excited about having a new calf born to the small herd that they have there now. They only have 2 female elephants at the zoo now, so hopefully, one or both of them will be able to get pregnant sometime soon. Keep your fingers crossed for Memphis Zoo’s pregnant elephant. She’s due to have her baby calf sometime next year or early 2010. Send some prayers to Atlanta Zoo, ok? The loss of Dottie has been tough on them, and I’m sure that the 2 female elephants are feeling the loss as well.
Well, gotta go. Will check back in later on.
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL
November 5th, 2008 at 7:08 am
The news about Dottie is very sad. My heart goes out to her keepers at Atlanta.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:49 am
i know this is way off and probably doesn t appy but i am curious. will there be a problem in the future with “must”., in the young males or would Mabu keep that down,or wouldn t you keep them around long enough to occur. Is that why you only have one full grown male?
November 8th, 2008 at 11:28 am
it’s always sad when an animal at the zoo dies! especially when it occurs unexpectally. hopefully, they will find out why dottie went down hill so fast and then died. her zoo keeper must have been devastated!
our sympathy goes out to the keeper as well as AZ! I understand that elephants feel the loss of a member of their herd or relative and will mourn and be very sad at the loss! how sad is that? this was very sad news indeed!
November 10th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Hi, you all! Got on the elephant cam just now and it is BLACK! Don’t know what’s up with it because it is almost 4:30pm PST your time, and you all still have some daylight left. Hope you can get it fixed real quick!
Also, read the update about Atlanta Zoo’s Dottie the African elephant. They got a preliminary necropsy (animal autopsy) report back about a couple of weeks ago, and the report said that Dottie had evidence of pneumonia in her lungs. A more extensive report will be available in about another month or so that will have more detail and final results of how Dottie died. Her calf was developing well and apparently showed no health issues; Dottie was in her third trimester of pregnancy at the time of her death. When I find out more about this, I’ll let you all know. It’s just a shame that AZ had to lose 2 elephants at the same time!
Let us know about the elephant cam, ok? Will check it again tomorrow to see if it’s back online.
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL
November 11th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Elephant Cam Operators – I just want to let you know how much I enjoyed the wonderful closeup of one of the elephants enjoying a pile of hay this morning. I hope that, if the elephants cooperate, you will be able to provide more close-ups in the future – it certainly made my day
November 21st, 2008 at 12:56 pm
First, my condolences to everyone both human and elephant at Zoo Atlanta!
As for the elephants learning new behaviors from each other, that reminds me of dolphins.
Also, I think it’s awesome that San Diego managed to get a whole herd instead of taking one animal from the wild at a time. That way they had familiar faces while adjusting to an unfamiliar place. Is there more info available on how the adults behaved shortly after they arrived?
December 21st, 2008 at 7:41 am
Are you still bringing in the big rake? A while back I read the local firefighters were coming in and turning the soil. Did the elephants not like this? Did it improve their muscle tone?
Curtis responds: We do have a rototiller that we sometimes use on the dirt areas of the exhibit. The calves try to not walk on the soft dirt afterwards, which is kind of funny to watch! We don’t know if the softer dirt is beneficial since we can’t measure any results scientifically.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:52 am
I was just re-watching KJDrill’s pictures from last year of Kamille following baby during her short life. They are very touching. It brought back fond and sad memories. It also reminded me that we haven’t heard any updates on the elephants in a while. Musi is getting pretty big now, and my be approaching the age where bull elephants start to separate themselves from the rest of the herd. NZP is building a whole new Elephant Trails area for their elephant herd, and have written many times about the challenges of managing bull elephants, especially young ones. What plans are in store for Musi and Punga since there is limited space at WAP and three bull elephants are two more than needed to keep the herd growing. Mabu obviously does quite well in the breeding area and has been very prolific. Any more pregnant cows? How is Lungile doing? Has she fully recovered from her pregnancy and the loss of her calf? Has she been fully accepted back into the herd?
With the finish of the new elephant area at SDZ, are there any plans to move any of the elephants from WAP to SDZ? Because Asian and African elephants must be separated due to diseases, as was tragically realized after the sudden death of calf at NZP, are Asian or African elephants due to live in the new area at SDZ?
Congratulations to everyone on the 11,000 pound weight loss for the elephants. That is quite a feat and hopefully will improve their health even more. The NBC report said that they no longer get “treats.” If so, what are you using for training rewards now?
Moderator’s note: We should have a new elephant blog shortly, Margaret. Thank you for your thoughtful questions.