Comments on: Elephants Calves are Fast Learners

By: Margaret

Margaret — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:52:02 +0000

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.

By: carol

carol — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:41:47 +0000

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.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:56:27 +0000

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?

By: Rose N.

Rose N. — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:58:42 +0000

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

By: Chari Mercier

Chari Mercier — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:40:06 +0000

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

By: nancy from michigan

nancy from michigan — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:28:39 +0000

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!

By: pat

pat — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:49:05 +0000

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?

By: Susan (UK)

Susan (UK) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:08:21 +0000

The news about Dottie is very sad. My heart goes out to her keepers at Atlanta.

By: Chari Mercier

Chari Mercier — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:09:02 +0000

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

By: Curtis Lehman

Curtis Lehman — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:31:14 +0000

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).