Settling In at Elephant Odyssey
Posted at 9:01 am June 18, 2009 by Ron Ringer
Hi, everyone.
We are starting to see how fabulous Elephant Odyssey at the San Diego Zoo really is. The elephants are doing pretty well (see previous post, Elephants: A New Beginning). Tembo hasn’t lain down at night yet, but Devi and Sumithi are doing so, and I am guessing they are getting some sleep. We know this because when we go out to clean the yard in the mornings, we find elephant body prints in the dirt. We are even able to tell the prints apart: which one was made by Sumithi and which one by Devi. I am sure it won’t be too much longer before a Tembo print appears.
The elephants are having a great time exploring their new exhibit. All of the new sights and sounds keep their attention. But that doesn’t stop them from heading to the Elephant Care Center in the afternoon when they know that it is supper time. They have taken to the new pool, although very slowly. Devi has gone for a swim, while Tembo and Sumithi are happy to wade in and splash water on themselves.
You will be happy to know that we have continued to walk all three of them along a walking path at the back edge of their exhibit. It is hard to see from the public view, but if you notice the back of an elephant strolling back and forth, then chances are they are on a walk.
Ranchipor, Mary, Cookie, and Cha Cha are making strides. It is a huge change for them from life at the Wild Animal Park, and all of the new sights, sounds, and smells can be a bit overwhelming at times. The combined Zoo and Park elephant care staff are working hard to acclimate the elephants to their new home. We have even started to walk Cha Cha a little bit, and she seems to like it. At any time during the day you may see them inside the Care Center getting their pedicures. The elephants get their feet soaked at least once a day, their feet scrubbed and toe nails trimmed. You may see the vets here as they get used to their new charges. This is the beauty of Elephant Odyssey, as we have everything right here for our visitors to see and witness.
I invite you out to get an up-close-and-personal look at Elephant Odyssey. Come see the interactions that take place—they don’t just include the elephant area. We also have our corral area where you can pet Mo, our handsome horse, or the burros, llamas, or even the young camels. We hope to have our cat exhibits up and running by the end of the month, so I recommend coming often to the Zoo so you can see all the changes and happenings.
Did I mention the rattlesnakes, frogs, turtles, and lizards? They are there, too, along with what I think might be one of the coolest exhibits (after the elephants, of course!): the California condors.
Look for me at Elephant Odyssey and say hi!
Ron Ringer is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.
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June 18th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Great job Ron!
How long until the the park herd will be living with the zoo herd?
June 18th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
i am just so happy about their new exhibit. good job….more updates please!
June 18th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
You said Tembo hasn’t laid down to sleep yet. Does this mean she’s not getting any deep sleep or is she able to get more than cat naps standing up? How much sleep does an elephant need?
June 18th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Which cats shall be migrating up to Odyssey?? Any breeding rec’s for any??
June 19th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Hi! Sounds like part of your update can match up with the other new update about elephant’s sleeping habits! Don’t worry about Tembo! She’s probably got her sleeping clock pretty well organized in her head already. She’ll lie down for that good long sleep eventually!
What I would like to know is if you all have been able to get Tembo, Sumithi, Devi, Ranchipor, Mary, Cookie, and ChaCha all together by now? Hope you did! That will make a very nice mixed herd of elephants at EO. Glad to read that all of them are acclimating themselves pretty well to their new home. Now, will you please get pictures and infos on all of these elephants and have a page called “Meet the Elephants from Elephant Odyssey” on the website’s elephant page? Will greatly appreciate it alot, and we can get to know these elephants alot better by reading their bios and how they got to SDZ. I’m sure that all of these elephants have some very interesting lives to share with us thru their bios!
Gonna go for now. Will check back later on!
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL
Moderator’s note: We are working on updating Elephant Cam’s Meet the Elephants page. For bios of all seven Elephant Odyssey elephants, please visit http://www.elephantodyssey.com/elephants/
June 19th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Hi Kat and Nicholas,
Tembo has started to lie down. We found a couple of “body prints” the last two mornings. She does sleep standing up or leaning against a rock or utilitree.
Two lions from the Wild Animal Park should be here next Friday, and hopefully they will be in their new exhibit Saturday.
June 19th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Hi again! Moderator, thanks for the info about the Meet the Elephants at EO page. I didn’t know that you had that up already, but you have it available for all of us to read about these elephants. I just got done reading it, and these ladies and guy have some very interesting attributes and personalities to them. They are probably fun to watch as well. Hopefully, one of these days, weeks, months, or a few years, you all will be able to have a 2nd elephant cam set up at EO. That will be a very nice cam to watch and see how these elephants interact with each other. Now, I would love to know if all 7 of the elephants are totally together as one herd. Hope you can let me and everybody else know real soon about that, ok?
Looking forward to the updated Meet the Elephants page of the WAP elephants and if any of the mothers are pregnant again.
Thanks,
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL
Moderator’s note: We are expecting three African elephant births at the Wild Animal Park next year!
June 21st, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Are the seven elephants together?
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:33 am
Thanks for the confirmation about your 3 new baby elephants coming in 2010! Now, who are the 3 lucky momma elephants that are pregnant? Can you drop names for us so that we can keep track? PLEASE?? Will appreciate it alot! Still waiting on your new update about Ingadze and the updated Meet the Elephants page with his cute pic and info.
Just got on the elephant cam and saw all of the elephant people working in that huge yard cleaning it up, spreading out new bales of hay, getting the pool filled with water. Now, the elephants will be out real quick to check things out! They’re loving it, tho!
Bye!!
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Great information here. Such a great new exhibit, I have been there twice and the animals seem to be settling nicely. Fantastic news that the Lions are coming this week. Will it be M’bari and Etosha? Such a small space for such a huge cat as M’bari is. I hope they make the transition from that large exhibit at the WAP into this smaller space. Thanks for keeping us informed.
Mike Wilson
Spring Valley, CA
Moderator’s note: Yes, the lions moving into Elephant Odyssey are M’bari and Etosha. They are scheduled to be on exhibit Saturday, June 27.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Hi All,
Right now the elephants are still seperated into two groups, the Zoo and Park elephants. We are in the planning stages of how we are going to introduce all of them. We are looking at July to start the introduction. Stay tuned and I will keep everyone informed.
June 27th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
I agree with Mike about the exhibit for M’bari and Etosha. I don’t feel the new exhibit at Elephant Odyssey is big enough for their needs. Can anyone explain why it was made so small and with little to no shady areas for these two lions? These are two good size lions and I want to be sure they are comfortable in their new home especially since they have been away from the public for so long and now suddenly they are put in an very small exhibit quite close to people. How did they do on their first day?
June 29th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Are both jaguars at elephant odyssey?? Or just the female??
June 30th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
As far as I know, only Nindiri the spotted female jaguar made the move to EO (Elephant Oddessey).
I have heard though that there are plans to acquire a breeding male jaguar
July 1st, 2009 at 2:41 pm
I agree with both Mike and Teresa… maybe that’s why there was a protest concerning captive animals this past weekend in San Diego….why move them to something the size of a postage stamp to live in?
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I think if the space wasn’t big enough for the lions the zoo wouldn’t move them there. The zoo knows what they are doing, animals are their expertise.
Note from Public Relations: One of the things that is not readily apparent to the guest about the new lion exhibit is the variety of space, including some high spaces on top of the building and in the bedroom areas, available to the cats that live there. This exhibit was created with vertical space in mind, and the living space (although not as scenic) is comparable to the space the cats were housed in at the Wild Animal Park. The animal care staff at Elephant Odyssey tell us the cats are doing very well and appear to enjoy watching guests.
July 6th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
“Note from Public Relations: One of the things that is not readily apparent to the guest about the new lion exhibit is the variety of space, including some high spaces on top of the building and in the bedroom areas, available to the cats that live there. This exhibit was created with vertical space in mind, and the living space (although not as scenic) is comparable to the space the cats were housed in at the Wild Animal Park. The animal care staff at Elephant Odyssey tell us the cats are doing very well and appear to enjoy watching guests.”
…so the relevant square footage isn’t just the floor area? That makes sense. It also reminds me of those big padded “trees” some people have in their homes for their domestic cats.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
So glad to hear the lions are doing well in their new exhibit. I will be there on Saturday to see for myself and can hardly wait to finally meet M’bari and Etosha.
July 15th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I just returned from a visit to the zoo with my granddaughter (6) and her friend. It was the first time I had seen the elephant exhibit since opening night…May 22. It is wonderful. The 2 lions, who had not arrived in May, seem very content, both appeared to be relaxed and enjoying the beautiful day. The jaguar was getting some extra attention from the keepers as were the elephants. It appeared as though they were being moved from one end of the enclosure to the other. I’m curious as to whether the 2 groups of elephants, WAP and zoo, have been integrated. On opening night we were told that they were slowly being introduced to each other.
Ron responds: We have started introductions. Sumithi and Devi have been meeting Cha Cha and Cookie at the fences between their exhibits. We have been surprised by the first meetings. Sumithi has been very laid back and most of the time just walks away. Devi has been much more animated, lots of posturing and trunk swipes at the two Park girls. Cha Cha and Cookie have been great! Very calm and composed. They are the first to “say hi” and initiate contact. We will be going through these introductions for awhile before letting them in together.
August 22nd, 2009 at 11:45 am
Glad to hear that all the animals seem to be acclimating well, especialy M’Bari and Etosha. Maybe the change in venue will help Etosha with her prenancy and delivery and ability to care for her cubs. Is Nyack still at WAP, and will he be staying or going to another facility in the near future? He is at the age where it appears that lions are moved from WAP to other organizations’ facilities.
Please do an update on Elephant Odyssey as it seems that many changes were taking place over the Summer and into September.
What is the status of the elephant pregnancies? Is Ingnoze one of the three calves expected in 2009?
Moderator’s note: Nyack is at the Wild Animal Park until October, when he’ll move to the Honolulu Zoo to live with Ekundu. Three elephants are due to give birth in 2010.
August 24th, 2009 at 7:18 am
How are you walking the elephants using “protected contact?”
Ron responds: We have a walking path at the back of the exhibits where the elephants walk with their keepers. They receive positive reinforcement during the walk and at anytime they can stop the walk. Most the time we will get a good 1/2-hour walk or more. They seem to really enjoy it!
August 25th, 2009 at 10:28 am
“Ron responds: We have started introductions. Sumithi and Devi have been meeting Cha Cha and Cookie at the fences between their exhibits. We have been surprised by the first meetings. Sumithi has been very laid back and most of the time just walks away. Devi has been much more animated, lots of posturing and trunk swipes at the two Park girls. Cha Cha and Cookie have been great! Very calm and composed. They are the first to ’say hi’ and initiate contact. We will be going through these introductions for awhile before letting them in together.”
Thanks for the info!
September 6th, 2009 at 9:49 am
They just loved the pool last night…I was watching after it got dark there (still light up here in the Yukon)…did some of the elephants stay in the pool after dark?
September 7th, 2009 at 6:08 am
The African Elephant webcam. The Elephant Oddyssey doesn’t have a webcam yet, does it?
Moderator’s note: It does not.