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Elephant Treat Time

By
Mindy Albright
– January 16, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Elephants, Uncategorized

An elephant play session.

An elephant play session.

One of our Elephant Cam viewers, Erin, mentioned that one of the best times to watch is when we keepers walk along the edge of the main yard with our buckets full of tasty pellets—elephant chow, as it were. Erin wondered if the elephants rumble or trumpet during this time?

This is a very exciting time for the elephants and for their keepers, and it is a true example of the relationship we have with them and just how well they work with their keepers. It’s a lot of work to move 13 elephants around more than 6 acres, 4 barns, 4 holding yards, and 2 big yards, so it’s a good thing they like us!

For the most part, the elephants are usually pretty quiet during moves. However, there is some noise if the youngsters get separated from their mothers; Mom usually stays with the keeper and just rumbles back to her calf to let him or her know where she is. There may be some trumpets or rumbles if a dominant elephant comes up behind a subdominant one and startles them.

I’m glad you all enjoy watching the excitement on Elephant Cam!

Mindy Albright is a lead keeper at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Read her previous post, Elephant Calf Learns the Ropes.

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130

Elephant Names

By
Curtis Lehman
– November 14, 2012Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Elephants, Uncategorized

Qinisa at one day old.

One of our Elephant Cam viewers asked if our newest elephant calf, Qinisa, knows her name yet. Name recognition depends on the individual animal and the frequency of reinforcement opportunities associated with that name being called and the corresponding correct response. We would then need something to be reinforcing for that animal.

In the case of a baby elephant, we keepers don’t have a lot to offer outside of tactile and visual stimuli. An elephant calf wouldn’t know his or her name until we started associating the name with a reinforcer that we know has established itself as such. So, when a calf starts showing interest in a certain food item, we’ll start calling the calf by name and reinforcing the correct response with that item. It’s usually a nickname that sounds different from that of any other elephant in our herd and one that everyone here can pronounce.

For Qinisa, her nickname is still up for grabs, and we call her a bunch of different names and sounds at the present. Personally, I like “bad baby #12″. ;-)

Curtis Lehman is an animal care manager at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Read his previous post, Quick Qinisa Update.

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