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Eat. Play. Socialize. Sleep. Repeat.

A healthy diet, enrichment items, training, and family herd interactions keep the Zoo’s elephants happy and stimulated.

Every day, people you know are getting together for lunch. They meet for drinks. And often, they congregate for parties and celebrations. Humans crave social interaction.

So do elephants.

At the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, socialization is a huge part of the elephants’ day. Asian elephant Ambika, 60, is the herd’s most social animal. She doesn’t like to be left out and she’s always interested in what elephants Kandula, 6, and his mom, Shanthi, 32, are up to. For the most part, if the other members of the herd aren’t happy, she’s not either. She spends much of her time making sure her herd mates are OK.

Shanthi and AmbikaAmbika has a special relationship with Shanthi. They’ve been together for 31 years and enjoy spending time with each other. Kandula is fond of interacting with them as well, but typical of a growing male elephant, he continues to seek his independence. In the wild, adult bulls are independent and competitive; they do not live within the family structure of a matriarchal herd.

“If for any reason our elephants feel nervous, Shanthi and Ambika will stay close together,” says Elephant Manager Marie Galloway. “But when Kandula is unhappy with something, he doesn’t run to his mom—he prefers to be on his own.”

All in a Day’s Work

Each day is busy for the National Zoo’s elephants. From training sessions to health checks to baths, there is always something going on. Good thing the elephant keepers start their day at 6:30 a.m.; there is a lot to do!

Naturally, the relationship between elephant and keeper is critical. Keepers learn to recognize individual characteristics of each elephant. And as the elephants and keepers become familiar with one another, trust, respect, and cooperation are forged.

No Train No Gain

To give the Zoo’s elephants the best possible quality of life, keepers train them throughout the day. Training provides the elephants with routine and veterinary care, physical exercise, and mental stimulation. In all, the elephants know and understand about 50 commands.

During training, keepers use tools such as a hook and a target. They train the elephants to move toward the target and away from the hook. The trainers also use their voices, movements, and body positions to communicate with the elephants. Training sessions usually last about ten minutes.

Life, Enriched

The process of stimulating an animal’s senses at a zoo and encouraging natural behaviors is called enrichment. At the National Zoo, elephant keepers use many different types of enrichment items and procedures that encourage mental, physical, and behavioral stimulation.

“Much of Kandula’s enrichment includes balls and toys that he can play with, bash, and hit. This physical stimulation strengthens his body movement and manipulation skills,” says Galloway. “Shanthi, on the other hand, favors mental stimulation from puzzles that make her work at getting her food.”

Squeaky Clean

A keeper gives Shanthi a bathKeepers bathe the elephants every morning to ensure the animals’ skin remains in good condition. Bath time helps to reinforce training and strengthens the elephant-keeper bond. At the same time, it keeps all parts of the elephants’ bodies used to being touched so medication and treatment can be administered if needed.

During the bath, keepers check the elephants for health problems, looking closely at their mouths. The color and condition of the mouth and tongue provide important health information. For example, a keeper knows that if the elephant’s tongue, gums, or cheeks are pale, the animal may be anemic.

In addition to the mouth, keepers thoroughly check the elephants’ teeth, too. Elephants have six different sets of teeth throughout their lives, and keepers will inspect them to ensure smooth transitions from old teeth to new.

The trainers also examine the elephants’ feet. A simple command instructs the elephants to lift each foot. Underneath are cushioned pads, which can overgrow and develop cracks. When bacteria grow in the cracks, serious health problems may result. Fortunately, routine foot inspections almost always prevent harmful infections.

Come and Get It

Throughout the day, each elephant eats around 125 pounds of food. The bulk of their diet, hay, is almost always available to them. In the wild, elephants typically eat 300 to 500 pounds of food per day. But because the Zoo’s elephants eat nutrient-dense food and don’t expend as much energy for a meal, they don’t need as much to eat.

During the baths and training sessions, keepers give the elephants the portion of their daily diet that doesn’t include hay. “As the elephants comply with training commands, they are rewarded with special food,” says Curator Tony Barthel. “This usually includes pieces of apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, and apple-fiber pellets. Of course, each elephant’s diet is tailored to his or her individual needs.”

Keep in mind that what you see at any given moment in the elephants’ house or outdoor exhibit—what the elephants are eating, where they are, or who they’re with—is not always an accurate depiction of what their entire day is like. “In the morning and afternoon, Ambika is separated from Kandula and Shanthi so she can eat her food at her preferred leisurely pace,” says Galloway. “But that doesn’t mean she isn’t given ample social time with Shanthi or Kandula throughout the day, too.”

Sleeping Giants

At night, the elephants may lie down to sleep, usually for a couple hours, or they may sleep standing up. During the day they also take short naps while standing. Altogether, they sleep about six hours per day. Most of the time, the elephants can go outside anytime they want.
Except during very cold weather, the doors to the outdoor areas are left open.

To give Kandula the independence a growing male elephant requires, keepers separate him from the females at night. But even though he’s on his own after hours, he always has touch, sight, and smell access with Shanthi and Ambika throughout the evening.

On the Scales

Once a week, keepers collect blood and urine samples from the elephants and weigh them. At press time, Ambika weighed 7,400 pounds, Shanthi was 8,900 pounds, and Kandula came in at 4,700 pounds. But like humans, an elephant’s weight can vary throughout the day. Just like you can weigh a few pounds less in the morning, elephants may be a couple hundred pounds lighter earlier in the day.

A New Home

If you’ve visited the National Zoo within the past year, you’ve probably noticed that the Zoo is building the elephants—and future members of the herd—an expansive new home called Elephant Trails. Slated for completion in 2011, this new exhibit will feature a spacious elephant community center, larger outdoor habitats, and a state-of-the-art Elephant Exercise Trek.

Built in the early 1900s, the current Elephant House offers more space for humans than the animals. The new home will provide the opposite. “The original house was built to showcase individual elephants,” says Barthel. “The new elephant community center will be designed around an entire herd. It will give us the versatility and space we need to grow our elephant family.”

Collectively, the new house will offer numerous ways to move elephants from one space to another, the ability to bypass exhibits (if there is a newborn calf or an aggressive male), sand and cushioned floors, and many ways to save time and money. It will also feature a variety of new places where the elephants can sleep, eat, and socialize. And to keep the animals in top shape, the house will include two exam rooms—one designed specifically for males and the other specifically for females.

The Great Outdoors

elephant taking a dust bathOutside in the new exhibit, the elephants will enjoy two added habitats with expanded water features. The plans for these yards include scratching trees, live trees for stripping and eating, an elephant-operated shower, a mud wallow, and a sand pile. Best of all, the elephants will have more opportunities to engage in natural behaviors, including digging, dust-bathing, swimming, playing, and scent-exploring.

The new exhibit will also feature an innovative Elephant Exercise Trek, which will allow the elephants to stretch out their muscles as they hike up and down the hillside on one of the Zoo’s most beautiful, wooded areas. The trail will provide the animals with mental and physical stimulation and a spectacular new area to explore.

You Can Help

So far, the Zoo has received tremendous support for the construction of Elephant Trails. Now the Zoo needs help to build the Elephant Exercise Trek part of the exhibit. The Zoo’s goal is to raise the $300,000 needed      to complete the trail. Click here to find out how you can help.

With your support, we can provide our elephants with many more opportunities to exercise and be social. And that would make gregarious Ambika and her herd mates exceptionally happy elephants.

This article originally appeared in the winter 2008 issue of Wildlife Adventures.

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