I don't know much about elephant handling, so thought I'd post this here to get peoples' views. Is this standard equipment for trainers? It was used to hook behind the elephant's ear to pull it in the direction the handler wanted it to go
I don\'t know much about elephant handling, so thought I\'d post this here to get peoples\' views. Is this standard equipment for trainers? It was used to hook behind the elephant\'s ear to pull it in the direction the handler wanted it to go
well standard equipment for trainers in the logging camps of thailand and sometimes with difficult elephants in processions.
Sometimes used in zoos, I'm unsure of what percentage do and don't. I know singapore zoo do use them though.
Any zoo that operates free contact with elephants will use an ankus or a cattle goad / hotshot, the latter only being used in self defence situations, or at least in theory.
I know the elephant keepers at Lok kawi quite well, in fact (I'm writing this reply from kota kinbalu and will be visiting the zoo either tomorrow or friday) abd while some of their practises might not be ideal others such as a late shift keeper feeding browse to the elephants well into the night
The kitchen knife was always hidden under his shirt and was used as a backup ONLY as a last resort.
He told me that the only time he had used it (this was in 1987, so he may have had to used it again since then) was when his ankus had been appropriated and thrown away by an adult African female who was then backing him into a corner - he whipped out the knife and just held it up vertically in front of his chest & face and the elephant immediately lost interest in him, wandered off trying to look innocent. He said that if an elephant had ever wanted to whistle nonchalantly, that would have been the time.
