I think as a keeper, it is a really fulfilling, “full circle” experience to end up working with animals you have worked with previously in your career again at a different facility. It’s sentimental — even as someone who has largely worked with large herds of hoofstock where the animals are managed more as herds than as individuals. Two of the animals were both quite young when I last worked with them, so to see them fully grown and with a new herd is really nice — especially since I had to help hand-raise one of them after her mother died.
I am sure that there are some animals that remember keepers across years and facilities, but I do not think it would be safe to say these bongo and eland do because we do not have a clear grasp of their cognitive abilities and making any sort assumptions teeters on anthropomorphism. It is quite possible they might, but it is just as likely that they do not. All three individuals are very people friendly, in general. I’d love to be able to say that the orphaned bongo calf I raised remembered me years later, but I cannot say that with any scientific accuracy or backing.
