Smithsonian National Zoo Smithsonian National Zoo News 2016

AmbikaFan said:
I have never seen chains used by NZP with its elephants. This must be some way of forcing her to put weight on the rear legs while the front ones heal. This is scary--nearly all of the adult elephant deaths of the last six months--even Calvin in Ostrava--were caused by leg injuries and arthritis. I wish they'd give us regular updates. I"m not remotely adjusted yet to Kandula's absence; I can't fathom losing Shanthi.
Click to expand...

Check that--chains have been used during the calving of both Kumari and Kandula to both protect personnel working directly near her and to prevent Shanthi from accidentally stepping on the baby once born. This is standard procedure from what I've learned around the country.

Has anyone seen her today? Can someone ask a keeper what purpose the chains are serving? Even though this is clearly being done for medical purposes, you just know some activist out there will soon be taking this out of context and screaming to the high heavens that NZP keeps its elephants in chains....
 
I do not live near washington DC, and have only been to SNZ twice, and only have seen Shanthi in person once, but I can still tell that she is an absolutely amazing elephant, with a great personality, and gets great care. I have an amazing video of her playing tetherball with a big enrichment toy inside the elephant care center, and also using her ears to flap against it like a percussion instrument. I would be very sad if she dies, just like I imagine lots of other people on here would be, especially those who live near the zoo. I think that lots of people on the SNZ elephant staff are very dedicated and hardworking people though, who love their jobs, and I am certain they are doing everything in their power to help Shanthi get through this. A while ago Bozie came incredibly close to dying (I think of digestive issues?) and she got through that. So hopefully Shanthi will start to feel better soon, or at least will just be like having a bunch of support for the rest of her life.
 
I'd be sad at any elephant dying, but especially at my (future) home zoo. I will mentioned that on both occasions, elephant staff were socializing with some elephants in their care. Constantly saw them walking alongside the exhibit. Hopefully it all works out ok.
 
I agree that any elephant dying is sad, but I think that some elephants would be sadder than most others (Shanthi included)
 
Roger Williams sometimes puts restraints on their Elephants at bath time to keep them from associating them with bad things, but I have never seen them on the Elephants outside of that period. From what I understand the Elephants will even hand them to the keepers when it comes time to put them on.
 
Hyak_II said:
Also to touch on your other question, ankle chaining is a regular part of elephant husbandry. They are used for a variety of various procedures (many of which involve working with the animal in a chute), and wearing the chains around the feet during non-training sessions is an effective way to help keep the elephant desensitised to them, and also keep chain wearing a positive scenario as well, as opposed to only wearing them for medical and other aversive procedures, which has the potential to form a negative association history.
Click to expand...


Hyak II's post here has been rolling around in my brain, and I am recalling some narratives of elephant surgeries I've read about. Any surgical procedure on an elephant is necessarily a complex one, because it involves both anesthesia and the worry that an elephant might not be able return to a standing position before internal organs are damaged. Plus, I remember seeing more than a dozen medical personnel in one video, and chains were needed to keep those personnel safe in case the elephant awoke suddenly from anesthesia and began to thrash around.

I wonder if this recent use of chains is anticipating a need for surgery on the infection? If so, it could be a good thing. Many elephants' foot infections are so advanced that they can't be cured. The fact that it hasn't yet spread to the bone may mean that surgery could clean out this infection successfully. Nola, the recently-deceased and highly endangered rhino at the SD Safari Park, had a persistent infection on her back that could ultimately not be healed, but several surgeries did make headway. Perhaps we should be optimistic if vets are thinking that surgery could help.
 
AmbikaFan, Yeah it looks like you are right. In the video linked below, you can see a procedure on Emanti, an African elephant at the SDZSP who had a tusk removed, and his legs were tied down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djHObjFzX18

Also, wensleydale, I think the only reason why the elephants at RWPZ are restrained when they take baths is because they are free contact, and so they don't want any sudden movements that might crush a keeper. And so I thought it was weirder for a elephant to have restraints in a protected contact situation, since keepers wouldn't get crushed by them anyway.
 
wensleydale said:
Never mind the animal rights groups would seize upon Shanthi dying as an opportunity to make the Zoo look bad in every way possible.
Click to expand...

And they would completely "overlook" Ambika, who is one of the two oldest Asian elephants in North America. She put some hard work into those feet as a logging carrier for 10 years before she came to NZP in 1961, and yet she's still alive and kicking--literally--extraordinarily well at 68. The zoo's clearly been doing something right for 55 years. She's a classic example of how elephants can thrive in human care.

PS: "In captivity" is now seen as perjorative, so zoos have replaced it with the phrase "in human care." See the recent ZooGoer article on pandas to see how this feels when in use. I like it.
 
I hasten to report an error I made in a previous post. There WERE two US elephant births this year, both at Syracuse. Karina had a stillborn calf, but her half-sister Mali delivered a healthy baby boy later named Batu. I can't believe I forgot this, because I've even seen the calf! My apologies.....senior moment.
 
ZooElephantsMan said:
AmbikaFan, Yeah it looks like you are right. In the video linked below, you can see a procedure on Emanti, an African elephant at the SDZSP who had a tusk removed, and his legs were tied down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djHObjFzX18

Also, wensleydale, I think the only reason why the elephants at RWPZ are restrained when they take baths is because they are free contact, and so they don't want any sudden movements that might crush a keeper. And so I thought it was weirder for a elephant to have restraints in a protected contact situation, since keepers wouldn't get crushed by them anyway.
Click to expand...

Years ago, before the protected contact rules were instituted I was told by a docent during bath time that they wore the restraints in part due to a desire for them to not associate restraints with medical procedures. I plan to visit again in the near future as I am interested in seeing how things have changed now that the pc requirement is in place.
 
The fennec fox kits have names. The male was named Teddy, short for Theodore. The female has been named Hokees, meaning "my love" in Armenian.
 
Due to an incident on American Trail, we have closed the area until further notice. No visitors, staff or animals have been injured. DC Fire Department is on the scene and investigating.
Click to expand...
Zoo's Facebook.
 
Stanley crane Alice seems to enjoy interacting with keepers and Zoo visitors during daily demonstrations. But how does she really feel about them? Scientist Janine Brown used hormones to solve the mystery:
Click to expand...

Stanley Crane Q&A - National Zoo

This afternoon we launched an advanced training program with the Central Zoo Authority of India focusing on zoo animal husbandry and medicine. ‪#‎WeSaveSpecies‬
"I was lucky enough to travel to India last year and see critically endangered rhinos, and that experience was inspiring,” said Dennis Kelly, director of the National Zoo. “We have worked with colleagues in India for decades, and now with this program we’ll be collaborating even more closely to understand and protect endangered animals."
Click to expand...

Press Release - National Zoo| FONZ

Zoos facebook
 
As part of the continued treatment of Asian elephant Shanti’s critical foot condition caused by arthritis, our team needs to fit her with custom boots to help administer topical treatments such as antibiotics and disinfectants. To properly fabricate boots, we need the exact form and dimensions of Shanthi’s feet. So how do you measure elephant feet? At the Smithsonian, we reach out to Smithsonian 3D Digitization which is using cutting-edge technologies to bring our vast collections online. Thanks to our colleagues, we were able to use 3D scanning to get a precise digital model of Shanti’s feet to be used to help craft her boots. Shanthi continues to receive treatment for her infection and our team helps her exercise her joints and administers anti-inflammatories.
Click to expand...

Zoos facebook.

Also here's a video of Tian Tian taking a bath.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC-hYec_gIM
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top