Taronga Zoo Taronga visit.

separating the animals occasionally for short periods is all part of managing the animals effectively. thats why our zoos are increasingly building multiple enclosures for the species they hold. in the elephants case its a good way of giving animalsimportant "time out" and more intimate bonding periods as they would have in the wild.

i hope it doesn't become a big deal.
 
We all know that bulls especially are solitary animals, and that whole report by the RSPCA was totally bogus (by the way, all the zoo volunteers I spoke to hadn't heard about that article!) but are the elephants ever truelly seperated. Unlike humans, elephants don't focus on just one sense (eyesight). Instead hearing, touch and smell are far more important to them. So while eles may be seperated in a physical sense, I doubt that there would be any where in the zoo that they could't hear or smell each other. Even touch would be viable if you count ' hearing' sounds through their feet as touch.
As far as I can tell no ele has been completely alone, they are always kept in pairs or threes and I suspect that the combination of which animal with which is changed.
Can you imagine what it would been like with all five eles at the waterfall!
 
thats right

but maybe it was as i ahve read pornthip wont let the young girls near the falls, though they were always interested, maybe they have taken them apart so they can utilize this area, and when separated, i guess they mean the remaining were in the top paddock.

as for the rspca, they may have had some truth, saying gung was separated. but they are wrong in the fact a male needs to be separated as we have already discussed.
 
as Jay said, the elephants ability to use ultra-sonic sound to communicate means they are never really sperate, and seperating the animals for short periods surely wouldnt cause distress, and indeed micmic natural feeding patterns where they sprea dout to graze in one area.
in Perth, Trisha, the matriach, was seperated throughout the day at feeding time form the other 2 girls. and on an OHS level, could you imagine how dangerous it could have been if all 5 elephants were in the waterfall with the keepers too? the waterfall is obviously designed so all the eles can squeeze in, but im just guessing management didnt want to risk a squashed keeper.
 
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