Trunks and tusks at Tembo Trail
Trunks and tusks at Tembo Trail
Toledo Zoo’s new elephant exhibit set for grand opening
BY ROSE RUSSELL
BLADE STAFF WRITER
The new Tembo Trail at the Toledo Zoo is sure to delight anyone old enough to remember when it was not unusual to see elephants chained to a post at zoos.
The Trail is where Renee, Twiggy, Louie, and Lucas -- the Toledo elephants -- live now: In a habitat that mimics as much as possible real life in the wild and that allows them to use their mental abilities to figure out how to get food and to exercise their massive bodies to get it when it's high in trees.
"There are lots of enrichment opportunities to keep them physically active and mentally stimulated," said Andi Norman, the Toledo Zoo's director of marketing and public relations, about the new exhibit. "Animals in the wild spend the majority of their time foraging for food and looking for water. So by providing enrichment opportunities this decreases the stereotypical behavior."
Some might have seen shackled elephants displaying that behavior, such as rocking back and forth, she said. However, zoo visitors won't see the four local pachyderms acting like that in their multimillion dollar digs.
The grand opening of the $15.257 million project is Friday through Sunday. Family activities, live entertainment, talks by zookeepers, and animal training demonstrations are among the other highlights planned.
A 2006 capital improvement levy has provided 80 percent of the funding. The rest is from capital campaign donors, that include such top contributors as The Andersons, the Landman-Goldman Foundation, Jonathan Orser in memory of his mother Grace Ford Orser, and the Kresge Foundation.
The project was in the making long before 2007 when construction began on the two phases of the trail, which occupies what was formerly the savanna area. The name Tembo means elephants in Swahili.
"Whatever you do at the zoo, it affects something else," Norman said. "We have taken all the things we have learned and incorporated it into the exhibit."
Visitors will use a pathway that winds around the new habitat, where there are 40-foot tall artificial tress.
"The elephants would pull down live trees," Norman said, explaining that these trees are "elephant proof" because their foundations are sunk deeply into the ground.
Large drums and tires and hay nets in the trees are held by pulleys that zoo keepers operate using remote control devices to raise and lower so the elephants can retrieve food or treats in the containers.
"That provides physical activity and exercise and mental stimulation for the elephants," she said.
Tree stumps nearby can be maneuvered and stepped on to allow the pachyderms to get food.
The Toledo Zoo wants the public to appreciate the animals, connect with them, and help preserve wildlife and wild places.
"We find that if people understand and appreciate animals, then they are more apt to preserve them," Norman said. "We have this new exhibit that will be fantastic for elephants and the intent is for it to be a fantastic experience for visitors."
Highlights this weekend for the Tembo Trail Grand Opening include:
●Friday at 10 a.m., the opening ceremony at the trail opening, followed by elephant enrichment, and a performance with singing, dance, African drums and storytelling, and educational activities;
●Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 and 11:30 a.m., the Toledo School for the Arts Glass City Steel performance will be in Blade Plaza. At 1 p.m. on both days, the TSA Afro-Caribbean Dance & Drums will perform across from the Carnivore Cafe;
●Elephant training demonstration will be presented on all three days at 2 p.m. at the Tembo Trail.
Further details are available by visiting the Toledo Zoo Web site at toledozoo.org.
Trunks and tusks at Tembo Trail - Toledo Blade
