The key to keeping elephants healthy and treating them when they are sick relies on the ability to monitor, test and administer health care and treatment. Proactive training makes monitoring the elephants’ health possible and makes testing and treatment in times of compromised health less stressful for the elephants, for the elephant staff and for the veterinary staff.
The elephant keepers have trained Genny C. and Lilac to accept many veterinary procedures. They are rewarded for willingly participating with their favorite treats, as well as lots of verbal praise. Here are a few examples:
Elephant Manager, Lindsay Bronson works together with the Zoo’s Veterinary Technician Garrett Caulkins and Director of Animal Health & Conservation Dr. Jeff Wyatt to radiograph (take an X-ray) of our African elephant Genny C’s tusk and sulcus.
The sulcus is the area around the tusk. Genny C is happy to participate not only because she is well trained but because she gets lots of treats and positive reinforcement throughout the procedure.
Our elephants know about 60 behaviors, many of which are medical behaviors that allow us to do routine check ups on them. The relationship between the elephants, their keepers and the vet staff is also important when doing medical behaviors. The trust among them all helps to make the procedure go safely and smoothly.
If you spend enough time at the Zoo this summer, you’re likely to get a chance to see our animal care staff feeding our colony of African black-footed penguins. If you stick around until the end of the feeding, you’ll have the opportunity to ask the keeper a few questions about our penguins. Click here to watch a cool time lapse of our penguin feeding.In the meantime, lets take a look at some of the more popular questions asked:
Q: Do they all have names and can you really identify each penguin?
A: Yes, they do all have names and can easily be identified using a number of visual cues, the most obvious being a colored wing band. Each band not only identifies the bird by name but also its sex and genetic family. A band located on the bird’s right wing identifies it as a female while a band on the left wing tells you it is a male. When unbanned, which they are during their molt, keepers can identify penguins by their spot patterns, body size and unique behaviors learned from observing them day after day.
Q: What are you writing on the clipboard?
A: Believe it or not, we make every effort to track what each penguin eats, on a daily basis. As with most animals, a change in feeding habits is the first sign of a health issue. With penguins in particular, an increase in appetite can also be a sign that the bird is about to molt – an annual occurrence where the penguin will drop and replace all its feathers.
Q: How much do the penguins eat? A: Since we’re talking about nearly 40 penguins, that’s a tricky question. Each bird will have slightly different feeding preferences. Some prefer lake smelt, a small freshwater fish while others may prefer capelin, a slightly larger saltwater smelt. These feeding habits also change during the year, especially when approaching a molt. In the days leading up to a molt, a penguin’s daily intake could easily triple as they prepare for time out of the water while they shed their old feather and replace them with new feathers.
While some of our penguins have been recorded eating over 70 fish in one day, statistical analysis of our feed records show that, on average, each bird consumes roughly 16 per day. That equates to roughly one pound of fish per bird per day. Last year, our penguin colony consumed over 230,000 fish, weighing over seven tons and were dispensed over 14,000 vitamins. Not bad for a bird that seldom weighs over 7 pounds!
