Maia is Fast. Bambi is Faster.

If Maia perceives breakfast may potentially be late, she walks to the barn to investigate. It’s one of her more endearing qualities – and now that we have the cameras, we can confirm that she shows up minutes before the humans on the days she checks on breakfast. Bambi doesn’t…...

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Age-Related Changes in Elephants

The average lifespan of captive Asian elephants is 48 years (per Wikipedia). Maia, our youngest elephant, is 47. Our other residents are all older – Rana is 62, Lady is 49, Mara is 55, and Bambi is 58. With elephants, like all other animals, everyone ages a little differently and…...

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Sweet Interactions Along the Fence

Bambi spent a few days in Yard 5 and decided to head to Yard 1. Mara and Rana were in Yard 2 (which shares a fence with Yard 1). Bambi was walking normally at first, but as soon as she got around the corner, she started zooming as she entered…...

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Fresh Grass Makes Elephants Happy

Maia, our original explorer, wandered across the creek in Yard 4 a few days ago. During our wildfire a few weeks ago, across the creek is the only section of habitat that burned. While Maia previously was the first elephant to enter the burned area in Yard 5, she is…...

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Positive Reinforcement Training With Bambi

We are totally charmed by Bambi’s silliness, overzealousness, and puppy-like behavior, but she is not exactly grasping the concept behind positive reinforcement training, which can happen for some elephants (and animals in general) encountering that style of training for the first time. Our goal is to teach her medically necessary…...

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Lady Was Content to Stay Near and Observe

Mara and Rana were recently in Yard 2, and Lady was in Yard 3 when Scott went to feed Mara her early afternoon bonus-meal. Lady saw Scott calling Mara with a bucket of food and became very interested. Mara was dusting and slow to walk over, so Lady arrived near…...

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