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We had to transition Pupy from eating primarily alfalfa hay to mostly grass hay, which is the only hay the Asian elephants eat. African elephants can eat alfalfa because they have different dietary requirements than the Asian elephants. The Asian ladies are mostly grazers, while Pupy eats more browse, so they have varied nutritional needs. At first, Pupy would sometimes leave the grass hay to the side in favor of the sweeter alfalfa hay, but as the weeks went by, we found her eating more and more grass hay each day. Now she eats the grass hay very well, but still has a sweet spot for her alfalfa. Sometimes, Pupy will take a bite and then scoop the rest of the hay up and shove it into the space between her tusk and her and her trunk, carrying it with her. 

In this video, you can see that Pupy was trying to break off smaller pieces of the alfalfa hay but, because alfalfa is really dense, she wasn’t being too successful. So instead, she picked up the entire square of hay, shaking it around until smaller bits separated and fell off. Only then did she decide to enjoy her snack. 

P.S.: We know our readers and supporters love seeing videos of Pupy and we’ll continue to provide more. However, it can be difficult to get the same style of videos our supporters are used to with the other girls. She’s a lot faster than the Asian elephants, her habitat near the fences is much more dense, and she can quickly walk from a place where you can’t see her to right in front of you–so that means a lot of 5 second videos. You’ve likely all noticed that her trunk is longer than those of the other girls, so we have to be cautious to stay out of her reach. No matter how content she seems, she’s still an elephant and her space needs to be respected for her safety and ours.