elephant behavior

Determined Lady Crosses the Creek

As we mentioned, Lady has been exploring more of Yard 5, which seems to have boosted her confidence and improved her mental and physical health. Her feet look a bit better since she’s been walking more, as it has been increasing her circulation and blood flow. Though she moves around…...

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From Trish: A Day in the Life Here at Sanctuary

Our educational approach includes plenty of up-close, hands-on practical education, observations, and conversations. There are times when we feel it’s important for our care staff to have solo moments to make decisions, see what works well for them, and understand the scope of what still needs to be learned and…...

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Maia’s Silly and Sleepy Moments in the Barn

On a recent afternoon, Trish accompanied Scott to the barn for some basic footwork treatments. Maia tends to be very cooperative with us in most situations. But, sometimes she may want to take a break and just spend a few moments in her thoughts or, perhaps more often, use the…...

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Video: Bambi Loses Her Dinner Companions

As you probably know, the three sisters (aka Mara, Bambi, and Rana), often like to take their evening meals at the barn – particularly Mara. So, at the end of the day we open the small yards, so that Mara can make her way down from the larger yards if…...

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Listen Up – Mara Wants Her Water Now

Mara is an absolute character. We have a spring-fed creek and several water troughs available throughout the habitat for the elephants to drink from. Rana prefers drinking out the troughs (which are emptied, scrubbed, and refilled daily). Maia and Lady are also fine drinking from the troughs, but Bambi and…...

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We Follow Their Lead

While the elephants have their regular routines, like all of us, they still have days when they decide to do something completely different. Recently, Mateus experienced one of these days. While checking to see where all of the elephants were, he found Rana near the barn, then headed off to…...

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