Asian Elephant Linh Mai Explores the Great Outdoors
An update from Robbie Clark, elephant manager and acting curator of Elephant Trails.
This past week on April 2, our Asian elephant calf Linh Mai turned two months old. It’s a major milestone for her and for our team, who have been caring for her 24/7 and ensuring she has everything she needs to thrive.
One of the most rewarding aspects of caring for elephants is getting to know their personalities. While Linh Mai is still young, parts of her personality are beginning to shine through. I can say with confidence that she is rambunctious, sassy and playful.
Linh Mai and Swarna spend some time outside in the Elephant Barn yard.
Linh Mai is also incredibly smart and is already recognizing her name when we call her. To communicate with our elephants, we use a combination of verbal cues, training tools, hand signals and body gestures. The elephants interpret those cues to determine which behavior we are asking of them.
One of the baseline training behaviors we do with our elephants is asking them to “target,” or move toward a buoy on the end of a dowel. When we hold out the target, Linh Mai instinctively moves toward it to investigate it. When she does this, we press a clicker to let her know she’s done the correct behavior. As she gets the hang of target training, we will be able to teach her more complex behaviors, too.
“Auntie” Swarna has amazing maternal instinct, despite never birthing any calves herself. She is an anchor for Linh Mai as she explores new things.
Another behavior Linh Mai is learning is how to “shift” or move from one area to another on keepers’ cue. She is now actively shifting with her auntie Swarna and following her lead. Thanks to Swarna, Linh Mai is learning how to be an elephant and, importantly, how to socialize and communicate like one.
Linh Mai takes a few steps ahead of Swarna, though mostly follows her lead.
Initially, Linh Mai was more focused on us, her keepers, as the ones who gave her bottles. With Swarna taking an auntie role, that has changed and we’re starting to see her follow Swarna’s lead. Rather than running far ahead of Swarna as she did in the early days, Linh Mai now hangs back with her, waiting for the “ok’ to move forward. It's been really cool to see their relationship blossom and to watch them communicate with each other in this way.
Even though Linh Mai is not with her mother, Nhi Linh, she is full of life and tons of fun. Caring for an elephant calf—including round-the-clock feedings—is one of the most exhausting experiences our team has ever been through. Equally, it has been incredibly rewarding and worth all the blood, sweat and tears to see her thrive. We’re really excited for all of our fans to get a chance to meet her soon. I know they’ll fall in love with her as much as we have.
On April 22, our little “spirit blossom” will make her GIANT public debut on Earth Day! Don’t miss your chance to meet her; reserve your free Zoo entry pass here.
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