Animal Education

Elephants are so intelligent that it’s important that we give them

puzzles to solve and projects to complete. After people saw elephants pick up

sticks and draw patterns in the dirt, they decided to teach elephants how to

paint to help keep them mentally stimulated. Different types of artwork

encourage the elephants to explore different behaviors and individual elephants

will frequently develop their own particular style for each art type.

 Artistic style is all about personality.

Elephants eat about 150-200 lbs of food per day, but they have a relatively

inefficient digestive system. They only actually digest about 60% of what they

eat. This means that 40% comes out the other end as an incredibly useful little

package that contains seeds and fertilizer together. This wonderous package

gets dropped behind the elephant as it’s walking and then the rest of the herd

walks through it all, planting the seeds. This benefits not only the plants, whose

range expands to wherever the elephants migrate, but also the other species

who rely on those plants for survival. This is one of the ways that elephants are

a keystone species. When we protect and conserve elephants, we protect and

conserve a wide variety of other species.

 Who knew poop was so important?

Everything about elephants is big, including their teeth. A full grown

elephant’s tooth can be about the size of a house brick. Elephants will have 4

molars in their mouths, that’s it! Two on the top and two on the bottom. They

will get 6 sets of teeth throughout their lives. Elephants have a marching molar

system, meaning that their teeth come in from the backs of their mouths and

move forward pushing their old teeth out at the front of their mouths. The teeth

will then fall out in chunks and pieces. This system is very useful because it lets

the elephants always have a rough grinding surface with which to chew.

 Elephant teeth are jumbo sized

Asian and African elephants are quite different from one

another and that’s because they are 2 different species with different ancestors.

Asian elephants are more closely related to mammoths and African elephants

are more closely related to mastodons even than they are to each other. This

evolutionary background means that the two species are so different that they

cannot successfully interbreed.

 Ancestors make all the difference!

o Howdah/culture: For thousands of years elephants in human care have assisted

man by working in the forests of Asia, building, hauling, logging and even

engaging in warfare. For centuries elephants have played an important role in

religion. In Hinduism, Lord Ganesha is an elephant headed god and is the lord of

success and remover of evils and obstacles. In some Asian cultures, the Baraat,

or groom’s wedding procession, is a tradition that developed when a groom

would travel for days in order to reach his bride. The groom arriving at his

bride’s home on an elephant amid much fanfare is a sign that his family is

wealthy and will be able to support his wife and their future children.

Elephant feet are made for walking. The structure of their feet includes a

cushion which rests underneath and behind the toes, providing support with

every step the elephant takes. The cushion expands as the elephant’s foot has

contact with the ground and then contracts as their foot lifts. The bottom of the

foot is a thick calloused pad. In the wild elephants will wear their feet and nails

down by walking and digging. In human care, we provide the elephants with

monthly mani/pedis and lots of exercise to make sure their feet stay healthy.

 Elephant feet are made for walking.

EEHV (elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus) is present in some form in

all elephants in the wild and in human care. All elephants carry the virus in a

dormant stage throughout their lives with no ill effects. However, when the

virus leaves this dormant stage, hemorrhagic disease can result which causes

severe internal bleeding. EEHV affects both African and Asian elephants and is

most deadly to young elephants. There is currently no vaccine for EEHV and

without treatment, elephants can die within a matter of days of symptoms

appearing. The more we learn about EEHV it has become even more clear how

important training is in treatment. Helping us help them is one of the key steps

in helping elephants survive this horrible disease.

Stomp out EEHV!

Kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, and possums are just a few of the many

different types of animals called marsupials. Marsupials are unique in the animal

world because the females have pouches their young are born into and the

majority of them are found in Australia and some of it’s surrounding islands. In

kangaroos and wallabies, the pouches keep the babies, called joeys, safe with

mom no matter what she’s doing, whether it’s eating, hopping or sleeping!

Kangaroo joeys are only about the size of a jelly bean when they’re born and will

spend the first few months of their lives Inside the pouch: everything they need

is there, including food. The joys will first pop their heads out of the pouch at

around 4 or 5 months and start adventuring out of the pouch around 6 months.

By 8 months old, the joeys are independent and don’t go back in the pouch.

 Home sweet home!

One of the first things we think of when we think about tortoises is their

shell. More than just keeping a tortoise safe from predators, the tortoise’s shell

is a very important part of their whole body. Tortoise’s can’t actually leave their

shells (cartoons have lied to us!). They get to take their house with them, no

matter where they go! The shell is completely attached to the tortoise and is

actually a part of their skeleton. The ribs, vertebrae and sternum have all fused

together to create a solid layer of bone. But just because the shell is hard,

doesn’t mean that tortoises can’t feel when we touch their shells. They are able

to feel soft touches like a pat and some even like to get scratches!

 Tortoises can be ticklish!

Lots of animals have horns and antlers. But giraffes are one of only

two living species that have ossicones. While ossicones may look like a fuzzy

horn, horns are made of keratin, like fingernails. Ossicones are special because

they are made of cartilage that has turned into bone. As the giraffe grows, the

ossicone eventually fuses to the skull. Another difference between ossicones

and horns is that they are wrapped in a permanent covering of skin and hair.

Ossicones are used by males when fighting, adding a concentrated area of force

since they use their heads as clubs. The skin around the ossicones and the bone

itself are vascularized (meaning there are blood vessels in those areas), which

means it is also possible that the ossicones help with thermoregulation (body

temperature regulation), and helps to cool giraffes down.

 Ossicones are ossi-awesome!

Everything about giraffes is long, especially their neck. That long neck

allows giraffes to browse in the highest branches and see incredible distances. It

can also be a challenge: have you ever watched a giraffe drink water? Their neck

is so long that they can’t just bend their heads down to drink, they actually have

to brace their legs in a wide stance in order to reach the water. With such a long

neck, it might be surprising to learn that giraffes actually have the same number

of vertebrae in their necks as humans do! Humans have 7 vertebra in their

necks, and while those in a giraffes neck are much larger, there are also only

seven in a giraffes neck. Each vertebra in a giraffes neck can be as long as 10

inches!! With the seven vertebrae, that means a giraffe’s neck can be over 6

feet long!

 Talk about a long neck!

Giraffes are known for their long legs and long necks. Did you also know

their tongue is incredibly long as well? While it isn’t polite to stick your tongue

out at the dinner table, for giraffe’s that long tongue is actually how they eat

their dinner! Reaching lengths of up to 18 inches giraffes use their tongue to

help grab onto those extra tasty leaves that would otherwise be out of reach.

On top of being extra long, giraffe tongues are also prehensile, which means they

can use their tongue to grasp, similarly to how we use our hands. Those tongues

also have a dark color on the front half. This is dense melanin which some

believe is an adaptation to protect the tongue from sunburn since giraffes spend

so much time with their tongues out.

 It isn’t rude for a giraffe to stick it’s tongue out.

Food whacking: Laughing Kookaburras are the largest of the kingfishers and their

food preferences reflect that. Kookaburras will eat a variety of insects and

invertebrates, but the Laughing Kookaburra specializes in eating larger prey, like

snakes and lizards. Even though Kookaburras are birds of prey, they don’t have

the typical features seen with these specialized hunters—they don’t have strong

taloned feet or sharp beaks made for ripping meat. Instead, the kookaburra uses

its head, literally! Kookaburras will grab their prey and holding on to it using

their large beaks, will then whack their prey repeatedly against rocks or logs until

it is dead. Then, it’s time to eat!

o Sound: Laughing Kookaburras were named for their very distinctive call. The call

they make to establish and maintain their territory sounds an awful lot like

someone laughing. Since they live in family groups, when the whole family starts

to call, it sounds like someone told a fantastic joke to a crowded room. The

sound of the laughing kookaburra is so distinctive that it has been hijacked by

Hollywood! Have you ever watched a movie with a jungle scene and heard what

sounds like monkeys in the background? Listen closely, because it’s frequently

our friends the kookaburras calling!

 Kookaburras will always laugh at your jokes.

All porcupines have quills and while no porcupines shoot their quills, not

all quills are the same. Porcupines evolved quills to help keep them safe from

predators. Quills are modified hairs, they have become harder and thicker, and

in some cases have also developed barbs on the end, like in the north American

porcupines, which keeps the quills imbedded in the predators. African crested

porcupines, like the ones who live at The Preserve, have developed 2 different

types of quills. The first type is a warning system: when the porcupine feels

threatened, it can rattle special hollow quills on its tail as a warning to predators.

But if the predator continues its pursuit, crested porcupines can use their strong

pointy quills by backing into their attacker. These quills are more loosely

attached to the skin and can possibly get stuck in the predator, distracting them

long enough that the porcupine can make its escape. Since the quills are

modified hair, just like hair sheds, quills will also fall out all on their own.

 Porcupines are prickly