Hello everybody and welcome to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden my
name is Cecil Jackson I'm the elephant manager and this gentleman standing six
foot away from me behind me is one of my elephant keepers this is Matt hey we
know everybody's all tied up at home and can't come to the zoo so we thought we'd
bring the zoo to you so today we're going to talk a little bit about our
elephants these are Asian elephants so
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you'll notice on the very ends of the trunk Matt is throwing
some treats out there for the elephants they have one finger like lip on the end
you're like oh they could grab and hold on where African elephants have two so
you know what there's all these great fun facts about elephants Education
Department decided to send me the elephant manager of the zoo some fun
facts and I'm thinking (audio problems)
make it a noise Jati will blow and Schottzie will squeak and every once awhile out of
the blue Sabu just will trumpet for no reason these are cool fun facts(audio problems)
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in fact you sent me Oh does anybody know what well I know what
poop paper is (audio problems) it's made from elephant dung it's made
from evidently people buy this for gifts (audio problems)
(audio problems)
(audio problems) that's how much we pick up and throw away that's a
lot of poop so I'm sure we (audio problems) when it's hot and you're at home one of the
fun facts is you get to hang out in the air-conditioned well what elephant since
they fan their ears that's what keeps(audio problems)
(audio problems) they have
four teeth called molars two at the top two at the bottom they share six times
or a molar can weigh up to almost three pounds I mean they're having a hard time
hearing you so if just talk towards the camera shout out to Magnolia and Vidalia hi girls how
you doing so let's see drinking water I get this question asked a lot how much
water can an elephant sucked up in their trunk well look how long the trunk is so
if Schottzie was a tough water I'm a little out of a bucket she could
probably do about two and a half to three gallons and then blow it back in
her mouth or blow it on top of her she's wet today because she's already playing
in the mud today so they're getting out here interacting just like it's summer
it's great weather and hopefully it's just going to get better and better so
elephants can drink up to 50 gallons of water just think about how that's your
like your bathtub
let's see some more fun facts here they are vegetarians that's true they eat
that's uh that's corn right there two Schottzie's getting those eight you see
they're having a good time just hanging out right here with us this is something
we do every day for the public to come and see and talk about the elephant's so
don't forget to come by after the zoos back up and running at 9:15 every day we
do a public bath for the elephants and you all could see that and have a good
time and we have a question from Lyle it's her birthday she was wondering how
much elephants weigh that's a good question is how much is an elephant weigh well you
look at the three girls they're all different
let's start with the girl in the middle she weighs nine thousand three hundred
pounds and then Mai-Thai over there weighs 8100 and then Jati weighs 7800 and
our bull Sabu weighs ten thousand five so each elephant is different
any other questions Sadie wants to know do they spray water
from their trunks yes they spray water earth their truck from their trunks they
spread on their selves sometimes they spray it on us but yes that's one way
they cool down or when they're playing in the water sometimes they like to
stick their trunk in the bowls of the drinking waters inside of just blow
bubbles it is really funny because elephants like to occupy their own
selves doing things a lot of people are asking why their trunks are so long well
their trunks are so long because in the wild this is how they take and eat and
they got to reach up and pull the bark from the trees their browsers so they
got to be able to reach the trees and the limbs elephants have been known just
their hind legs and pull down and you will notice the barrels and some of the
stuff that hangs up Matt's getting ready to let down a couple barrels so they
could see go ahead and do that for Matt and you can watch they might go over and
start doing this but they used that trunk to reach up and pull their food
that's just a natural behavior for them come on down a little further
but you see all those high stuff that's what we put all of our enrichment in and
they use their trunk to pull it out and they're wondering if you could
repeat just a couple of those fun facts in case they couldn't hear because the
microphone well a couple fun facts was do we know what poop papers made up a
ton of it because we go through about 1,500 pounds of that the day and you
could purchase this at the gift shop
playing in the water like for example we talked about if you're in an
air-conditioned and it's really that's how you stay cool the elephants will fan
their ears to keep their body cool and as you can see they're making their way
over toward those barrels right now to lift your trunk up I'm gonna see on the
end of the trunk the elephants has one finger like lip where the African
elephants have to stuff some grass and pick up small things you can see there
Jati throw something over there again watch jadi use that on her trunk to pick
that up and another cool thing that nobody knows is elephants are right
trunk and left trunk like we are if you're right-handed you write with your
right hand and if you're left-handed you write with your left handed elephants if
they're left trunk they'll reach and grab their food this way
I have the right trunk they'll grab their food this way another fun fact
that the Education Department did not know do they have any favorite foods yes
they do Jati loves broccoli she is a broccoli
hound man when it comes to training in the mornings when we get we get
different foods every day for our animals but like you see the broccoli
Mai's got it there now boys and girls nice piece of broccoli now but grab it
right up watch her she likes it so does Schottzie but yes they have their favorite
foods and what we usually do is when we're training we try to keep those
favorite foods back so you could kind of like give them as jackpots you know
they'll eat something they're not really fond of and all sudden in a jackpot will
come it's something they like and then they'll be like oh my god when's that
gonna come again so Elijah yeah Elijah wants to know how long
elephants live oh that's a real good question you know because people get
answered all the time about how long elephants live a healthy LF you can live
40 45 50 60 years they are like us if they're healthy they live good if
they're not so healthy sometimes they can they can pass away at a young age
but most of all time elephants can live up in their 40s and 50s Taylor wants to
know who their favorite keeper is well you know that is a really good question
because we tease about that all the time and I'll tell you when you're training
you'll find an elephant that really likes what's going on
and that's how you build that great relationship with your elephant you know
I've been around the elephants longer than the guys have and I have a
different way of doing things and I try to get everybody to do the
same thing but you can tell if your elephant likes you or not because
they'll work for you when they don't want to work that day for you it's like
they don't care if they work with that person that's why we try to get
everybody to be positive as much as you can in your training so when you open
that door and you say hey come here move up then that animals gonna come right up
and as you can see today all these girls like Matt and I I would save Matt and I
are the best out of all right team right six other guys and gals are not here but
anyway they come right over because they know what's gonna happen they know that
we're gonna interact with them see Jati has not left yet because she knows and
she's given Matt little telltale signs that I'm ready for something watch her
flipper ear or she'll trunk up and she'll throw dirt on her back or she'll
say no or something like that and that's signal to Matt that she's doing
something and she wants to get a treat for it
it's Cecil your favorite you know ain't nothing that means yes yeah Noah wants
to know if they trumpet yes they do now Sabu and Schottzie will trumpet on
command but the others will not but when they
get excited like today Matt and I were moving the elephants that we opened the
door and I was talking to Schottzie and Schottzie was rumbling a
little bit and then it got Jati excited and Jati trumpeted out and Mai-Thai was way
out in the yard and when she heard that she keep running in because she's like
something's going on it's either you know they're gonna get something good or
something's happening so they trumpet on her own but but we had two that would
trumpet on command Terra wants to know what kind of school you need to go to to
be a keeper well you know I'm one of the lucky ones I didn't have to I went to
high school graduate from high school got started here when I was a kid my
father worked here I'm second generation I've been here a long long time I have
some keepers that's you know been to college and got degrees but yeah the
best way to become an elephant keeper is to be able to get around where elephants
are being worked so you can get that elephant experience that's the only
thing I could tell you keep it up we're asking some questions if they'd
like to swim oh yes they love to swim as soon as the weather well only when
the weather I'm surprised to see Shottzie actually Schottzie she's got a little
what wet mud on her today she loves playing in too much like stood on her
back why do elephants do that well in the
summer times it keeps them from getting sunburned and it keeps them the Flies
off of them so but when he gets real hot when the weather starts staying you know
way up there like in the 90s 80 to 90s they'll go out in a pool and they'll go
swimming clean himself off and you know come out and throw dirt back on their
back so it's just a natural behavior but they love to swim let's see here
Morgan wants to know if they're friends with any other animals you know that's
pretty cool did you say that because I'm in the wild you know they're around
other species and stuff here at the zoo they only have their yard but like we
have squirrels here to play in the yard with the elephants we have like
okay
Matt's trying to get me to go off the education list and I don't want to do
anyway but here's a zoo you know we have like rabbits and ducks and squirrels and
the elephants don't mind them being out there now in the wild you know you see
animals but in a while there's a lot of predators and stuff too so animals kind
of hang together in groups and stuff like that Gwennie wants to know how long
their gestation period is well for us it's a long time come on Jati get
pregnant what we want but anyway if an elephant gets pregnant the gestation
period is 22 months and if the baby's born
it could weigh 250 to 300 pounds so that's a big baby so we're working on
that right now here at Cincinnati Zoo we keep putting Jati and Sabu together
it may be past the time for them but in our new facility More Home to Roam we're
hoping to work on that and we have a nice couple babies so so people could
come to the zoo and see some youngsters I've been to a lot of zoos and seen a
lot of babies it is the funnest thing watch little
baby elephants play together it really is can you they're wondering like what
their personalities are like individually that's a real real good
question I'm glad you brought that up because
elephants are like people and how they feel you know like I'll give you a good
example Mai-Thai is very laid-back she's very docile she loves everybody
she she's just that kind of elephant she's a very friendly elephant
Schottzie is friendly elephant but she can get nervous easy so you had to be
careful when you work around her like you know not confuse her she she likes
to know what's going on Jati doesn't care about nothing she's our
she's our dog in here we call you know she's a she's the bully
she likes to bully uh but that's because she's younger and she's trying to become
older and she's trying to be the dominant elephant and our matriarch is
Schottzie and of course Mai-Thai is happy just be of Mai-Thai but every once in a
while she goes over a message Schottzie and Schottzie doesn't let her push her
around and she goes over picks on poor Mai and Mai doesn't care about anything
but when she's in with Sabu Sabu is a top dog so it's a lot of fun to watch
how they all work together we have a couple more questions where people are
wondering about their teeth and also if they have good eyesight yes they have
good eyesight if it's you know it's not real real far away but they see things
you know what they get confused by his small things moving real fast passed up
like a bird flies by real quick they're like oh what was that you know something
like that as far as teeth they have four molars
two at the top two at the bottom and they shed those teeth six times on a
lifetime and those teeth can weigh about six pounds I mean three pounds of piece
all right so I think we've had all the questions I hopefully answer everybody's
questions I'm sure we're gonna do this again if we if you have some more
questions sometimes you want to bring them in
just let Angela know we'll get them answered for you but we want to thank
you all for hanging out with us here today with the elephants and don't
forget after everything's said and done we'd like to see you guys here to
Cincinnati Zoo you guys have a great day talk to you later bye-bye see you later