Elephants are extrely intelligent animals!
They require constant changes and challenges to keep their brains active; otherwise, they get bored and stare blankly.
Therefore, the enrichnt for the elephant exhibit is the most complex and the most energy-consuming.
The hills of sand and mud pits in the activity area are created and piled up daily by workers operating small excavators to offer the elephants different terrains each day, filled with the joys of freshness and exploration.
This type of enrichnt is unique to a sandy environnt.
In fact, a monotonous environnt is boring for all animals.
It’s just that other exhibits can’t undergo such extensive changes, so they can only undergo so detailed enrichnt.
Like in the red panda exhibit, where a slide may be added for red pandas, or the position of the perches is shifted around.
Fang Ye plans to add so aerial corridors in the predator exhibition area in the future, connecting different exhibits so animals can switch exhibits and live in a different one.
ilan seed to have little interest in hay, took a few bites, and then, with her huge steps, ambled away leisurely!
Seeing this, iling also joined her for a walk.
There are many facilities in the elephant exhibit for them to be active; elephants always have sothing to do.
As ilan continued forward, when she passed by a log, she seed to find sothing interesting and brushed the hanging barrel with her trunk.
There were small holes on the barrel!
Swept by ilan’s trunk, the barrel started rolling, dropping an apple through the holes.
This type of enrichnt device with rolling barrels is also quite common in the zoo; the ring-tailed lemur exhibit has so, but theirs are made from bamboo sections, while the barrels in the elephant exhibit are relatively larger.
iling unceremoniously rolled up the apple from the ground with her trunk and stuffed it into her mouth.
ilan had been planning to pick up the apple to eat when she gave her a look but said nothing.
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Then, she brushed the barrel again with her trunk, and another apple fell out.
iling poked her head over and snatched it away with a roll of her trunk!
iling was a bit picky, liking fruits but not hay.
Of course, all elephants like fruits.
ilan also wanted an apple; after having it snatched away repeatedly by iling, she seed a bit upset!
Flapping her ears, she opened her mouth as if she was saying sothing to iling and nudged her body toward her, trying to push her aside.
iling, on the other hand, had her mouth open in a laughing grin, twining her trunk with ilan’s as if to soothe her mood.
What’s the big deal? It’s just an apple!
ilan huffed, You’ve got so nerve! Is this really about an apple? You’re always snatching mine!
Liu Wei watched this scene with so surprise and said, "What are these two elephants doing?"
Wu Jiancong speculated, "They seem to be unhappy about food!"
Zhu Yu wondered, "Aren’t they supposed to be good friends?"
A tourist also raised this question!
Fang Ye looked at the situation in the distance and laughed, "Although ilan and iling are good friends, even good friends have their disagreents.
When eating, iling often takes away the fruits ant for ilan. Just think about it—if you had a friend who always mooched off your als, wouldn’t you get irritated over ti?
So, their relationship is actually quite good. Despite iling’s habit of snatching fruits, ilan still tolerates this flaw and usually plays with her."
A tourist curiously asked, "Hey, Director, how can you tell which elephant is which?"
Fang Ye explained, "ilan is slightly chubbier! iling, due to being picky and not eating her staples properly, is a bit thinner. Another difference is that iling has a pair of small tusks."
"Oh~" the visitor’s face lit up with realization.
But another visitor beca puzzled again, "That’s not right. Isn’t iling a female na? How can a female elephant have tusks, or is iling actually a male elephant?"
"I didn’t even notice it had tusks!"
Fang Ye laughed, "This is a classic misunderstanding! Not all elephants have visible tusks; so male elephants don’t have visible tusks, and so female elephants do, and they can even grow quite long. So, you can’t use the presence of tusks to determine the sex of an elephant.
Perhaps it is because people associate tusks with being majestic and strong, and these traits are generally attributed to males. Combined with so people not doing research and speaking based on their own impressions, the misconception that all elephants with tusks are male and those without tusks are female, or have had their teeth sawn off, has spread widely."
"So that’s how it is!"
"Damn, have I been getting it wrong all this ti?"
"I’ve learned sothing new!"
The two elephants then began playing with sand.
Swinging their tails, they rolled up the sand with their trunks.
Then, lifting their trunks, they flicked the sand over their heads, and a puff of sand delicately sprinkled onto their backs.
Rolling up another trunkful of sand, they brought their trunks down and flicked it under their belly, sprinkling a layer of sand there as well.
Pingping also began to move.
She had walked to the edge of the mud pond, kneeled at the bank, touched the mud pond’s surface with the tip of her trunk, and then dipped her trunk into the water to feel around.
It was like a human testing the water temperature with their hand before taking a bath!
Pingping was sensing the depth of the mud in the pond while probing the environnt beneath, to see if it was safe to set foot in.
One wouldn’t want to step in only to find it hollow beneath and fall into a hole, unable to climb out.
This was all experience she had learned from the older elephants in her family when they were in the wild.
After exploring the mud below, the entire elephant kicked her legs out and slid into the mud pond!
Lying in the mud pond, she joyfully wriggled her body and rolled around, constantly flinging mud and water with her trunk.
"Hahaha, so cute!"
"Happy like a several-ton kid!"
"Hey, who isn’t a baby at heart?"
"Mama, the elephant looks so happy!"
"Cute and silly, no-head."
The visitors, seeing Pingping roll around and play in the mud pond, couldn’t help but smile!
Coming to the zoo to see the animals is all about giving the mind and body a chance to relax.
The scene of the elephant happily playing in the mud was indeed very soothing.
Liu Wei took out his phone and snapped several photos of the elephant in the mud pit, shooting a video as well.
In surprise, he said to his friend, "I always thought elephants were very mature and composed animals. I didn’t expect them to play like children."
Gao Kaijin, watching Pingping play in the mud, couldn’t help but beam with joy, "Exactly!"
Elephants are indeed charming animals!
And for zoos, they are fantastic animals to exhibit.
They are mostly active all day long, unlike pandas, which spend most of their ti sleeping.
It’s just that most zoos can’t provide them with a good environnt, preventing the elephants from showing these interesting natural behaviors like rolling in mud pits and taking baths."
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