Taronga Zoo elephants get spa treatment for World Elephant Day

The day was established in 2012 for the preservation and protection of the three elephant species.

Transcript

00:00 Hi everyone, my name's Tim. I'm one of the very lucky elephant keepers here at Taronga Zoo in Sydney.

00:04 And today is a very special day because it is World Elephant Day.

00:07 A really, really amazing day that we get to celebrate the three species of elephants across both Asia and Africa.

00:13 Today we are going to show off a bath for our female elephant, Pak Boon.

00:17 A bath is an amazing way that we get to connect with our animals as their trainers

00:21 and get to really build that special relationship with them, but also get to look after their physical health as well.

00:26 So a big part of the bath routine is getting the elephants to want to cooperate with us.

00:30 And we do that by speaking to the elephants in both English and in Thai.

00:34 So Pak Boon was actually born in Thailand, so the first language he ever learned was Thai.

00:38 And it's a really cool way that we can still communicate with them and let them know what we're asking from them.

00:43 If they decide they want a play ball, that's amazing and they get all these sweet, yummy treats to say thank you.

00:47 If they decide that they don't want a play ball, they're very, very good at telling us no.

00:51 And we get to choose other ways to try and communicate with them that day.

00:55 (upbeat music)

00:57 (upbeat music)