00:00Good girl. Drop the foot. Alright, foot hold. Good girl.
00:09Right wave. Good girl.
00:21So we all know elephants are big and strong and really very smart.
00:25But did you know right here at Utah's Hogle Zoo, they're also helping to cure cancer in kids?
00:29It's true. We're going to go back and meet the keepers and the doctors working to make that happen.
00:34Hey everybody, I'm here with Eric and he's in charge of taking care of the elephants here at Utah's Hogle Zoo.
00:39Eric, thank you so much for having us.
00:40You're welcome. I'm glad to have you guys here.
00:42Now, earlier we got to see some really cool training with the elephants.
00:46Why is it not just being a keeper but also sort of a trainer so important for taking care of these animals?
00:52It's important for the elephants because they need to be both mentally and physically stimulated.
00:57And so in order to do that, we have these training programs where we can actually make them muscles so they wouldn't normally work.
01:03And then that way they get to have an exercise program just like you or I.
01:07Now, I have to admit too, some of the stuff I saw them doing, it looked kind of fun, but not just to watch, but it looked like they were having fun too.
01:14Especially the younger ones.
01:15Yeah, I think they have fun. I mean, I can't tell you for sure that they're having fun, but I think they're having fun.
01:19If they didn't want to participate, they wouldn't. They would walk away.
01:23One of the things I saw during the training session too, you were able to bring one of the elephants up to the side and she voluntarily offered her ear.
01:29You were able to do a blood draw. Why is something like that important?
01:31It's important for us to be able to see on the inside of the elephant and how they look on the inside.
01:35We can't see the inside of an elephant, so we're able to draw their blood and then we're able to go back and analyze that blood and make sure that they are actually healthy on the inside.
01:44And we also got to meet Dr. Shipman today who is a pediatric oncologist and he's interested in elephant blood. What's that partnership like from your side?
01:54If an elephant can help a human, it just makes it even more rewarding for us as keepers because we want to be able to help people as much as we want to be able to help elephants.
02:03I am a pediatric oncologist and that means I take care of children with cancer.
02:08One day, several years ago, I was at a conference where we were talking about where does cancer come from.
02:14One of the speakers got up and explained to us, did you know elephants very rarely get cancer?
02:20Now this was a big surprise because remember I said that cells turn bad and turn into cancer.
02:25But elephants have so many cells, they're so big and so giant that you would think almost every elephant should have cancer
02:32because they have so many cells running around their body.
02:35But they don't, the speaker said. They have very low number of cancer.
02:40The speaker went on to explain that that may be because some of the DNA that they have, some of the genetics of elephants,
02:46may have evolved to protect them from cancer.
02:49So the speaker explained this and I went up to him afterwards and I said well this is just fascinating.
02:55And did you know back in Utah, in my laboratory, we're trying to study why people do get cancer.
03:01And we have a test where we can measure if people are at risk for cancer.
03:06And I wonder what do you think if we could somehow get some elephant blood to study the elephant blood right next to the people blood
03:14and try to understand why don't elephants get cancer.
03:17And the speaker got very excited and he said I think that's a great idea.
03:20And I said I think that's a great idea.
03:22And he said where are you going to get elephant blood?
03:24I said I have no idea.
03:25And the first time Dr. Schiffman came up to you and asked for elephant blood, what was that like for you?
03:29He told his side of the story.
03:30He just kind of came up to me and said hi I'm Dr. Schiffman, how can I get some elephant blood?
03:35Now you and I were talking earlier, you've been here at the Hogel Zoo for quite a while.
03:38You've had a wonderful time working with the elephants, helping even design the exhibit.
03:42For you personally, a day with these ladies here at the elephants, what is that like for you?
03:47I like to say it's a dream come true.
03:49I mean there's some days that are better than others and some days are just not fun at all.
03:53But for the most part I think I'm doing something that not a lot of people could ever dream about doing.
Comentarios