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00:00Mila came November 14, 2013.
00:06She is a very high-profile animal and very much loved throughout the whole of New Zealand.
00:11Mila is a very playful, engaging elephant.
00:15She had been alone for many years.
00:17Mila was the last exotic animal in a circus in New Zealand,
00:20but none of the other zoos in New Zealand would take Mila,
00:23and because that was Helen's mission was to give sanctuary to animals that no one else wanted, she accepted.
00:29Their goal was to find a facility that would take Mila,
00:33where she could spend the rest of her life not alone,
00:36but in a normal social group with other elephants.
00:38The bottom line was if we wanted her to be a stay-alone elephant,
00:42we could have used the funding just to keep her as a lone elephant in New Zealand.
00:47And so when we contacted the San Diego Zoo and asked them if they'd take Mila,
00:52it couldn't have been better. They said yes.
00:55I was hired to basically train Mila for transport,
01:00to get her ready with all of her medical testing,
01:03behaviors she would need to feel comfortable in flight,
01:06and to build a relationship with her that I can then pass on that relationship to her new home.
01:12On the day of the move, Mila was totally ready and she walked right into the crate.
01:18She's a very smart, very courageous elephant.
01:22She wasn't sedated or anything.
01:24We wanted her to have full capacity and to be able to balance herself on the truck and on the plane.
01:30The journey to the airport was just seamless.
01:33The police department looking after us and supporting us.
01:36The trucking company donated his time.
01:39The police had even arranged for the lights to stay green,
01:42so we didn't even have to stop at traffic lights.
01:45Perfect.
01:46She came to the San Diego Zoo on a charter flight, her own 747 from New Zealand.
01:52We'd raised the money to charter a 747-400 converted to a cargo plane.
01:58It was such a joy to be able to just go down, talk to her, fill up her water all the time,
02:04throw us some more carrots and more branches.
02:07I've been able to go out, throw us some more wet things.
02:09I can't see what I'm doing at home, do I have to do?
02:12We've taken care of how that is, how we can do it.
02:13We have some more towels, a little bit.
02:14I don't know what I'll be able to do.
02:15I never know.
02:17I'll go pack my bags and use it.
02:18I don't know what I want.
02:20I'll go pack my bags and get it.
02:21I'll be able to send the hands.
02:22I'll come pack my bags and get it.
02:23I decide how to do it.
02:25I cannot pack my bags, but be able to drop my bags.
02:27I'll be able to pack my bags.
02:28I can see the lazy house,
02:30I've got my bags and sounds,
02:31I'll keep my bags and I have to go out!
02:32Because of the relationship that Erin and Al, our trainers had had with her, we were able
02:42to take the chains off immediately and get her to walk out of her crate immediately.
02:48And she just started eating in quarantine, behaving normally straight away.
02:58Nila just came out of quarantine. Quarantine lasts about 8 weeks because we have to make
03:03sure that she doesn't have tuberculosis. And that takes 8 weeks to culture.
03:09So we are getting her used to our facilities. So every time they go into a new area, we kind
03:13of just let them check it out. We walk them back and forth, show them what it's all about.
03:18And then if she's comfortable with that, we start running her through her regular routine.
03:23So one of the things we do with all seven of our elephants every day is scrub their feet.
03:26So we ran her through that basic procedure that we do every day and that's just to keep
03:30their feet healthy. And she did really great. Part of it is learning where that foothole
03:35is for her to put it through. So she did great.
03:38The other things we like to do when we bring them out there is give them some of their treats
03:46and goodies. So we gave her some browse to eat and also her wheat bran, which helps her
03:51digestive system. She likes that a lot. So she knows then that that's a good place. She's
03:55going to get treats out there and she's going to want to come in there again.
04:00We're pretty much preparing her for life at the San Diego Zoo.
04:05The next step will be eventually getting her out into her yard where she'll be able to
04:10do what the other elephants do, spend most of the day out there, enjoy it. And then after
04:15that we'll work on introducing her to the herd. And hopefully she'll get along with everybody
04:20and become integrated into our herd of five female elephants. She hasn't seen another
04:27elephant for about 30 years so we really have no idea how she's going to react. So we have
04:33given her some of their feces in her stall so she can smell and kind of know. And some
04:38of them she's reacted to, some of them she hasn't. So we'll kind of go from there with visual access
04:44and then we'll give them fence line access and hopefully get her out there sometime.
04:49Well, it's important to remember that Mila has been alone for the last 35 years. And
04:53the reason we brought her to San Diego was so she could have the opportunity to socialize
04:57with other elephants for the rest of her life. So we're pretty unsure as to what her reaction
05:01would be. And that's just something that we have to take through our power of observation
05:05and knowing elephant behavior. And the first interaction she had with Mary, our dominant elephant
05:10of the group, was she was a little unsure as to what Mary actually was, having another
05:15animal just as big as her on the other side of the fence. She was a little unsure, a little
05:20wary, put her ears out, which is definitely a sign of trying to figure out what that other
05:25animal was. She definitely wanted to interact with Mary, see if Mary was interested in seeing
05:32her back. And a lot of it was really good observations knowing that Mila started to become comfortable
05:38with Mary right there with her. Introducing elephants is not a science, it's something
05:43that we have to take day by day, introduction by introduction. We initially start off by
05:49doing elephants in adjoining yards with barriers in between them, generally with small square
05:55meshing so that way they have the opportunity to touch one another, but it's nothing that
05:58can overwhelm. If the elephants are interested in one another, whether or not it's aggressive,
06:04whether or not the elephant is unsure, scared, nervous, we take that into account as to how
06:10long the interaction takes place and what we will do for our next step. If that continues
06:16to go well, we will move the elephants to an area where the barrier between them is a lot
06:21more open, giving them more interaction to touch each other, giving them more access to one another,
06:27which can cause again more positive interactions because elephants are very tactile. They definitely
06:32communicate with one another by touching, feeling, communicating, smelling and we just watch to
06:38make sure that that's comfortable for both elephants. If they're both together for most
06:43of the interaction that's very positive, that's something that we do want to see, but also if
06:47they decide to walk away that's good information for us to gauge whether or not they're still
06:51interested, whether or not they're frustrated with the interaction at that point and again based
06:56off of how that goes over the course of a certain period of time, again there's no science to it,
07:01will help us gauge whether the interactions between barriers or if we're seeing that the
07:06elephants are ready to be together in the same space.
07:11This morning at the San Diego Zoo's Elephant Odyssey, we introduced our 41-year-old African female
07:17Mila, who came to us from New Zealand with our oldest female Asian elephant, Mary, and we took Mila
07:24out first this morning, let her get comfortable.
07:26Mary walked up to Mila and they both started eating out of the same tree and this is a great
07:33behavior to see because they were both calm, they were both acceptive of each other and those are the
07:39type of things that we wanted to see and as the morning went on we saw Mary following Mila around
07:45and that's pretty normal because Mary's our matriarch of our female group and so she's telling
07:50Mila that hey I'm in charge I get to eat where I want and Mila accepted that and moved on which is
07:55another great behavior. Female elephants need socialization, they need to be with other elephants
08:01so by coming here to the San Diego Zoo's Elephant Odyssey she's going to have a chance to mingle with
08:06five other elephants and as far as an elephant go it doesn't get any better than that.
08:10Very happy with Mila's introduction today and we added Shaba into the mix, our youngest female African
08:17elephant today to see if her confidence has built up. Shaba is a very shy elephant, she's generally
08:23unsure about newcomers. Today was one of the first interactions she had by touching Mila without being
08:31scared or nervous and that's a huge step in the right direction something that we're very happy about
08:36for both Mila and Shaba. Well we never know what's going to happen with these introductions but Shaba came
08:41out and immediately let Mila know that her food is Shaba's food and which is normal for elephants and
08:50then they ate for quite a while and it was just kind of a standoff to see you know you're okay I'm okay
08:56it's just getting to know you as far as elephants go so our next step now is just to continue this
09:01process it could take weeks of doing this every day for them to finally start getting close to each
09:09other and go okay you're not so big you're not so scary and then we'll also use Mary who Mila's
09:14already developed a relationship with as maybe an anchor somebody to settle things down which
09:20Mary is a matriarch and that's what we would expect. We put Mary Shaba and Mila together for about 15
09:27minutes this morning so they can get settled in and then we put Sumithi the 47 year old Asian female
09:33in with them in the morning now for a couple hours. So now Mila is in with a group of four elephants
09:38for a couple hours a day and we'll start just easing her into it then she'll get more comfortable
09:43as time goes and so far things are going great. Mila come she's doing well she's still you know nervous
09:50a little bit but it's really waning a lot she's starting to feel more and more comfortable.
09:56They really want to hang out with each other it's just a matter of slowly and letting them develop
10:02their relationships slowly methodically and we'll do this over the next year.
10:12Debbie is one of our youngest elephants she just turned 37. One way that you can tell Debbie apart
10:18from the rest of the group is she does have a small stumpy tail that's something she was born with so
10:22it's not something we're very concerned about she is a tall lean elephant you can tell her as well by
10:28her very hairy forehead and she has a lot of potential to interact with Mila and she definitely
10:36has a lot of energy you'd see her moving around the most out there on the exhibit.
10:45So today we introduced her to Tembo the final African elephant in the female group they came out
10:51saw each other went past each other and went on to eat so it was a very nice start to an introduction.
10:57For months they have had fence line contact been able to see each other touch each other and interact
11:02over a fence line this is their first day sharing the same physical space so it's a very good step it means
11:07we've prepared them well and they recognize each other and there's not a real contentious first meeting.
11:15Mila has really really come a long way from not really knowing what to do with herself when she
11:20met the first couple elephants to really socially becoming more savvy and learning how to work
11:27around the exhibit being graver when it comes to getting food when it's thrown into the exhibit
11:32especially tree branches brows she really likes that absolute pleasure to having her heard we
11:38think she's doing great here at the San Diego Zoo.
11:43Mila is a very smart elephant and she's able to recognize and watch the other elephants and learn
11:50so you can see her analyzing the scenario and analyzing the situation and looking and watching
11:56all the other elephants and adjusting her behavior based on what they're doing.
12:05So it's been a very long process and a positive process we think Mila is doing really well we think
12:10she's adapted really well here she works great with the keepers and she has learned so much from the other
12:17elephants and they will take care of her for the rest of her natural life so it couldn't be better.
12:47See you next time?
12:49Yeah.
12:50See you.
12:52See you.
13:00Well...
13:00See you.
13:03Oh
13:03Mommy.
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