00:02Mila came November 14, 2013.
00:05She is a very high-profile animal and very much loved throughout the whole of New Zealand.
00:11Mila is a very playful, engaging elephant.
00:14She had been alone for many years.
00:16Mila 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, but 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.
00:54I was hired to basically train Mila for transport to get her ready with all of her medical testing,
01:03behaviour 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, we wanted her to have full capacity
01:26and to be able to balance herself on the truck and on the plane.
01:30The journey to the airport was just seamless.
01:32The police department looking after us and supporting us.
01:36The trucking company donated his time.
01:38The police had even arranged for the lights to stay green,
01:42so we didn't even have to stop at traffic lights. Perfect.
01:47She came to the San Diego Zoo on a charter flight.
01:50Her own 747 from New Zealand.
01:53We'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
02:03the time,
02:04throw her some more carrots and more branches.
02:28Take care for a while.
02:35Because of the relationship that Erin and Al, our trainers had had with her, we were able to take the
02:43chains off immediately and get her to walk out of her crate immediately and she just started eating in quarantine,
02:52behaving normally straight away.
02:58Mila just came out of quarantine. Quarantine lasts about eight weeks because we have to make sure that she doesn't
03:04have tuberculosis and that takes eight weeks to culture.
03:07Mila, go!
03:08So we are getting her used to our facility 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 and
03:18then if she's comfortable with that we start running her through her regular routine.
03:22So 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 their feet
03:31healthy and she did really great.
03:33Part of it is learning where that foot hole is for her to put it through. She did great.
03:42The other things we like to do when we bring them out there is give them some of their treats
03:46and goodies.
03:46So we gave her some brows to eat and also her wheat bran which helps her digestive system. She likes
03:53that a lot so she knows then that that's a good place.
03:55She's going 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 do what the
04:11other elephants do, spend most of the day out there, enjoy it.
04:14And then after that we'll work on introducing her to the herd and hopefully she'll get along with everybody and
04:20become integrated into our herd of five female elephants.
04:26She hasn't seen another elephant for about 30 years so we really have no idea how she's going to react.
04:32So we have given her some of their feces in her stall so she can smell and kind of know
04:37and some of them she's reacted to, some of them she hasn't.
04:40So we'll kind of go from there with visual access and then we'll give them fence line access and hopefully
04:47get her out there sometime.
04:49Well it's important to remember that Mila has been alone for the last 35 years and the reason we brought
04:54her to San Diego was so she could have the opportunity to socialize with other elephants for the rest of
04:58her life.
04:59So we're pretty unsure as to what her reaction would be and that's just something that we have to take
05:03through our power of observation and knowing elephant behavior.
05:06And the first interaction she had with Mary, our dominant elephant of the group, was she was a little unsure
05:12as to what Mary actually was.
05:13Having another animal just as big as her on the other side of the fence, was a little unsure, a
05:19little wary, put her ears out which is definitely a sign of trying to figure out what that other animal
05:25was.
05:27She definitely wanted to interact with Mary, see if Mary was interested in seeing her back and a lot of
05:34it was really good observations knowing that Mila started to become comfortable with Mary right there with her.
05:40Introducing elephants is not a science, it's something that we have to take day by day, introduction by introduction.
05:47We initially start off by doing elephants in adjoining yards with barriers in between them, generally with small square meshing
05:55so that way they have the opportunity to touch one another but it's nothing that can overwhelm.
05:59If the elephants are interested in one another, whether or not it's aggressive, whether or not the elephant is unsure,
06:07scared, nervous, we take that into account as to how long the interaction takes place and what we will do
06:13for our next step.
06:15If that continues to go well, we will move the elephants to an area where the barrier between them is
06:21a lot more open, giving them more interaction to touch each other, giving them more access to one another which
06:27can cause again more positive interactions.
06:30Because elephants are very tactile, they definitely communicate with one another by touching, feeling, communicating, smelling.
06:37And we just watch to make sure that that's comfortable for both elephants.
06:41If they're both together for most of the interaction, that's very positive, that's something that we do want to see.
06:46But also if they 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.
06:55And again, based off of how that goes over the course of a certain period of time, again, there's no
07:00science to it, will help us gauge whether the interactions between barriers or if we're seeing that the elephants are
07:07ready 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, Mila, who came
07:18to us from New Zealand with our oldest female Asian elephant, Mary.
07:22And we took Mila out first this morning, let her get comfortable.
07:28Mary walked up to Mila, and they both started eating out of the same tree.
07:32And this is a great behavior to see because they were both calm, they were both acceptive of each other.
07:38And those are the type of things that we wanted to see.
07:40And 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.
07:49And so she's telling Mila that, hey, I'm in charge, I get to eat where I want.
07:53And Mila accepted that and moved on, which is another great behavior.
07:57Female 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.
08:07And as far as an elephant goes, it doesn't get any better than that.
08:11Very happy with Mila's introduction today.
08:13And we added Shaba into the mix, our youngest female African elephant today, to see if her confidence has built
08:21up.
08:21Shaba is a very shy elephant. She's generally unsure about newcomers.
08:25Today was one of the first interactions she had by touching Mila without being scared or nervous.
08:32And that's a huge step in the right direction, something that we're very happy about for both Mila and Shaba.
08:37Well, we never know what's going to happen with these introductions.
08:40But Shaba came out and immediately let Mila know that her food is Shaba's food, which is normal for elephants.
08:50And then they ate for quite a while, and it was just kind of a standoff to see, you know,
08:54you're okay, I'm okay.
08:56It's just getting to know you as far as elephants go.
08:59So our next step now is just to continue this process.
09:02It could take weeks of doing this every day for them to finally start getting close to each other and
09:09go,
09:09okay, you're not so big, you're not so scary.
09:12And then we'll also use Mary, who Mila's already developed a relationship with, as maybe an anchor,
09:18somebody to settle things down, which Mary is a matriarch, and that's what we would expect.
09:24We put Mary, Shaba, and Mila together for about 15 minutes this morning so they can get settled in.
09:30And then we put Sumithi, the 47-year-old Asian female, in with them in the morning now for a
09:34couple hours.
09:35So now Mila is in with a group of four elephants for a couple hours a day,
09:39and we'll start just easing her into it, then she'll get more comfortable as time goes.
09:43And so far things are going great.
09:46Mila, come. She's doing well.
09:48She's still, you know, nervous a little bit, but it's really waning a lot.
09:52She's starting to feel more and more comfortable.
09:56They really want to hang out with each other.
09:59It's just a matter of slowly and letting them develop their relationships slowly, methodically,
10:05and we'll do this over the next year.
10:12Debbie is one of our youngest elephants.
10:14She just turned 37.
10:16One way that you can tell Debbie apart from the rest of the group is she does have a small,
10:20stumpy tail.
10:20That's something she was born with, so it's not something we're very concerned about.
10:24She is a tall, lean elephant.
10:26You can tell her as well by her very hairy forehead.
10:30She has a lot of potential to interact with Mila, and she definitely has a lot of energy.
10:37You can 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.
10:50They came out, saw each other, went past each other, and went on to eat.
10:54So 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 over
11:02a fence line.
11:03This is their first day sharing the same physical space.
11:06So it's a very good step.
11:07It means we'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 met
11:20the first couple elephants,
11:22to really socially becoming more savvy and learning how to work around the exhibit,
11:28being braver when it comes to getting food when it's thrown into the exhibit, especially tree branches, browse.
11:34She really likes that.
11:36Absolute pleasure to having her heard.
11:37We think she's doing great here at the Tembo Zoo.
11:43Mila's 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 all the other elephants
11:57and adjusting her behavior based on what they're doing.
12:05So it's been a very long process and a positive process.
12:08We think Mila is doing really well.
12:10We think she's adapted really well here.
12:12She works great with the keepers, and she has learned so much from the other elephants.
12:17And they will take care of her for the rest of her natural life.
12:21So, couldn't be better.
12:29We do have things in love together.
12:53That's a great place.
Comentarios