Born: 1976 in Krüger National Park in South Africa Gender: female Since 1984 in the zoo Basel Distinguishing features: clear horizontal wrinkles on her forehead, short tusks. Heri was born in Krüger National Park in South Africa ...
Daily Routine for the elephants in zoos and circus
What does a day in the life of a zoo elephant look like? A typical day for an elephant, e.g. at Zurich Zoo, might look somewhat like this: 07:00 The animal keepers begin their ...
Elephant Trunk
What does people fascinate about the elephants? It’s neither the mass, nor the big ears, which make the elephant so likeable for most people, but it’s the trunk. All people, whether adults or children, ...
Elephant Training and Dressage in the zoo and circus
Why are elephants trained? Unlike domestic animals, which were bred continuously deploying the most suitable animals, elephants in the zoo and in the circus are wild animals – however sweet and nice they are ...
Teeth, second dentition, Tusks
What is special about elephant teeth? In contrast to humans, elephants are lucky enough to undergo further dentition 6 times. Teeth are not, however, exchanged from the bottom to the top (vertically), as in ...
Swimming and diving elephants
Can elephants swim and dive? Like all mammals (except humans and apes, who have to learn how to swim), elephants are very good, untiring swimmers. Elephants move all four legs to swim and are ...
Elephants in Snow and Cold
Do elephants freeze? When the zoo public – being themselves wrapped up in thick coats, gloves and woolly hats – see the elephants in winter in the outside enclosure, they wonder, whether it’s not ...
Elephant skin
Are elephants really “thick skinned”? The expression of elephants being pachyderms is correct only in part. On vulnerable spots like the trunk embouchure, legs and back, skin can in fact be 2.5 to 3 ...
Musth of the elephant bulls
What does the word “musth” mean? An essential part of the problems of the keeping of elephant bulls is the so-called musth. Musth is a word of Persian origin and is translated in the ...
Mice and Elephants
Are elephants really afraid of mice? The rumour that elephants are scared of mice is very persistent and there are whole collections of jokes circulating on this topic. However, these jokes are just as ...