Are bulls a big challenge? The male elephants represent a special challenge within the keeping of elephants. As is the case for most mammals, also with the elephants the male animal is stronger and ...
The birth of an elephant
Why are elephant births important? Every birth of an elephant, as well as in nature as in zoos, is very important for species conservation because both African and Asian elephants are menaced of extinction. Why ...
Bigness and weight of the elephants
How heavy is a fully-grown elephant? An approximately 20-year-old Asian elephant cow weighs 3500 – 4500 kg on average, and measures around 2.6 metres at the back. An elephant bull weighs about 5000 – ...
Keeping the elephants busy or the Behavioural Enrichment for the zoo elephants
Why do zoo elephants need to be kept occupied? In the wild, animals are active day and night looking for food and water, trying to evade their enemies, defending their territory, looking for a ...
Ankus, Elephant hook and wipe
What is an elephant hook? The ankus or elephant hook, in the colloquial language of the elephant keepers briefly named hooks, is an very old aid in handling elephants by humans in a direct ...
Anatomy of the elephants
How is a skeleton built up? As for all mammals the elephant’s skeleton is made up of skull, spinal column, extremities, ribs and breastbone. Since the different elephant species have different numbers of thoracic, ...
African elephants
Are there different elephant species? The African elephant can be divided into 2 subspecies: Steppe elephant (Loxodonta africana africana) The steppe elephant settles in different habitats from the open grass country to wooded regions including ...
Accidents with Elephants
Do many accidents happen with elephants? There’s no year without happening some heavy accidents with elephants. We are informed about 3 to 4 dead elephant keepers every year just in the European and North-American ...