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A young elephant's ABCs growing up at National Zoo

By Sue Wunder
The Christian Science Monitor

CHUCK KENNEDY / KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Kandula, a 325-pound male Asian elephant calf, walks around the elephant house at the National Zoo shortly after his birth there in November 2001. Today he weighs almost 2,500 pounds.

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When Kandula was born, the staff at the National Zoo in Washington knew that the 325-pound baby would need lots of space one day. Kandula is a male Asian elephant who will be 3 years old on Nov. 25. He already weighs close to 2,500 pounds.

Kandula's birth was a happy event at the zoo. Of the four Asian elephants living there, he is the only male. The zoo plans to expand its elephant habitat so that one day a herd of elephants can live and breed there. Asian elephants are endangered, and their wild habitat continues to shrink. Zoo elephants like Kandula offer hope for the future.

Kandula doesn't know he's part of a species-survival plan. But he's full of himself anyway. As a baby, he enchanted zoo visitors as he played with a tire and ball in his pool. He followed his mother, Shanthi, often tugging on her tail. He looked ready for mischief.

He still looks ready for mischief, but Kandula is not a baby anymore. He's beginning to grow tusks. And he's learning the lessons all young animals must learn, whether they live in the wild or in a zoo: how to cooperate with others, and how to do things for oneself.

Shanthi's role

Kandula learns a lot from his mother. Shanthi was raised in Sri Lanka and came to the zoo as a gift from the children of that country. At first Kandula didn't know what to do with his trunk. By watching his mother he learned to use it for all kinds of things, from eating and drinking to spraying dust over his back. Kandula's keepers, Debra Flinkman and Debbie Flynn, say he began to imitate Shanthi when he was just a few days old.

One of the first things Kandula tried to do like Shanthi was give himself a dust bath. (Elephants do this to shoo away flies. The dust also acts as a sunblock.) But he couldn't get his own trunk to move in the right ways.

"There was dust everywhere," Flinkman says. But Kandula caught on. Now he sprays dust over his back and under his belly almost as well as Shanthi.

Kandula also learns from his keepers. Much of what Kandula's human companions are teaching him makes it easier for them to handle and care for him. These lessons will be especially important as he gets bigger. Fully grown, Kandula may weigh 6-1/2 tons. He must be willing to do what he's asked to — such as lifting his foot or rolling on his side for his daily scrub-brush bath and health checks. Zoo elephants also must have their toenails (four on each foot) regularly filed. The best time to teach Kandula to accept such care is now, when he's relatively small and friendly.
 
The careful management of zoo elephants benefits not only these captive animals but also their wild cousins. From zoo animals scientists gain important insights about elephant health, reproduction and behavior.

When day-old Kandula growled at his water bucket, his trainers knew the little bull would be a challenge to train. But they and Kandula have worked well together. His lessons are about reward, not punishment. Special treats like grain cakes encourage Kandula to follow directions. When he's not in the mood, "timeouts" work well. The lessons end and the treats disappear for a time. Often, Kandula is the one who wants to get back to work.

Flinkman and Flynn have also learned from Kandula. He has shown them that he responds best to lessons that he can partly control. Now, if Kandula wants to walk away from a session, he can. No one chases him to bring him back. Maybe because he has a choice, he seems more willing to do as he's asked.

Kandula will grow more aggressive as he gets older. In the wild, elephant societies are matriarchal. Once male elephants reach their teens (they mature at much the same rate humans do and have comparable life spans), they often leave their mother's herd to live on their own. They become highly competitive when the time comes to breed. Eventually, Kandula's trainers will work with him only from behind a protective barrier. He is already challenging them in little ways.

Boys will be boys

"Sometimes when we try to close the door" to the elephant house, Flynn says, "he'll rush over and stick his foot in the way." He has a whole vocabulary of protests, she adds, ranging from noises that mean "Get off my toy ball!" to "Mommy, get over here!"

Kandula works out a lot of his competitiveness playing with his swinging tires or splashing in his pool. He spends hours amusing himself this way or trying to get his mom to join him in a game. He especially likes his pool. That's where he first learned to use his trunk as a snorkel. When he was smaller, he loved to wriggle under his mother as she cooled off in the water. He soon became just a little too big to slip easily under her tummy. The first time he got stuck he gave his keepers a scare.

"We were getting worried — he was down too long," Flinkman said, "when suddenly, up popped his trunk!" Kandula had figured it out himself.

Kandula has a reputation as something of a cutup. Once, when a wheelbarrow was left in his yard, he took a rake out, carried it around and then snapped it in two — to visitors' delight.

For the most part, though, Kandula tries to do what he's told. He has even learned to stand quietly as a blood sample is taken from his ear. He was taught to tolerate this in many gradual steps. First he learned to stand in the right position. Then he got used to having his ear played with and washed. Next, he grew accustomed to the smell of alcohol (disinfectant), and finally to feeling a little pressure on his ear. Now he's not reluctant at all to cooperate with the vet.

Kandula's success at learning is a sign of his intelligence. He's also becoming increasingly independent. As a baby he liked to stand directly under Shanthi, where he felt safest and could nurse whenever he liked. Now he is too big and nurses only a few minutes each day. Soon he will stop. He spends more time playing on his own. His keepers regularly give him new toys, to keep him stimulated. One of his favorites (beside his ball) is a cone-shaped bucket he carries around with his trunk.

Like any kid, he also goofs around. It's hard not to smile when Kandula walks around his yard backward, sticks a hind foot through a swinging tire to spin it, or puts "hats" of hay on his head.

The ties that bind

The many noises he makes with his trunk sound more and more like a real elephant trumpet. But when you come right down to it, Kandula is still a kid.

"He's very independent — as long as he knows he can get back to Mom," Flinkman says.

The other morning Kandula was pushing his ball around, well apart from his mother. Suddenly he stopped, and raised his trunk to sniff the air. It looked as if he'd suddenly noticed that Mom wasn't right behind him. He ran back to Shanthi. He put the tip of his trunk in her mouth. Shanthi caressed him with her trunk.

"Look, Mommy," a young zoo visitor exclaimed. "That's you. And that's me."