The zoo...

but first, quotes from a rather fun visit with Lydia:
Lydia's roommate's spelling mneumonic: "There's no Sedge in Sedgwick and no witch in Wichita"

me: "What're those?"
Lydia: "That's my roommate's skull collection."
me: "Biology people"

Lydia: "And here we have the white tailed deer"
me: "They look like turkeys"
Lydia: "and friends. White tailed deer and friends."

So first off, my former roommate Lydia is amazing, she's doing a practicum and has been volunteering like a madwoman at Sedgwick County Zoo. So getting to go to this already great zoo with her was like having my own guided tour of everything - complete with good stories, interesting facts, animal names, and thoughtprovoking comments on the things involved in keeping these animals in a way that is good for them, the people who come to see them, and the people who have to take care of them. This tour I will try to do justice in the next few posts.

The elephants...
Cinda and Stephanie
Massive African elephants, with huge brown eyes and two-three inch lashes
I got to feed and pet Cinda, who was very excited about being fed... trunk kept just whooshing out towards the bucket full of chopped fruits, sweet potato, and purina grain feed (no, purina does not make a specifically elephant chow, although I found the concept amusing). For those who were worried about my feet getting stepped on, the whole thing was set up very safely, first there was a walkway with a halfwall between it and the rest of the building where anyone could stand and watch the elephants being trained, then there was a slightly wider area between that and the bars around the training area. The bars were about 3 inches in diameter and 1 foot apart, and Lydia explained that they weren't quite up to the standards they would need to contain a male elephant but were just fine for the two girls. Cinda's trunk was rough and had short wiry hairs scattered about it, it felt stiffer than I expected, but she could move it quite well. The tip of the trunk had two extended tips, was damp, slightly cold, and very snuffly. She would pick up the chunks of fruit using the two extensions, but when it came to the grain she just inhaled. They can pull 2 gallons of water into their trunks and then squirt it in their mouths. I'm not sure if the cold was just cause my hand's got damp and then she was breathing on them, or actually because her trunk tip was cold. Anyway, Cinda is unusually hairy for an African elephant, having long wisps all matted together on her back. (training precedes bathing, she was kinda crusty) Her side was deeply creased and felt weird... don't know how else to describe it. Her skin's an inch thick there, but she can still feel touch. Her ears were about as thick as moving box cardboard and about as stiff. The thinnest skin is on the back of her ears and when she fans them, blood is forced into her ears allowing heat to transfer through the thinner skin behind them. After I'd fed her about a quarter of what was in the bucket, the trainer took over. These elephants are trained twice a day and know about 60 commands, many of which serve to make it easier for the keepers to take care of them. e.g. foot (raise a foot) this allows the keepers to give them pedicures which is more important than you might think. Elephants walk a lot in the wild to forage for food, the skin on their feet is constantly growing. In captivity, this thick skin does not get worn off as they don't need to walk nearly as far... So the keepers have to peel the excess skin off, Lydia informs me that they make it look easy, but it takes a significant amount of force.