How to give an elephant a pedicure
Elephants in the wild can travel up to fifty miles in a day, but usually cover about ten miles. That fact alone means it is difficult for elephants in captivity — whether a sanctuary, Zoo, or circus — to live a healthy life.
One of the main health problems with captive elephants is their feet. Elephants in the wild naturally wear down the keratin on their feet as they walk around all day foraging for food. In captivity, their nails can grow too big, causing pain and problems walking. To solve that problem, Zoos give elephants pedicures on a weekly basis. Of course, in order to give an elephant a pedicure, you have to have an elephant! How about this one at the San Diego Zoo:
Once you have the elephant, you have to train it so that it will cooperate with you when you want to give it a pedicure. Elephants are extremely intelligent animals, so it’s really not hard to train them. The easy way to get them to do what you want them to do is to reward them with food:
After you have him trained, the rest is really easy. First, you get the elephant to stand in some buckets of water to soften his nails:
While he’s standing there, you continue to reward him for his good behavior. See the hay and carrots?
Also while he’s standing there, you give him a bath:
Elephants are big, getting to over 11 feet tall and up to 24,000 pounds, so by the time you finishing giving him a bath, his feet are all softened up and ready for the pedicurist.
Now you get the elephant to stick his feet up on the bar so you can wash them. You want a completely clean elephant and certainly don’t want to be working on stinky feet.
All this time, while one is washing the elephant, it helps if someone else continues to feed it, so you could make this a family event.
Once the elephant and his feet are all clean….
….you go to work clipping his toenails and cleaning all the dead stuff off his feet:
Remember to keep feeding the elephant because it wants food in return for letting you give it a pedicure:
Once you’re all done, be sure to let the elephant show off his pedicure:
There you have it. Real easy. Hope your elephant likes it!
All pictures taken by Russel Ray using a Canon 550D in the Conrad Prebys Elephant Care Center at the San Diego Zoo.
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Posted on February 23, 2012, in Fauna, Mother & Father Nature, Photos, Series, Zoo & Safari Park and tagged conrad prebys, elephant care, elephants, pedicure, san diego zoo. Bookmark the permalink. 23 Comments.
Love that series of photos, Russel. I’ve never seen an elephant pedicure before and found it most interesting.
These things used to be done out of site of the general public but the new Conrad Prebys Elephant Care Center lets the public see lots of interesting things relating to elephant training and care.
Now if I ever have and elephant I will know how to properly care for it.
And if you get an elephant, Judy, I wanna come see it!
You will be the first to know.
I also respond well to being rewarded with food!
What a great series of photos! I have no desire to give elephants pedicures, though…I’m guessing the zookeeper that draws the short straw gets to do that!
Hey, Sharon. I respond well to food, too, but I usually reward myself before anyone else gets around to rewarding me.
Reblogged this on Fox Four Photography and commented:
This is a really awesome post!! Give it a read…
Thanks, Yukon!
Really interesting. I’ve never seen that before.
Wow! I’m here any time you post about my favorite beast. This is truly interesting!
I’ll show this to my wife and she may see clipping the cat’s claws in a different perspective.
Ha! There’s nothing like clipping a cat’s claws!
I’ve never seen anything like this, totally amazing!
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I was scrolling through all your zoo pics to see if I could confirm the name of the antelope critter I posted. I like all your zoo shots. Fine work. Didn’t find my critter, but I think it is an oribi.
These?: http://apronhead.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/rule-1-whatever-goes-on-two-legs-is-an-enemy/
At first I thought they were dik-diks, but the facial markings on the one standing up and the one next to it look like Soemmerring’s Gazelle.
It looked like oribi from a Google search, and then I looked back at other pics from the same group, and they had stripes. And they seem bigger. I will look up the ones you mention. Thanks.
When I Googled, the ones you mentioned didn’t look quite like it, but I think I found it. Some of the pics on-line even have it standing like mine. I think it’s a Gerenuk antelope.
Gerenuk was the other one that I was trying to think of, and yes, I think that’s it. The Zoo here has an exhibit where they feed the Gerenuks each morning at 11:00 a.m., and they stand up just like yours is. Too bad WordPress doesn’t let us put pictures in our comments. If it did, I’d show you a picture similar to yours but taken at the San Diego Zoo.
Mine was at the San Diego Zoo, too. I looked through all your SD Zoo pics and didn’t see one.
I still have a few billion pictures from the Zoo that I have not posted yet. I’ll be able to blog on WordPress for another century!……….lol