Elephant Behavior Studied in Hands-Off Training

SAN DIEGO — For a hundred years, the accepted way to manage elephants in zoos was through close contact and dominance, including whacking the mammoth mammals with sticks or ax handles when they were balky or cantankerous.

Conventional wisdom, derived from elephant handlers in Africa and Asia, held that to spare the rod was to endanger the keeper and that, as wild beasts, elephants need to be intimidated into submission.

Now, officials at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park hope to help dispel that notion by training eight African elephants who have never been exposed to those traditional methods.

Seven of the animals -- Litsemba, Lungile, Mabhulane, Ndlulamitsi, Swazi, Umgani and Umoya -- were brought to San Diego in August from the African nation of Swaziland, over strenuous opposition from animal rights advocates, who warned that the elephants would be beaten to make them more manageable. The eighth elephant, Vus'musi, was born at the park in February.

None of the eight has ever been trained in any other method than "protected contact," in which keepers reward good behavior with tasty treats and sweet talk and never punish or get too close to the elephants. As such, animal specialists say the behavior of the eight is the first "pure" test of protected contact.

"These animals have never been hit, beat or yelled at," said Jeff Andrews, animal care manager at the 1,800-acre Wild Animal Park, set in the San Pasqual Valley, 35 miles north of downtown.

"They don't know the meaning of the word 'no,' " Andrews said. "It's all been positive."

Under protected contact, the keeper and the elephants never share the same space. The keeper is on one side of the bars of a metal cage or barrier, the elephant on the other. The elephant is trained to cooperate voluntarily, rather than through fear or coercion.

Treats are handed through the bars when the elephant lifts its foot on command, for example. A whistle is meant to teach the animals that a treat is coming.

The main goal of training is to make the elephants manageable for health exams, officials said. At the Wild Animal Park, the elephants spend most of their days roaming in a three-acre enclosure.

Elephants are susceptible to foot problems and tuberculosis. Tests for TB include sending a stream of water into the elephant's trunk, then collecting the water for tests.