Asian Elephant

Connie was the first to test the waters, delicately dipping the tip of her trunk into the murky water, much as a person might put in a toe to check the temperature. She trumpeted loudly. Then, finally, Connie took the plunge. She was the bravest of the San Diego Wild Animal Park's seven female Asian elephants, edging up cautiously to their plush new pool shortly after being released into the compound Monday.

Vus'musi, a 4,500-pound, 7-year-old African elephant, was having his morning regimen with Curtis Lehman, a senior elephant keeper at the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park. Lehman held out treats for Vus'musi — who got his name, roughly translated as "to build a family," from the king of Swaziland. The mammoth mammal snatched the treats with his trunk and stuffed them into his mouth. On command, the elephant turned this way and that for Lehman to inspect his tail, his flanks, his anus, his tusks and his feet.

A newborn Asian elephant at the San Diego Wild Animal Park had to be separated from his mother shortly after birth Wednesday, leading keepers to worry whether the valuable young pachyderm will survive. "The calf bellowed and scared the mom, and so Mom began to kick, stomp and try to kill the baby," said Tom Hanscom, a spokesman for the park. "At that point, the keepers physically placed themselves between Mom and the baby."

The Santa Ana Zoo is one of only a handful in the nation that still offer elephant rides. For more than 25 years, children ? and some grown-ups ? have turned out by the hundreds to ride on the back of an 8,000-pound Asian elephant as it trudges around a shaded, circular enclosure near Monkey Row.? Although others have bowed to pressure from animal welfare advocates who oppose once-popular elephant rides as cruel to the animals and dangerous to the public, zookeepers in Santa Ana are rushing to their defense.

In 1996, human tuberculosis, one of the leading infectious diseases in the world, was found in two circus elephants traveling through Los Angeles County. The discovery alarmed veterinarians and sparked a wave of research that now indicates that the cases were more of a trend than a fluke. Since then, 18 cases have been found, including four in California.

Carol, an Asian elephant who gained national acclaim by appearing on the "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," has been euthanized by veterinarians at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, zoo officials announced Tuesday. The 40-year-old elephant had been suffering from a painful degenerative joint disease. Zoo officials say they tried for years to help Carol with therapy, a specialized diet and exercise. They also installed a padded floor in the elephant barn.

Here are a few things you need to know about walking an elephant: The pachyderm will set the pace. (Let's just say it's leisurely.) She will be curious about you, unfurling her trunk in your direction for a sniff. (It's surprising how far a trunk can reach.) She will want to eat along the way. (Bamboo was the snack of choice on a recent morning.

Re "Elephant debate takes over L.A. council meeting," Nov. 20 If the so-called animal rights activists had not halted the creation of the "Pachyderm Forest," Billy the Asian elephant and several female companions would already be happily wallowing in their mud baths. Elke Heitmeyer Sherman Oaks

A 34-year-old Asian elephant transferred last year from the San Diego Zoo to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago has died of a massive infection, possibly tuberculosis, officials said Tuesday. Tatima was one of three elephants transferred to Lincoln Park to make room at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park for elephants from Swaziland. Animal rights advocates sued unsuccessfully to stop the transfer. A necropsy is planned.

An elephant entering her third year of pregnancy apparently has set a world record for a pachyderm gestation, but doubts are growing about the health of the fetus, anxious zookeepers said. Jean, a 19-year-old Asian elephant at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, was due to give birth to her first calf in August, after what would have been a normal 22-month pregnancy, a park spokesman said.

An elephant who stepped on a land mine 10 years ago was fitted for a permanent artificial leg. Motola became a symbol of the plight of today's elephants, and her injury has sparked international sympathy and donations. Experts in Thailand were making a cast of the 48-year-old pachyderm's injured left front leg for a plastic prosthetic limb. "I do hope she will accept the new leg. It would be wonderful to see Motola and Baby Mosha walking together side by side," said Soraida Salwala of the Friends of the Asian Elephant group.

The Los Angeles Zoo paid a federal fine of several thousand dollars in the wake of a U.S. Department of Agriculture investigation into the 2006 deaths of the zoo's popular female Asian elephant, Gita, and a chimpanzee, Judeo, zoo officials confirmed Monday. Gita was found down in her enclosure early one morning in June 2006 and could not be saved despite extensive veterinary intervention.

Tom Rider, who used to be a "barn man" for Ringling Bros., said that when he worked there in the late 1990s, he regularly saw handlers of the circus' endangered Asian elephants abusing the giant creatures. He said they used long, sharp-hooked poles, "hitting them in the legs, hooking them behind the ears" and leaving gashes the size of his finger. Ringling denies the allegations, saying it has never been cited for animal cruelty.

What's a trip to the zoo without a glimpse of an elephant? Increasingly common. Acknowledging that traditional elephant exhibits are inadequate to the point of cruelty -- small, spare, with foot-punishing floors -- zoos have chosen divergent directions. Some, including the Chicago, San Francisco and venerable Bronx zoos, are closing or making plans to close their elephant exhibits altogether.

Researchers have concluded that female elephants living in protected environments in Asia and Africa live longer than elephants in captivity in European zoos, saying that "bringing elephants into zoos profoundly impairs their viability." The study, to be released today in the journal Science, also found that for an Asian elephant -- the more endangered of the two elephant species -- being born in a zoo or separated from its mother at an early age can mean a shorter life.

Re "Elephant debate takes over L.A. council meeting," Nov. 20 If the so-called animal rights activists had not halted the creation of the "Pachyderm Forest," Billy the Asian elephant and several female companions would already be happily wallowing in their mud baths. Elke Heitmeyer Sherman Oaks

An Asian elephant at the San Diego Wild Animal Park delivered a stillborn male calf Friday afternoon after nearly two years of gestation and three days of labor. Veterinarians were unable to save the calf, despite 52 minutes of resuscitation during which they produced a normal heartbeat but could not get the young elephant to breathe.

The San Francisco Zoo's last elephant left this week for a sanctuary in the Sierra foothills, where she'll have other pachyderms for company and a lot more space. Zoo officials said they were sad to see Lulu go on Thursday, leaving the zoo without a resident elephant, but they said the 38-year-old female will be happier there. After two zoo elephants died last year, animal-rights activists pressured the city to send its remaining elephants to larger sanctuaries in Calaveras County.

There comes a day when even the most popular of shows has to close. "Oklahoma!," "Cats," even "The Lion King" -- each dazzled Broadway for years and then departed. And so the elephant show at the Wild Animal Park, an attraction at Tembo Stadium since 1977, the most popular show in park history, will close Sunday. The puppet and bird shows will remain, but the five Asian elephants who star in the elephant show are off to a new gig.

Carol, an Asian elephant who gained national acclaim by appearing on the "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," has been euthanized by veterinarians at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, zoo officials announced Tuesday. The 40-year-old elephant had been suffering from a painful degenerative joint disease. Zoo officials say they tried for years to help Carol with therapy, a specialized diet and exercise. They also installed a padded floor in the elephant barn.