Tulsa Zoo's Asian Elephants Begin Their Day With A Refreshing Bath Ritual

It is Asian Elephant Awareness Month! The Tulsa Zoo has three elephants all over the age of 50 named Sneezy, Sooky, and Booper.

Each morning the elephants start their day with a bath. "It is a great opportunity to evaluate the animals, kind of our foundational measure that we use every morning," said Jessica Scallan, the Zoological Manager of Elephants & Hoofstock at the Tulsa Zoo.

She said first they make sure the elephant's skin is healthy. "It is a bubble bath, exfoliation, and scrubbing them down," Scallan continued saying, "Obviously elephants do all of this naturally, they swim, they take mud baths, they dust bathe, but this is just a little bit extra help to keep their skin nice and supple."

Then, the zookeeper will introduce commands to get the elephant moving. "From there we can see how they are feeling, how they are moving, and kind of adjust from there," Scallan added.

During bath time, the elephants must also work on their core strength. "We do a lot of yoga-esque behaviors, and these are behaviors to keep them in shape," Scallan continued saying, "We want to keep their core muscles engaged, we want to keep them athletic because when you weigh over 10,000 pounds like Sneezy, when you lay down it is quite a feat."

She said doing this every day helps build trust between the animal and its care team. "The way that we work with our elephants, we are always behind a barrier, so the elephants have the choice to walk away at any time," Scallan added. "They kind of view us as a Pez dispenser where they come back for more and more and that is what we want to do. We want to encourage that positive rapport."

The Tulsa Zoo also helps with conservation efforts for the endangered species. "There are only 40,000 to 50,000 left in the world today and they need all our help. A lot of issues that Asian elephants have is loss of habitat, fragmentation of their habitat, and of course just population growth in their area. Also poaching elephants for ivory, so these are all things that threaten them."

How Do I Learn More About Asian Elephants

CLICK HERE to learn more about the zoo's Asian elephants.