Following the death of the female "Ako" in March of this year, African Bush Elephant currently kept at Tama Zoo is the male "whetstonetodreamMu "Only one remains. This time, I'll talk about what happened to Tomu after that."

Tomu is 13 years old this year. Male elephants sometimes spend periods living alone away from the herd, which seems to give them a slightly rougher temperament compared to females. Also, Tomu himself seems to be very dependent on humans. In short, Tomu loves humans, and since being left alone, he has often turned his back on visitors and constantly tried to get the animal keeper to pay attention to him.

"Attention-seeking behavior" involves actions such as shaking the fence noisily, throwing feces, or rubbing his fangs against the wall in an attempt to attract the attention of animal keeper, and is not good for Tomu's physical and mental health.

So, all the staff members thought about how to stop those behaviors. First, we decided to minimize contact with animal keeper. However, if we only did this, Tomu wouldn't understand why animal keeper stopped coming and would just make a fuss. Therefore, we prepared things so that Tomu would think for himself and take action, and as a result, good things would happen, such as finding and eating food.

Specifically, to encourage Tomu to explore a wider area of the playground, we placed food in places he doesn't usually go. Since he wouldn't go for food if it was suddenly placed in an unfamiliar place, we gradually changed the locations and aimed for him to first walk around the pool.

At first, Tomu was cautious, reaching out his trunk from a distance to pick up food. Perhaps due to their size, elephants are very meticulous in checking their footing in unfamiliar or out-of-sight places. However, after a few days, perhaps due to the male's temperament I mentioned earlier, he was able to circle the pool almost completely. I say "almost" because he simply couldn't cross the drain at the front of the pool.

It's still wary, only extending its nose as it eats its food.	I'll swim around the pool...but instead, I'll go back in reverse.

Now that the dogs are exploring the playground more extensively, we plan to add more play equipment. This is to give them more opportunities to think for themselves, search for things, and then get food as a result. Thanks to these efforts, problematic behaviors are gradually decreasing.

Unfortunately, due to character limits, this is where this story ends for today. However, Tomu is currently taking on new challenges. We'll continue this story another time...


Once things calm down around the pool, we'll try going inside.
[Tama Zoo Tama Zoological Park]

(September 21, 2022)