Blau Dick - Elephant House

ELEPHANT HOUSE

Nigel Rothfels and Garry Marvin,

GENERAL EDITORS

Advisory Board:

Steve Baker (University of Central Lancashire)

Susan McHugh (University of New England)

Jules Pretty (University of Essex)

Alan Rauch (University of North Carolina at Charlotte)

Books in the Animalibus series share a fascination with the status and the role of animals in human life. Crossing the humanities and the social sciences to include work in history, anthropology, social and cultural geography, environmental studies, and literary and art criticism, these books ask what thinking about nonhuman animals can teach us about human cultures, about what it means to be human, and about how that meaning might shift across times and places.

[elephant house]

DICK BLAU
AND
NIGEL ROTHFELS

THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA

All photographs Dick Blau. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Blau, Dick, 1943, photographer.

Elephant house / Dick Blau and Nigel Rothfels ; foreword, Mike Keele.

pages cm(Animalibus)

Summary: Traces the history of the Asian elephant display at the Oregon Zoo from the 1950s to the present. An introduction by historian Nigel Rothfels explores changes in elephant husbandry since the 1870sProvided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-271-07085-8 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Captive elephantsOregonPortlandPictorial works.

2. Oregon Zoo (Portland, Or.)Pictorial works.

3. Captive elephantsHistory.

I. Rothfels, Nigel, writer of introduction. II. Title. III. Series: Animalibus.

SF408.6.E44B53 2015

636.9670974191dc23

2015006593

Copyright 2015 The Pennsylvania State University

All rights reserved

Printed in China by Oceanic Graphic International

Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,

University Park, PA 168021003

The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses.

It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI Z 39.481992.

Designed by Regina Starace

[contents]

When Nigel and Dick proposed this project to the Oregon Zoo, I was excited, as I saw this as an opportunity to tell the story of elephant care in a new but also historically accurate way. How have caring individuals been able to provide for the daily mental and physical needs of these magnificent animals while advocating for needed changes in the facilities, changes that have made it possible for care to improve over the years? So, to me, the story of this book is not simply about a state-of-the-art building that must eventually come down, but also about how caring individuals made that happen and how their work has resulted in a better future for the elephants. And this metamorphosis did not just happen at the Oregon Zoo; it happened at many U.S. zoos that care for elephants, each institution urged on by the advocacy of its own care personnel. These are extraordinary individuals who speak to and for the elephants.

I began my career at the Oregon Zoo in 1971 and began working full-time with the elephants in 1975. The zoo provided me with wonderful opportunities during my career, and foremost among them was my work with the elephants. When I started, the zoo had a family of nine elephants, and an elephant birth was a fairly common event. Between 1962 and 1975, fifteen elephant calves were born in Portland, causing one local newscaster to wonder whether the zoo would name its most recent baby Enough. What that reporter didnt realize was how rare zoo-born elephants were, as no other elephants had been born anywhere in North America but in Portland since 1918. I spent many nights at the elephant house, waiting for an expectant mother to deliver her calf. In retrospect, it wasnt that we needed to be there to assist the elephants with the birth, because by that point they were very experienced mothers. We were there, I know, because we wanted to witness the extraordinary event of the birth and see how the cows worked together to help the newborn, thereby creating even closer bonds among themselves. At times, the behavior seemed a bit frantic, but it wasnt: we were just witnessing excited elephants being elephants.

Part of the zoos Asian elephant breeding success was due to the facilities that allowed for the safe management and care of adult bull elephants. Bulls are powerful and often aggressive, making them dangerous to work around. A six-ton elephant can really do a lot of damage to a facility that hasnt been engineered to withstand powerful ramming, a trunk that can reach great distances, and an animal capable of standing on its hind legs to tinker with light fixtures or ductwork. Portlands elephant barn addressed these challenges with a lot of concrete. This functional facility was never exactly aesthetically pleasing, yet as unaesthetic as it may have been, the building had its advantages. It allowed the elephants to free-range throughout the day and night, when elsewhere in the country it was necessary to chain the elephants overnight to prevent them from demolishing the buildings.

When I first worked with elephants, I quickly learned that each had a unique personality. I became friends with the females, and my favorite was Pet. Unlike the other cows in her herd, she was not competitive, choosing to be the lowest cow of the pecking ordera position that is also the least stressful. Pet and I developed our own greeting: she would come up to me and lower her head. I would rub and scratch the inside of her front leg, and she would put her ear out so that my head was behind it. I would then talk to her softly and scratch the back side of her ear while she lowered her head even more. We did this often; she seemed to like it, and I know I did.

Pet didnt like us to trim her feet. We guessed that someone had hurt her once. But I was patient and relied on our friendship, and eventually, I had Pets full cooperation for foot trims. It was a trust issue; Pet trusted me to be gentle with her while I was caring for her feet. And treating her gently paid off by strengthening our friendship. When I was no longer a caregiver, I would visit the elephant barn and sometimes get to be with the elephants. Pet never forgot me. She would engage me in our greeting, and that would be a very special day for me. We had our final greeting one week before she died in 2006, but she left me with a lasting memory, and I hope her life was made easier by the improvements we made during her time with us. I would wager that almost all elephant caregivers have similar stories about animals they considered particularly special.