Joey Ratliff and associates at the New Orleans Institute are assisting Michael Rowe, with the below study that has been a long time coming. It is an important work that should address many of the issues of elephants in cold climates.
NEW ORLEANS -- "I'm right in the middle of running an elephant. Can you call back in like half an hour?" Michael Rowe pocketed his cell phone and returned full attention to clicking off Jean's paces.
It was after hours at the Audubon Zoo _ one of four zoos where Rowe is studying how elephants, which can't sweat or pant to bring their temperatures down when they get too hot, deal with heat and cold.Regulation of body heat hasn't been studied much in very large animals, Rowe said.His doctoral research may have implications for helping wild elephant herds in an era of climate change, said Jeff Andrews, animal care manager for the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park."The more we can learn about this very important component of large herbivore biology and elephant metabolism and biology, the more we can apply to the quest for conservation," he said.For instance, he said, although wild elephants are usually looking for food and water when they come in conflict with people, they may sometimes be looking for a warmer or cooler place.Andrews said it's long been known that wild elephants can handle large temperature swings between seasons and even between night and day. Knowing more about how they adjust could at least help zookeepers better care for and build better enclosures for them, he said.He said Rowe's work may help refine understanding of how much cold elephants can tolerate, and provide a better sense of when it's necessary for zoos to warm their enclosures or give them a place to cool off.Rowe's "running an elephant" wasn't meant to imply that he and head elephant keeper Joey Ratliff had taken the 3.9-ton Asian elephant out for a jog. They were all walking, about 2 1/4 mph, on a path around the zoo."Elephants are locked into a walking gait _ they don't really run," no matter how fast they move, Rowe said. He does sometimes take them fast, up nearly to 10 mph, for short distances.Biomechanical researchers have reported that at their fastest _ up to 15 mph _ elephants' front legs keep a walking stride but the back legs run."From my observations of wild elephants, they rarely use that fast speed," Rowe said. "They have no natural predators. Adults don't have to run. My belief is they don't do that because they build up large amounts of heat."After two weeks with the Audubon Zoo's two elephants, Jean, 35, and Panya, 44, Rowe went to Terre Haute, where he's studying at Indiana State University, with his next stop the Indianapolis Zoo. From there, he'll go to zoos in Pittsburgh and Toronto.He's studying how the heat generated by exercise is dissipated in different environments. He figures to be done in the spring of 2010, after a hot, a cold and a mild season at each of the four zoos.The 24 African elephants range from two July babies _ not twins _ born in Pittsburgh to two 7-ton bulls about 50 years old, one in Pittsburgh and the other in Indianapolis, so he can see how body size affects the animals' regulation of body heat.Jean and Panya are the first Asian elephants Rowe has studied. He's working on a grant to add another two dozen or so Asian elephants. "I'm shooting for 50 to 60 total," he said.Rowe's master's degree research in elephant physiology _ through the biomedical institute at LSU Medical School in Shreveport _ found that elephants warm up much faster when it's sunny than they do at the same temperature on a cloudy day.He began his doctoral work at the University of New Orleans, but Hurricane Katrina ended his adviser's stay in New Orleans and flooded Rowe's kung fu dojo. For a while, he taught My Jhong Law Horn kung fu under the huge oaks in Audubon Park.The Pittsburgh Zoo, a Lilly Foundation Pathways to Pre-eminence fellowship and the university are paying for his research, including the accelerometer _ a bigger, more complex version of the gadget in some running shoes _ strapped to Jean's right rear leg to measure stride length, frequency and speed."It's a very expensive pedometer," Rowe said. "It's actually meant to measure stresses on automobiles, aircraft, things like that."He uses the clicker to check its digits against the accelerometer's graphs from a morning and an evening run each day, before and after the zoo closes."Elephants have extremely low body temperatures in the mornings, so they're active during the mornings, he said.At the start and finish of each exercise session, Rowe takes both thermal energy images and more standard temperature readings ("I have built my own elephant rectal probe, because its not something you can go out and buy").The elephants get treats such as bananas, apples or sweet potatoes at the start and finish, too. They enjoy exercise and are very social, he said."I think sometimes they just want to know, `What does the pink monkey want me to do?'
On the net:
http://www.auduboninstitute.org
http://www.indianapoliszoo.com/
http://www.pittsburghzoo.com/
http://www.torontozoo.com/
http://www.indstate.edu/
Courtesy of Joey Ratliff
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2 comments:
Wade, thanks for running this article. The AP reporter wrote a nice article. I should mention that Mr. Rowe's equipment also allows him to take readings off different surfaces around an exhibit. He can then help with deciding on building materials that are better suited to what climates, as far as how they hold heat or cold. He is doing this with a Canadian zoo in his spare time. Right now he is "running" the Indianapolis zoo's elephants. All this stuff can only help understand this fantastic creature and give us better evidence to debate our detractors.
Joey,
The study will be important in many,many way's. I hope to be a part of something like that some day. I hope soon my industry accept that black and white is the only thing valid to debate the issues involving animals. Antidotes don't cut it in our new work of research and study.
Wade
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