Sunday, September 5, 2010

National Zoo's Elephant Trail's


Shanthi

2 comments:

Ryan Easley said...

Lots of grass that will not last long but not much else in all that open space. Is space more important than enrichment if they have no reason to use what is given to them?
Reminds me of a park in Europe that has several acres for their bachelor male group but it is completely baren save for rocks that litter the landscape. Wonder if the acres of such are any more preferable to the elephant than a few hundred square feet with more stimulation.

Wade G. Burck said...

Radar,
Fact is the bigger the area, the longer the grass will last, plus all grass is not good to eat. In our pens in Illinois there were only two places that were torn up that were used as dirt baths in nice weather and mud baths in the rainy season. The bulk of the herd used the bigger spot, and the smaller spot was used by two timid females who didn't enjoy the exuberance of other members of the herd.
Wade