Hansa
A personal note for once. Irony-free; soppy; mawkish, even. A side of me you don’t know. Never mind – this is both public and personal, so I want to go with it.
Bad. Ashes on head department. Sniffing; closing throat; more sniffing; eyes filling; another kleenex gone. Bad, bad, bad news. Horrible news. (I let out such an outraged pained ‘No!’ when I heard it…)
At the Woodland Park Zoo, it was like a death in the family. Plainly distraught, even barely able to speak at times for choking back tears, zoo administrators announced the death of 6 ½-year-old elephant Hansa, who was found dead in her stall Friday, her mother standing by her side.
I watched them on the local news last night, and it’s true: they could barely talk, they kept losing it, I’m losing it in remembering them losing it. Don’t laugh – elephants are like that. Elephants are like that, and as for a six-year-old elephant you saw being born and taking her first steps and going for her first swim – well.
And her mother was standing by her side when the keeper found her. I wondered where Chai was; now I know: standing next to her. [pause to get another kleenex]
The thing is, I know Chai; I used to be one of her keepers, when she was younger than Hansa was yesterday. Chai was one of my babies, so I was very caught up in the whole exciting (and quite dangerous) adventure of her trip to Dickerson Park Zoo in St Louis to breed, and her long gestation, and the birth, and Hansa’s adorable infancy. Elephant breeding is very difficult; we used to discuss it a lot when I was there, when the new facility was being planned; it was very worrying having four cows and not breeding any of them. So Hansa’s birth was a colossal triumph, in all sorts of ways – for conservation, for good zoo practice, for the survival of both Chai and Hansa. So it’s a terrible, heartbreaking, shattering disappointment.
But it’s also just plain personal. Elephants are like that. Elephants are special – that’s not news. They’re complicated, they’re affectionate, they’re tall; you bond with them. Take my word for it. I’ve worked with them – I’ve given them baths, taken them for walks, ridden on their backs, scratched their tongues (they like that), played hide and seek with them. You bond with them.
Chai was a great kid. A bit of a knot-head: she had a habit of bolting when we took her for walks, which was very bad and worrying, because of course it’s terribly dangerous, and if we couldn’t get her out of the habit she wouldn’t be able to leave the yard for walks, and that would not be good. But she was a great kid all the same, and she turned out to be a great adult. Now she’s lost her Hansa. Elephants are very, very devoted. It’s just horrible.
I hate to think of the keepers. I know most of them, and I hate to think of them. I used to creep myself out occasionally, imagining being the first one into the barn in the morning (as I usually was) and finding one of the ‘phants dead. Yesterday one of the keepers had that experience. I keep imagining it. You’d know right away – you never ever ever come in to find any elephants asleep on the floor; not ever; they’re always up and milling around and when you come in they rumble and trumpet. (Rumbling is a sound they make up inside their heads, a little like purring; strangers think it’s growling but it’s not, it’s pleasure and greeting.) To come into the barn and find an elephant lying still on the floor – well there would be little room for doubt.
I heard of a headstone inscription on the radio once: ‘It is a fearful thing to love that which death can touch.’ It is.
It is. But ‘better to have loved and lost……” Commiserations.
Yeah, both of those.
Thanks. sniff!
Yeah, than never to have loved at all.
What a sad loss to all those who knew her, and not to mention the visitors who would have come in their droves to see Hansa.
“Hansa — the name means “supreme happiness” in Thai”. What a nice name!
OB,
Coincidentally, I had just been reading the following piece of information just prior to visiting B&W.
“Happiness has different meanings depending on whether it coded by the utilitarians (the greatest happiness for the greatest number, with happiness coded as personal desires) or Aristotle and the other Greek schools. The Greek word for happiness is Eudaimonia, or a flourishing life. The Greeks understood moral philosophy as having the practical purpose of guiding people towards leading better lives. The aim was to live well, to secure for oneself eudaimonia (‘happiness’ or ‘a flourishing life’), with the different schools and philosophers of the period offered differing solutions as to how the eudaimon life was to be gained”.
Is that not very uncanny indeed!
I know this is not the right time seeing that Hansa has died.
Nevertheless, I will share the news.
The first elephant, ever was born in Ireland on Friday, 11 May 2007. It was an exciting week for Dublin Zoo. It arrived in the wee hours of Monday morning. Zookeepers watched Bernhardine give birth to her new daughter using infrared cameras. The birth means that Ireland now has a breeding herd of elephants and this will play a part in ensuring the endangered animals survival. Visitors to the zoo will be able to see the new Asian pachyderm in four weeks when a new enclosure is unveiled.
Chai will probably pine away for a long time to come.
I bet lots of memories have come flooding back?
Have you noticed that atheists seem to be much bigger animal lovers than theists? I think it’s because we know that we’re kin, and that after death there’s nowhere to go, but theists believe that they’re separate from the lower animals, and only *they* are going on to “heaven.”
And I’d bet serious money that a disproportionate number of vegetarians are atheists, 7th Day Adventists notwithstanding.
Condolences, Ophelia.
Great tribut to a great creature O.B. Doug I am vegetarian and agnostic? I would say it is more likely that atheists are carnivors! cos if nothing has a soul you might as well eat it.
“if nothing has a soul you might as well eat it.”
Possibly the stupidest statement yet typed here…
Elephants seem to inspire quite a different order of human affection . don’t they? People in India and Thailand seem to love them quite obsessively, from what little i have observed.
Coming from a hindu cultural background, a special affection for elephants is almost guaranteed, even in someone like me – who likes her animals at a distance. There’s a whole pantheon of animal deities and all the major gods have their animal vahanas or companions. Then there were the Indian movies I watched as a child, a whole slew of ‘Lassie’ like heroic animal characters who saved the human characters from all sorts of nasty situations. Except that it was quite common for these animal heroes to be cows, bulls, cobras, elephants, monkeys instead of just a dog. There was even the odd horse heroine but never pigs or cats. In fat there was a major movie studio that did only the animal movies. Indian movie makers seem to have outgrown this sentimentality towards animals.
You would certainly be the right person to judge stupidity after all you have huge talent as a tri lingual spell checker!
Yeah, mirax, they do – that’s what I meant by special. They do even from a distance, and when you know them up close and personal – well, it’s a strong bond. A very strong bond.
“Hansa: Literally = “swan,” for the swan can separate milk from water, and the realised soul can perceive the Real behind the unreal and separate the consciousness of spirit from consciousness of matter.
Hansa also means “I am [aham] He [sa]” in the sense of conscious identity with God. Hansa (Sanskrit) The mystic swan or goose; representing divine wisdom beyond the reach of men. Exoterically, a fabulous bird which, when given milk mixed with water, drank only the milk and left the water, milk standing for spirit and water for matter. Anagrammatically, hamsa.
Etymology: Hansa from Medieval Latin, from Middle Low German hanse; Hanse from Middle English Hanze, from Middle French hanse, from Middle Low German
1 : a league originally constituted of merchants of various free German cities dealing abroad in the medieval period and later of the cities themselves and organized to secure greater safety and privileges in trading 2 : a medieval merchant guild or trading association. Han·se·at·ic
“han(t)-sE-‘a-tik/ noun or adjective.
Just a piece of additional worldly Hansa info’.
“Ridden on their backs”
I would reckon they were real “cool” experiences?
Yeah. I really loved riding them, I have to say. Mind you – it was a bit unnerving at first, because there are no handles or stirrups, there’s no anything, and the adults are up there – the ground is a long way down! But I got used to that, and it was very good fun. You sit on their necks, kind of tucked behind their ears; they reach up with their trunks sometimes to say hello; they plod gently around; there’s a great view.
“Elephant breeding is very difficult; we used to discuss it a lot when I was there,”
Will Chai get another chance at breeding? What do you reckon OB? Or will Hansa have been her last and only chance at breeding?
All the hard work that went into into breeding. It is just too bad. ID in relation to farm animals is just a piece of cake in comparison.
Did/does Chai eat a tremendous amount of food? What also was her/is favourite food item?
One would have to be very healthy/strong to work as a zoo-keeper?
ID, should have read <<>> AI.
Ophelia,
I’m sorry for your loss.
Is it true that the Seattle city govt has banned the display of exotic animals, Ophelia?
This seattle based beer drinker is mighty relieved that beer-guzzling elephants won’t be encroaching on his watering holes anytime soon:
http://www.beerchurch.com/Default.aspx?PageContentID=114&tabid=331
Thanks Don. (It’s not really my loss – it’s Chai’s and Tote’s and Boo’s, and the keepers’, and the zoo’s, and the public’s. I mean it’s not about Me. No less sad for that though.)
Marie-Therese,
Oh yes, Chai will get other chances at breeding – she could be pregnant now – but then again maybe not, because several attempts at AI have failed, so perhaps this one will too.
Yeah, the work that went into the successful breeding was colossal – shipping her away, and the stress that was for her and for the rest of her herd; and all the training during the gestation, including exercising her abs; and the keepers staying there 24 hours a day for the last few days before the birth; and the few seconds when they thought she’d been stillborn. I have a vivid memory of my colleague Ken Morgan solemnly (as is his wont) telling the tv news people that ‘Tragedy turned into ecstasy’ when she turned out to be alive.
Yes they all eat a lot; mostly hay (but also chow [a kind of biscuit; zoos have lots of different kinds of chow – feline chow, ungulate chow, etc], fruits and vegetables, branches, bamboo.
Zookeeping doesn’t always take huge strength – except sometimes when physically restraining the larger animals (for vet exam etc). I remember once being part of a whole gang holding down a bison calf; I had a back leg, and the calf gave a sudden violent struggle – I was able to keep my grip on the leg, but I went on a little trip as it flew back and forth; a front leg did get free and ripped a hole in the back of my shirt (which I didn’t even feel).
mirax,
Huh. I don’t know. That would have to mean ‘other than at the zoo and aquarium’ – the Seattle city govt is hardly about to close them down (and they’re both municipal facilities, although the Zoo is partly owned by the Seattle Zoological Society – or used to be; that may have changed).
Watering hole guy is silly – he says the beer-drinking elephants make a mess of the men’s room. Nonsense; there are far more cows in captivity than bulls. (That’s why Chai had to go to St Louis. Few zoos want to keep bull elephants. They’re a massive headache – which is unfortunate, because of the breeding problem.)
Holding down sheep for medicinal purposes is also tricky business, especialy if one or two for that matter – are females. I have in the past occasionally helped out with my cousins’ sheep duties and was many’s a time knocked about real badly. I pretty well soon after learned how to grab them fierce quickly by the hind legs. So I can fully appreciate what it is like for those who work with animals.
“scratched their tongues”
Yeah, how do you manage that task?
Did/does Chai go for “long” daily walks? How long is long? I would gather she needed/needs lots of stretching ‘cos elephants are so weighty, would that be correct?
What a rewarding and interesting job to have had? Eh, OB? You were lucky!
Scratching their tongues – you don’t really exactly scratch them, just kind of massage, just mess around with them. It’s an odd thing to like but they do! I remember being quite bemused when I was first told that, when I was first training. They make it very obvious that they like it though – they open their mouths wide and kind of present their tongues. (It sounds revolting! It’s not though. Although elephant people always reek of elephant – their trunks are always all over you, and they’re also always all over their own and each other’s bodies, so you’re basically in a mist of elephant all day. You don’t smell like a rose.)
Not long walks and not every day. That was (and is) a problem – they needed FAR more exercise than they ever got. Far more. It was kind of a revelation to us one year when Ringling Brothers came to town – we went down to the station to watch the elephants unloaded and then we tracked them (by car) from the station to the Center (Seattle Center, where the Space Needle is) where they were performing. We were amazed at how fast they went – we couldn’t keep up. They went at a dead run the whole way, about three miles. It was an amazing sight, really – 19 elephants tailed up (in a chain, trunk holding tail) running fast through downtown Seattle. We visited them and their keepers, too (Ken had worked for Ringling in Germany, so he knew them, so we were allowed in), and we noticed how thin they were compared to ours – and we realized how badly short of exercise ours were. That’s one reason captivity is not good for phants – it’s just not possible to give them enough exercise unless they have a huge amount of space – such as at the Sanctuary in Hohenwald.
Yeh, I was lucky, especially to work with the phants. That was a complete fluke, almost a fit of absence of mind on the part of the zoo.
And here was I thinking you got a big yard brush and a big ladder to reach Chai’s tongue to scratch it and that too of all the other ‘phants. Cor blimey, I am such a daft brush?
OB;
Did the elephants ever try to lift you up in the air with their trunks, like the ones one see in the film’s?
I have just been reading an article in the B&W News section. It is about the Dalits and the Hindu’s and the fighting that broke out between them and the Moslems. Gosh, it is enough to make one puke. How much worse can all this fighting get. I cannot describe what happened. It is SO, SO, SO, SO absolutely grotesque. It is enough to give one nightmares.
“It was an amazing sight, really – 19 elephants tailed up (in a chain, trunk holding tail) running fast through downtown Seattle”.
WOW! BRILLIANT STUFF! OB.
Your experiences with the elephants are indeed lovely ones to have indeed.
If you don’t mind me asking, how did you/does one get into zookeeping? My brother’s thinking of doing that (although I think it’s a bit of whimsy on his part – I don’t think he is massively serious about it). Any specific degrees needed (he’s currently struggling to choose what degree to take without any solid idea of what he wants to do long term). Would you recommend it as a line of work?
No argument from me about the beer church guy’s silliness but I was curious about the city authorities’ apparent decision and thought you might know.
Male elephants seem to be quite roguish, and the females are wise to stick to their matriachal herds.
On a minor note, I noticed the article about an Indian state that has banned proselytising by other religions on hindu sites. I actually read that article a couple of days ago and feel that it is somewhat biased. The ban actually covers all religions but that is not stated until the end of the article:
‘The chief minister said that the order will cover the places of worship of all religions.’
What’s so terrible about banning proselytisation of other faiths in the temples, mosques and churches of a religiously volatile country like India? To keep the peace?
Why all the vague statements about how far-reaching such a law is or the quote by an unnamed muslim legal expert on the ‘unconstitutionality’ of such a ban with not a single word of explanation or examples?
The article offers the opinion that the official recognition of the Tirumala temple complex is pandering to hindu organisations and makes note of the temple’s wealth. It is a more than a bit dishonest because the Indian government – state and federal – do not treat hindu temples, including tirumala on par with churches or mosques. No major hindu temple has control of its own wealth and assets – and no control over how its money is spent. The state does that and re-allocates excess funds to minority religions’ – subsidy of the muslim haj, subsidy for the building/maintenance of mosques and churches. How come the BBC never mentions that little fact?
The elephant chain running through Seattle – yeah, that was very cool. [smiling] That’s a fond memory. Just not something you see in the city streets every day.
No, no need to get on a ladder to pat their tongues – they’re within reach! I guess they wouldn’t be with a bull, but they are with cows.
Adult cows are just the right size for humans to hug them around the front leg. I liked to hug Boo around the front leg.
Speaking of height…once we were walking Tote out in the grounds and a visitor asked me if she was full grown and I said ‘No, she’ll get a lot taller.’ Ken said drily ‘Yes, she’ll be at least forty feet tall’ – and we all fell about laughing. Okay okay she wasn’t going to get a lot taller, but she was going to get taller.
Lifting with trunks – no – but other things. We trained them to do things; the thinking is that it’s good for them, gives them stuff to do, etc. Lifting logs for instance, the way working elephants do. Also a lot of positions they have to take so that keepers can give them baths, work on their feet, and so on.
mirax, thanks for the info on that article. Not such a minor note, perhaps. But if it’s just one state, perhaps that indicates it’s not generally seen as a good idea? I don’t know though – I know nothing about it.
Thomas,
A zoology degree certainly doesn’t hurt. The way I got into it was by volunteering. I didn’t know I was doing that when I started volunteering, I just thought it would be fun, but once I did I was entranced, and they offered me a job quite soon.
Very moving, OB, my condolences.
Re: Snap of Hansa with zookeeper.
“Hansa did not run out of things to do in her first year. Like any baby, she needed stimulation and toys to play with. Keeper Tommy Wood, who helped raise Hansa’s mother from age 1, said he already had the best job in Seattle and Hansa only made it better”.
Yeah, I second that – what a rewarding job to have indeed. Some people would give their eye-teeth to have it.
OB,
Sure, no wonder you were syrupy, maudlin , gushy, treacly sugary about the ‘’phant’s, the snap with Hansa playing with blue ball is classic.
I too am painfully reminded here of how important toys are for the formation/stimulation of the elephants. Toys, albeit, were non- existent to babies/infants/children while growing up in Goldenbridge institution.
Does the hay needed for diet have to be old like that of horses hay?
For digestion purposes of course? Do local Seattle farmers supply it to the zoo on a contract basis? Alternatively, or what? Do the zookeepers for elephant bedding purposes – use barleycorn straw?
Is there a special substance in the branches that make them edible for elephants?
I am familiar with horses and cattle and notice that their diet needs are somewhat comparable.
Horses/cattle dung makes very good fertiliser for plants/fields. Nothing goes to waste.
From other photographs viewed, I see that elephants are not as tall as was by me previously envisaged. Would that be to do with the enclosed environment, I wonder?
I have shown the photo’s from the gallery to Arif who works in the Internet Cafe here on the Halfpenny Bridge. He tells me that there is a forest nearby where he lives in Chittagong and it is full of wild elephants. He said that they there are very huge and very wild/dangerous. They apparently group together when they want to attack people. Talk about the herd mentality.
IS THAT NOT precisely WHAT HUMANS DO WHEN THEY FEEL THREATENED?
He tells me that they love to eat from banana trees. The Indians/Bangladeshi in recreational sports – such as football, also use elephants. They as well use them – for transport.
Tarif says one has to be so utterly careful with the wild elephants and run for cover immediately as they oftentimes go on stampedes and wipe out the paddy field crops, and even houses and villages.
OB,
Have you read our neighbor Eric Scigliano’s book Love, War and Elephants?
http://tinyurl.com/2mk2t7
DMS,
No, I haven’t, but Eric Scigliano interviewed me via email a year or so ago for an article he was writing. It was in some Seattle magazine that I’m not acquainted with though, so I’ve never read it.
My condolences on the loss. I now have a guess as to why it happened. The “Prickly City” comic today gave me a hint. Hansa came to realize what political party her image represented, and what some of their elected officials had done, and she died of disgust and/or a broken heart… Seriously, thanks for taking good care of them [elephants] when you did.
How wonderful for you to have known those elephants so closely, and so sad to have lost the dear little one. I got to see wild ones in Hwange and Vic Falls, and it was such a privilege.
O.B.This is probably a really dumb question (because I know almost nothing about elephants) but isnt it risky to scratch the tongue of a giant creature like this,what happens if it bites or coughs or acidently closes its mouth?.
Condolences, O.B.
I volunteer at the Cincinnati Zoo in the Reptile House. We recently lost Naga, the Komodo Dragon, which was very sad. The consolation was that he sired 32 babies which are in zoos all over North America.
Most people are surprised we form attachments to what are popularly thought of as “cold-blooded” automotons, but monitors or varanids – which Komodos are the largest members – are intelligent creatures with spatial memory equal to a cat’s (they plan ambushes, etc.) and can recognize their keeper out of group.
To Richard: I suppose scrathing an elephant’s tongue is considerably less risky than say…a Nile crocodile’s (lol).
Again, sorry for you loss
Richard,
It certainly is risky if the elephant doesn’t know and like you – it’s something you only do with an elephant that does like you. But otherwise it’s not. They don’t cough, and they know to be careful of humans – they don’t generally just accidentally bump into you. (In fact once at bath time Chai playfully bumped into Sri [another young phant who is now at another zoo – Chai was about 5, Sri about 4; both smaller than adults but still big] and sent her rocketing in my direction [I was only feet away] – Sri made a big effort and managed to stop herself from crashing into me. It was both impressive and touching.) (Also a good thing! I would have gone flying, or else been mashed, or perhaps both.)
Thanks for condolences, all.
Thanks for that O.B. it is intresting that elephants have people that they like and dislike, this is probably a sign of high intelligence.Was there a logic to their likes and dislikes or was it just random?
Barney: Sorry for the zoo’s/your loss of Naga. It is known to happen in threes! Thirty two, how about that, eh? I hope they were green ones? You know what I mean, Mise Eire and all that…one for every county! Sláinte chugat, Maith thú! Keep up the good work!
While I am at it – on an alternative Green note. The grand aul’ Duke of Drumcondra, by the sounds of it, will invariably be marching some of the thousand Green men up the Dail Dung Heap. I am pondering the thought that he might just make compost out of them whilst up there and come marching down – alone – smelling like a FF rose. As nothing sticks to him – for too long!
Not even, will I gather – the FFF petals or the dang, dopey, Dail dung.
[chortle, chuckle in a slimy manner]!
Sorry about the death of the elephant you knew and loved. They are magnificent beasts. What a privilege to work with them.
To Thomas:
Seconding OB, a degree in zoology/biology is the standard, but many zoos are changing their criteria and are looking for other specialties. My daughter, who is currently doing her internship in the reptile house, has her degree in Animal Science (a branch of agriculture focusing on animal husbandry) and is pursuing her interest in reproductive physiology. She will be starting her masters program in wildlife biology with a specialty in Herpetology. They are also looking for P.R. people, MBA’s and other business related fields as well. Now the downside – the hours are long and the pay is usually below average. You do it because you love it.
Marie-Therese: I’m not sure you would want Naga’s offspring loosed upon the verdant counties of Ireland. They’re rather nasty little buggers who’ll devour anything they can overpower. For example: a 50kg female dragon killed and gobbled down a 30kg pig in 17 minutes!
Richard, yes, elephants definitely have likes and dislikes, and they also need time to get to know people. The tongue-scratching thing is something only their keepers (or mahouts, in India and Thailand) can do. Strangers can’t get up close and personal with elephants in that way – something a lot of people don’t realize.
It’s hard to say why they do or don’t like particular people.
Thanks Barney and OB, much appreciated.