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George Smith - Senior Elephant
Keeper
We recently caught up with George Smith - the Senior
Elephant Keeper at Miami MetroZoo. Our chief editor for
this edition of Cool Careers - Elisha from South Miami
Elementary (7 years old and
already a great reporter!) asked him a bunch of questions.
What do you
do in your job every day?
Well, here at the zoo we have a total of 6 elephants. When
we come in the morning we make sure all the elephants are
healthy. We do their feeding, we bathe them, we do their
toe nails, and then we do any research projects. We do
blood draws from the elephants once a week and take urine
samples, this helps our zoo and other zoos breed the
elephants better - we want to make sure that more elephant
babies are born in captivity. So, it takes us until about
noon to do the basic cleaning, and the afternoon is spent
on playing, conditioning of the elephants, and enrichment
- we'll cut some trees down for the elephants so they can
play with them. In the afternoon, we also do a
"keeper talk" with visitors to the zoo. We try
to educate the public into what we're doing here at the
zoo, also what's going on in the world with the elephants
and what's happening in the wild. If you just come by and
see the elephants in the zoo, you wouldn't know how
endangered they are! We try to make the elephant more
visible to the public so that they can recognize that this
is a wonderful animal that needs protection.
How did you
become an elephant keeper?
I grew up around elephants and lions. I was only 4 years
old when my dad was working with elephants, lions and
tigers, so I always had animals around me. When I was 14
I was already taking care of and raising baboons and lion
cubs, leopard cats and other animals. At 17 I began
working professionally with elephants. I did that for
about 8 years, and I left and worked in the construction
business for 9 years. But I wanted to work with elephants
so much that I came to MetroZoo and here I am!
 Do
elephants have personalities?
Elephants are just like people…! You have nice
elephants, you have aggressive elephants… For example,
Nelly here is a very sweet elephant, she'll beg for food
any time she can. She is also a highly intelligent
elephant. Dahlip, over there [George pointed to the
elephant behind Nelly. Not shown on photo], is a very good bull - but
he's very picky, he won't eat anything that is green, like
broccoli.
Which one
is your favorite elephant?
We only have 6, and it's kind of hard to have a favorite.
I kind of like Dahlip because of his size. Its fun to do
stuff with him because he is so big. Dahlip is 35 years
old. Nelly is 32.
Do you like
your job?
Oh, I love my job! In order to work with elephants
effectively you have to love them unconditionally. When
you go home, you often wonder what you're going to do the
next day with your elephants. They are the type of animal
that demands that.
Where do
the elephants go in a hurricane?
In the barn - it is a concrete and steel structure; it is
very solid and the wind would go through but nothing would
happen to elephants. They are pretty safe in the barn!
What kind
of trees do you put in for the elephants?
We have a fake concrete baobab on the outside and a real
tree inside. This way I have shade available for the
elephants. If I just had trees on exhibit, the elephants
would take them right down. They are immensely strong!
I've seen an elephant lift an 8,000 lb rhino and
walk with it! The reason elephants are actually used for
logging is that their pulling power is so great. Horses
only pull on even plane, but elephants pull forward and up
at the same time. So, if something is lodged in the ground
an elephant can actually pull it up.
Do
elephants exercise?
If we didn't
keep them exercised we wouldn't be doing our job! Like
Nelly - she was 10,890 pounds when I got her - that was way
too heavy for her! I put her on a diet and an
exercise plan, because we wanted her to carry a baby.
So, we do stretches and lay-downs, we make her sit
up - that way I know the muscles in her tummy are strong
enough to carry a baby. I also need to walk her at least
an hour a day, when she becomes pregnant so the baby
doesn't get too fat. If it does, she won't be able to give
birth to it safely. Elephants typically have one baby at a
time. They carry it for 22 months (there are, however,
rare cases of twin elephants in the wild in Africa)
Elephants have a baby every 4-7 years in the wild. Babies
nurse from 2-7 years of age. Male calves typically nurse
less, because the tusks will become annoying to the mom.
The female will typically bond with the mom from 4 to 7 years
- and she will thus learn how to be a mom.
Is it true
that elephants don't forget?
Their memory is no better or worse than a human's. You
know how there are times you wish you remembered something -
and then the stupidest thing you remember all your life?
Well, elephants are like that too! I have an African
elephant here at the zoo, and for some reason, I can go around
any other animal at our exhibits, and that does not affect
her, but when I go near the Cape hunting dogs she will not
come in the barn with me! The other elephants don't care
about the smell of the Cape hunting dog but she does!. The only thing we could figure
out was that when she was in Africa, Cape hunting dogs
must have been harassing her as a baby elephant and she
remembered that.
Do they
really like peanuts?
That story about elephants and peanuts is kind of a "wives
tale." It all began in the circuses. Circuses were selling
peanuts to the public and they got the idea to give them
to the elephants as well. But if you throw a bag of peanuts and an
orange to the elephants, they'll go for the orange. They
will eat peanuts, but kind of grudgingly. We feed them any
kind of produce… anything you can think of - even
onion tops. Elephants have personalities - some like
hot peppers some bell peppers. I go to the produce stands
here once a week and buy 50 - 60 lbs of tomatoes per
elephant. I feed them lettuce occasionally, and about 12 -
20 lbs of carrots, lots of corn, watermelons, and pumpkins! We also feed them a lot of coconuts. If the
coconuts are still green, the elephants can eat them
whole; if they're ripe, they'll break them apart and just pull
out the white meat. Some elephants will put them in their
mouth and pop them, others will step on them and crush
them - it depends on their personality!
Thank you
for the interview, George!
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