Each month, as Nandi bounds closer to her first birthday on Aug. 20, we will keep you in the know on what鈥檚 new with this precious pachyderm鈥檚 progress.
Sue Tygielski, Reid Park Zoo鈥榮 elephant manager, has the skinny on 蜜柚直播鈥檚 big baby.
Age: Another month gone. Nandi hits 10 months on Saturday.
Weight: 880 pounds.
The wallow: Nandi is out to become a world-class wallower. Sometimes, the love for mud even trumps the love for Mom.
鈥淪omething that has been kind of interesting is some of the herd will go swimming, Mom will go off eating on her own, and Nandi will go to the mud wallow by herself, on her own for a long time,鈥 Tygielski says. 鈥淪he goes in and swamps around a lot and gets mud on one side and kicks and flips over and will stand in the wallow, kicking. She really likes to kick. We put more water in the wallow as it鈥檚 getting hotter, and she just likes to splash.
People are also reading…
鈥淚t鈥檚 a giant baby pool with some mud.鈥
Still no pool?: As of last week, sadly no. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit of a bummer,鈥 Tygielski says. 鈥淲e thought it would happen more, but there haven鈥檛 been that many 100-degree days.鈥
Maybe it鈥檚 time to bring on the heat.
鈥淎s summer heats up, we鈥檙e hoping she is going to start enjoying the pool more.鈥 It鈥檚 a selfish hope, Tygielski admits, because if she鈥檚 that cute playing in the mud, just imagine this pachyderm paddling, snorkeling through the pool with her trunk aloft.
Tractor terrors: Don鈥檛 mess with this elephant. 鈥淲e use a tractor to make sand piles and dirt piles for the elephants and to mix up the mud wallow,鈥 Tygielski says. 鈥淪he ran as close as she could get and trumpeted at the tractor, so that was pretty sweet.鈥
Quite puzzling: As Nandi鈥檚 diet matures, she continues to mimic the other elephants. 鈥淥n the perimeter of the exhibit, along the rock wall, it has puzzle feeders in the wall, holes with hay and leaves and branches,鈥 Tygielski says. 鈥淭he elephants reach in for food and she is starting to do that... I don鈥檛 know how much she is getting, but she is picking up what they are pulling out.鈥
Her 鈥減erson鈥: While Nandi hasn鈥檛 learned any new behaviors in training since last month, she has developed a sense of entitlement. 鈥淪he is getting more spunky, wanting to climb and reach toward our faces, and we have to wait for her to settle down,鈥 Tygielski says. 鈥淪he will follow us. When she goes to train, someone takes her mom, and the second person works with her. When the second person is not available, she鈥檚 looking for her own person. She鈥檚 like, 鈥榃ait. Is there somebody for me?鈥 If you鈥檙e a moment late, she鈥檚 like, 鈥楾here you are!鈥欌
