Trunks, Tusks, and a Ton of Facts for World Elephant Day!

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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz.

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Speaker 2: Wuenel zis World. I'm Marco went.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife from around the world and uncovered fascinating animal facts. This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio's Ruby Studios and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.

00:00:26
Speaker 2: All Right, Rick, so you wrapped up our last episode about.

00:00:29
Speaker 3: Tigers and International Tiger Day by letting everyone know that we would spend this episode unpacking pacoderm facts and elaborate on elephant information for World Elephant Day.

00:00:41
Speaker 2: So what do you have in mind, friend, Well, to.

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Speaker 1: Be honest with you, Marco, it's a big topic with a lot to cover, a trunk full of information. One might say, okay, but all getting aside. Like we said with International Tiger Day, World Elephant Day is a day to help focus everyone's awareness on el and like tigers, elephants face a wide variety of challenges, but there are also a lot of great solutions we can do to help support them.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean, I know what you mean. We mentioned wildlife trafficking.

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Speaker 3: When we talked about tigers and elephants have had a long history of challenges with poaching or illegal hunting of them because some people want their tusks for ivory.

00:01:23
Speaker 1: All Drew Marco, so very true. And I want to talk more about the many challenges elephant's face and the many solutions we have found through elephant conservation. But before we get into that, I would love for us to learn more about elephants in general.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's a really good idea.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know everything about elephants, but I know a couple of cool facts, Like did you know that the word pachoderm originally was used in the seventeen hundreds as a part of taxonomy classification. It was once a scientific order to describe a variety of hulled animals like rhinos or tape air or bipotamus is, or elephants and even horses and pigs.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it wasn't the word also based on two Greek words or something like that.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, totally, the word pacoderm.

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Speaker 3: It's a combination of pakis meaning thick and derma meaning skin. And although the scientific order is no longer used, because we have more accurate taxonomy charts. Now the term is still sometimes used in reference to elephants.

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Speaker 1: Well, there you go, and I also happen to know a few facts about the largest living land mammal, but I think our audience would probably rather hear from an expert, so I have arranged for us to meet one of our wildlife care specialists at the Safari Park who just happens to be a part of the amazing team of people who care for our elephant heard.

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Speaker 2: All right, all right, let's go.

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Speaker 4: I am Katie Aubischon, and I am a wildlife care specialist with the elephants here at the Safari Park.

00:02:49
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Katie for joining us today.

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Speaker 3: It's a beautiful day, always a beautiful day here at the Safari Park.

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Speaker 1: Right, Well, Marco, it's a little more beautiful than usual. Hoy. Don't you tell everybody where we are?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, we're in a really unique location.

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Speaker 3: Unofficially I kind of call this place the Meadow, but for our guests, we've been here for a few years now.

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Speaker 2: The area used to be the old monorail path.

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Speaker 3: Behind what we refer to as Old Tigers and Old Lion Area, So it's a beautiful spot. I'm looking at some connifer trees. We're hearing the ravens Colin. You might even hear a red shoulder hawk vocalizing a little bit. And we're also behind Tiger Trail. There's that hawk right there. So a lot of cool wildlife. And also for a new guest who aren't familiar with the spot, we're actually behind our new area called Tiger Trail, very unique area that you can actually see a little bit when you cruise around Tiger Trail. And we're also by the Elephant Barn, which is why we picked out this really unique location.

00:03:36
Speaker 1: Terribly convenient, don't you think.

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Speaker 3: I think so, But I think everyone loves it right these unique spots around the park in this part for me too, like the park being eighteen hundred acres, it's just bread taking some of these special little spots around the conservation park where you can get it really a close look at nature.

00:03:51
Speaker 2: We're getting distracted a lot of times.

00:03:53
Speaker 1: Let's ask Katie, Katy, I want to know obviously this episode is about elephants. You have many years of experience with elephants. I think the first thing I want to ask ask you from your perspective, because both Mark and I have backgrounds and animal care for many, many years, what would you say is probably the most frequent thing you hear from guests that is a misnomer or myth or misunderstanding about elephants.

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Speaker 4: So several guests actually often refer to elephant tusks as horns, and they're very different. Actually, Elephant tusks, or a lot of people have referred to them in the past as ivory, are made out of a type of dentin that are continuously growing, much like I guess a horn for an antelope, but very different makeup. And there's a very vascular pulp that goes into that tusk.

00:04:37
Speaker 1: Isn't the tusk actually considered a tooth.

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Speaker 4: Yes, modified incisor yeah, so it's definitely dentin. So when you hear of old pianos made of ivory, it's just elephant teeth. You're tickling an elephant teeth right there.

00:04:58
Speaker 1: That's one way to put it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Katie, I got to ask you because you've been here at the Safari Park was.

00:05:03
Speaker 2: It two years now? Yes?

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Speaker 4: Just about two years?

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Speaker 2: That's amazing And can you tell us where did he come from? Before that?

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Speaker 4: I have worked with elephants since about twenty seventeen, and right before this, I was in zue Atlanta working with some elephants over there. A lot of people probably remember Mischolo from the Safari Park here and he moved over to zu Atlanta, so I also know big Boy Macholo. So he's actually one of the reasons I decided to move out here because he really drove my passion for elephants home with how amazing he is.

00:05:35
Speaker 1: He talked about how great, yeah, yeah, he was, like the beaches, the.

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Speaker 2: Weather, it's pretty great.

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Speaker 1: Great.

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Speaker 3: I love that connectivity to different organizations working together, and particularly with elephant conservation, right, and you were just talking about ivory. Can you talk a little bit more about that need or that impact that elephants are having with wildlife trafficking too, Right, that's kind of a big issue going on with this species.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely.

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Speaker 4: Wildlife trafficking is affecting a lot of vannimals right now, and one of the biggest things with elephants is poaching for their ivory, and people are still buying it on purpose or accidentally on the black market or just in an antique mall. So it's definitely still a prevalent thing. I think with African elephants right now, one of the biggest things is habitat loss and human elephant conflict in the sense of they're losing their homes and people are just trying to live over in Africa with the elephants, and sometimes they're doing it unsuccessfully.

00:06:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the great things we learned from a previous interview in an earlier episode is how technology is helping so many species and one of those things is you know, satellite tracking callers for the elephants to get an idea where those herds, what do they actually need and where can populations of humans maybe live instead, and you know, working with their natural needs and that sort of thing. So it is a topic worth discussing, and definitely it's great to see that so many people from different walks of life, you know, engineers and robotics and computer science is are helping out with that as well. And that does play into World Elephant Day which is coming up. And one of the reasons we want to talk to you to learn more about elephants and talk about things we need to raise awareness for what's going on with them. And I led with that question about what do you think most people would misunderstand or have a myth about elephants, because I think speaking with you offers up a unique opportunity for us and for our audience. You know, Mark and I we've been around elephants before, but it's fun to hear from the people who actually spend their day with elephants, and that's not something too many people get to do.

00:07:31
Speaker 4: I'm very lucky. I know that for sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so I guess my next question. And I know sometimes it's hard because we do this day in and day out, we sometimes lose sight of how unique it is. But what would for you, like, what's that thing right every now? And you just stop and go, Wow, this is my life. You know, when you're around elephants. What is there any particular moments or something that happens that you're spending time with these magnificent, intelligent animals that you're like, Wow.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, I'm fortunate enough to have those experience is on a daily basis when I'm working here. So these elephants, they're brilliant animals and they have ginormous personalities. And when you as a human click with an elephant and your personalities mesh, even just for a moment or a training session or a simple little walk by. It's just it's We're lucky. We're very lucky.

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Speaker 2: It's surreal, I know, you know, this is exactly why we do what we do.

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Speaker 3: Right, these special relationships that we start building with wildlife and in part with all that conservation work that we do too, it makes you, I mean selfishly right, It makes it feel good that you're part of a greater project taking care of the beautiful herd here at the Safari Park, managing that wonderful herd, and also like being connected to that conservation work.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 3: But I'm also I think right now, of all the kids, I would just love to ask you all these questions about elephants, and I have some of myself, so I really want to tell me, friend, tell me your day, your morning. What is like the first thing you do in the morning when you take care of these amazing animals.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, first thing is we'll pick up their food, their bales of hay and their produce and get food together for their morning. Elephants eat about sixteen to eighteen hours a day, so that's the first thing we want to do, and that's the first thing they want from us, of course, because they've gone without seeing us for a couple of hours, and we want to give them food right away, so we'll stuff hay cubes for them or hay nets and make sure we get food to them right away. And like this morning, we tossed a couple of flakes of hay to the elephants and that's how we said good morning to them, and they were obviously very grateful and thankful for the hey that they know is coming to them every day. But it's just nice.

00:09:44
Speaker 1: Such topic of starting with breakfast. Yes, I remember reading somewhere that's like it's a couple hundred pounds of food a day an adult elephant. You happen to that on rof top of your head. I can look it up later, but I'm just curious if you have to remember.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it depends on the elephant. But we say about one hundred and fifty for each adult.

00:10:02
Speaker 1: One and fifty pounds of food. And you got to keep in mind that is hey, that's leafy material, so it's not like it's a dense heavy but that's a lot of volume. Is a lot of one hundred and fifty.

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Speaker 3: Pounds, Yeah, Honestly, I was going to make the joke because I remember in days in the bird department going in and grabbing my items for my birds, even a big cassowary, whether it be a quarter of a watermelon as an example. And then I see the elemphant crew roll up there big, all trucks and cases of fruit and veggies.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it is ridiculous amount of food. I see you guys picking up in the morning.

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Speaker 4: But it needs you, right, yeah, absolutely, And we're picking up about right now, like seven bales of hay for our eight elephant herd. And then of course Mousey gets his own set of hay at the moment, so like we're picking up a lot of hay, and then produce is a whole other ballpark. So that's only a small fraction of their diet. We only feed out a couple pounds per elephant of that a day, only.

00:11:00
Speaker 1: A couple pounds.

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Speaker 2: That's all just a couple of pounds full.

00:11:03
Speaker 1: Of blueberries at breakfast, but a couple of pounds of food.

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Speaker 3: I mean, first noting to you, this is like the largest land mammal on the planet, right, I mean, it is an impressive species. And we were talking about giraffes and tigers in the past two and for me, elephants are one of those species. When you even say the word to guess, their eyes just light up, you know. So it's great to offer that experience here at the Safari Park. Can you describe the herd a little bit for our guests in case they're not familiar with the herd that we have here at the Safari Park.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely.

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Speaker 4: We have nine African elephants here at the Safari Park and there are ages range from about thirty three to four almost five. Zuli actually turns five on World Elephant Day, Oh right, yeah right, and then Makayah is six weeks right behind Zuli, so that she's turning five in September, and then we'll have little five year olds running around. So our herd is really phenomenal. The three moms have been here since two thousand and three, and the herd has grown with them as they have had babies, and we've had two males here that have helped with those babies, and then they have since left and we've had I think at one point it was eighteen elephants here and now we're down to nine as we've moved elephants naturally around throughout the country to help with that conservation action we were talking about.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that's worth noting too, is that, you know, we all recognize that elephants are incredibly social animals. But to your point saying that we had eighteen now we have nine, is as the youngsters grow into adulthood, often in the while the herds will split. Sometimes a female will take some of the others with her and she becomes the matriarch of her new split off herd. Other times males will leave and create bachelor herds. And that's what's really cool. You had mentioned that, you know, being into Atlanta, you worked with an elephant that had been here. A lot of that work that we do for conservation and for maintaining the health of the herds is to also offer up those opportunities for herds to split, and we follow the dynamics that they're showing us to make that happen. I think that's so cool how that works. And to what Marco was asking to talk about our herd as well, I am curious as these youngsters now get into that five six seven age range. Obviously we're just beginning at turning five and whatnot. But what do you expect to see from them as they're now kind of coming out of that youthful toddler stage and now they're starting that sort of I don't want to say, maybe young teenager or preteen age at that point.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we can expect to see these guys develop some really cool personalities, and they already really have. We're already seeing Makaia kind of try and find her way about the herd and gain confidence with individual elephants. And she's a very confident little girl, so she's going to do really well with this herd. I can already tell she has reverence from Swaze, our matriarch, and Indula is her aunt, maybe not by blood, but active aunt, and those two actively take care of her as well as of course the other three juvenile girls, Cammy, Cosey and Nissa love taking care of Makayah. And then of course I don't want to forget Makaya's mom. I'mgani, who is the beautiful big tusker we have here in our herd. So Makaia is going to really find her own footing here in her herd. Zulie, like I said, is Also, he's turning five on World Elephant Day. He's very rambunctious, maybe not as confident as little Makaia. He's much of a mama's boy, but I think that's how his mom and doula really likes it. And he'll come to his own eventually as well. But we'll see how that goes for him.

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Speaker 2: I totally get that. I'm a mama's boy for sure.

00:14:51
Speaker 3: I'm actually right now where you're talking of thinking about like these elephants growing up. We think of them like either hatching or being born and learning how to walk right, And I know some of our favorite tools like a multi kit, you know, Leatherman is an example. But I'm thinking with elephants, that's got to be their trunk, right, I mean, is it like a thousand muscles in the trunk?

00:15:07
Speaker 1: Is that right?

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Speaker 4: That's a complicated question, I'll be honest, okay, because an elephant trunk is very complex and we have yet to narrow down like an exact number on how many muscles are exactly in an elephant trunk. We estimate about like forty five thousand muscles, and like you can get into more intense details about like one hundred thousand muscle units and whatnot. But that trunk is pure muscle and it's way more complex than we still even know about. So we're still learning a lot about that elephantry.

00:15:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, you bring up a good point because I think sometimes people look at how the trunk moves and they assume there must be some sort of bones in there or something, because they can pick up trees and they can knock things over and tear boulders out, and so I think people look at that like, oh, it's like a grasping tail that a monkey would have. It's got these bones in it probably, Yeah, But you're right, it's all muscle. It's all of it is.

00:16:00
Speaker 4: It's literally just a nose. It's two nostrils at the tip of that trunk and it goes all the way up into their sinus cavity in between their two tusks, and that's their nose. That's how they're able to smell. But it's also how they're able to grasp and pick up large tree branches or even just a small blade of grass.

00:16:19
Speaker 1: That's what's so amazing exazzing.

00:16:21
Speaker 3: Oh, I know, and do babies have to learn how to use that trunk up? Is it kind of you when you want some do that.

00:16:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, I highly recommend going on YouTube and looking at baby elephants playing with their trunk and learning how to use it because it's so much fun. They really have to learn how to suck up water with that trunk and not drink it all the way up into their nasal cavity. I don't know if you've ever accidentally done that while swimming, or water up your nose. It's kind of painful at first.

00:16:48
Speaker 1: So that brings up a good point.

00:16:49
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:16:49
Speaker 1: One of the myths I hear often is people believe that they use their nose or their trunk like a straw and they just drink right up from it into their mouth. But you're sharing with us a perfect segue into that, which is that it goes of the sinuses, and the kids, the little ones have to learn how not to do that, because they really just fill the trunk up to a certain point and then turn around and then blow that water into their mouths.

00:17:09
Speaker 4: Yep, exactly, they can hold. I think it's depends on, of course, on the elephant and the size of their trunk, but I've seen an elephant suck about two and a half gallons up in one go with his trunk and blow it into his mouth and that's how they they drink water. It's very very cool.

00:17:26
Speaker 3: Katie can ask you one of my favorite questions is what's your favorite elephant behavior that you get to see? Like for me, for birds, it's like bathing birds bathing, they love it, absolutely love it. Yes, for elephants, what is it for you? What's your favorite?

00:17:36
Speaker 1: Oh?

00:17:36
Speaker 4: I think it's got to be something similar to that. I love watching them swim. We have a massive pool in our elephant habitat. And when I see like all eight of those elephants in that pool together, Yeah, getting.

00:17:51
Speaker 2: Their swim trunks on an elephant kiki.

00:17:56
Speaker 4: They're trumpeting, they're obviously just having a good time, so social bonding and playing together. And when you see the babies playing with Big Swazi and just having a good time, it's really enjoyable to watch.

00:18:10
Speaker 2: Oh, that's awesome. It's a social structure too.

00:18:12
Speaker 3: I want to point out, yes, I mean I love it because you said the word matriarch, And in case kids an't familiar with it, I mean it's a female based social structure, right, So like I got my grandma Ma have Wolita and my ideas, my aunts.

00:18:22
Speaker 2: It's kind of like that sort of scenario.

00:18:24
Speaker 4: Right, Yes, And I think that's one of the things that drew me to elephants originally, was their matriarchal society. So a female is in charge kind of of the family group of the herd of elephants, and usually it tends to be the older female, the more wise female, And it's fascinating watching these elephants just regard this female so highly, and they have a lot of power in their hands, and it's usually females that seem like they are don't want the power, They're just there to keep things in order. And that's kind of what I see a little bit here with at least Swazi. It seems like she's just the calm, cool, collected leader. She's just here to keep everyone in order, and she's just a great, great matriarch for our herd.

00:19:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. I remember when I was visiting our conservation partners many many years ago, two thousand and nine, I think it was in Botswana, and they were saying, how to what you just said where you can always tell the matriarch even in a new herd, because it's usually the female that's the calmest and tends to be just observing everybody else where. The ones that aren't in charge tend to be a little more on edge about who's doing what and where and am I gonna get in trouble for doing this? But they were also saying that that leadership is the female makes that decision when it's time to move on, when it's time to go to the watering hole, when it's time to go wherever. So it's a really interesting setup to understand and learn the social structure of the elephants. And I can really appreciate that matriarchal position, being that once they're there, they're a little more cool, calmic, collect because they know they're in charge. No one can't ask any questions.

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Speaker 4: I mean, I guess I would be if I were them too, But then you have a the whole weight of the herd on your shoulders as well, so I could see how that should also on the other side of it be just as stressful.

00:20:06
Speaker 1: A little bit of pressure, yeah, pressure, yeah.

00:20:08
Speaker 3: Oh, And I mean it really highlights the importance of those structures too, right when you think about like habitat fragmentation or just families being broken up.

00:20:15
Speaker 2: It really affects those family units.

00:20:17
Speaker 3: So it makes me really happy and thankful for you and the crew for all the work that you're doing, and all our conservation researchers that are Savannah Hub in Africa as well, with all the work they're doing with elephants, because we all know Rick and I and you that it's a flag subspecies. I mean, helping out an elephant, man, you're helping out so much wildlife. I can speak to the birds, secretary, birds, penguins, I mean the whole right, such a variety of wildlife that benefit humans included, right for having elephants around.

00:20:41
Speaker 1: Yes, well, that's one of the big things we learned a couple episodes ago was that it's the community conservation that's really having the biggest impact. It's the people that live amongst the wildlife that are really helping make the biggest difference. And I think that's true for elephants as well. Once we get a better understanding of how the communities and the herds can all interact safely or live in the same space safely, that really what's gonna be important. And I know we're getting ready to wrap up here, but I do have one other cool question I want to ask because I think it's fascinating and I think our kids that are listening might find it really interesting as well when our kids are growing up. When we were growing up, you lose your baby teeth, it wiggles a little bit and it comes out, and then a new one comes in later on another one's wiggly, and we have twenty some odd teeth that we go through, et cetera. But elephants are different. I remember the first time I saw an elephant open its mouth. Yeah, I was like, what in the world is in its mouth? Because the way the teeth are structured. At first, it just didn't make sense to me how that worked. Can you tell us a little bit about the teeth and the sense of how they're structured, and then what is their cycle of losing teeth and how it's similar and different than us.

00:21:47
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:21:47
Speaker 2: Absolutely.

00:21:48
Speaker 4: I remember when I first saw inside of an elephant mouth for the first time as well. And you would think a massive animal would have more teeth than we do. But elephants only have four teeth in their mouth, four and they're about the size of small bricks, so that makes up for the size of their mouth and to be.

00:22:10
Speaker 1: Clear, it's a brick laying on its side. It's not brick pointing up like we think. Maybe our teeth are more pears right right, others are laying more. If it's a brick visual you're thinking of, it's like a brick laying flat, which gives it that surface for grinding.

00:22:23
Speaker 4: Yes, it's like a molar, a very large molar, and that's what it is used for for grinding up all the hay and the leaf material and the bark from the trees that we give them. And they actually get six teeth in their lifetime, six sets. So they have their baby teeth when they get their first baby teeth, and then they lose those pretty quickly, and then they have their second teeth, and as they get older, their molars last longer. So instead of lasting only a year when they have those first baby teeth, maybe their fourth set will last ten fifteen years, depending on what they eat and how they take care of them. And elephant teeth are phenomenal. They are almost like a conveyor about the new teeth come in from the back and push those old teeth out and they flake off in big chunks. So we've found a couple of elephant teeth out in our yard here and there, and it's just so much fun when we find we've found a big elephant too, And then we all are checking each of our elephants mouths, like, oh, it's not im Ghani's still not all of her teeth intact.

00:23:30
Speaker 2: What side of mount for the tooth? Fair? You guys, I don't even know right, feel like going right?

00:23:37
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:23:38
Speaker 2: Like quarter? So maybe we'll leave it to the tooth.

00:23:42
Speaker 1: There you go there, and then what would you what would the tooth lea an elephant like a couple of flakes of hay?

00:23:46
Speaker 2: Probably lucky.

00:23:51
Speaker 1: Then one last question before we wrap up. I love asking a wild life care specialists for you, obviously, just listening to you share about what you know about elephants. You're very you love them. What is it that gets you up and going? And what's it like to know that you're part of the bigger picture and not only just taking care of the individuals here, but the impact our elephants have on the visitors here and the impact the researchers have that work with your elephants for elephants all over the world.

00:24:15
Speaker 4: Absolutely, that's a wonderful question. I personally enjoy elephants every day I come to work because I get to connect with these animals in a unique way, and I know that my work impacts them on the day to day and I want to do better every day for this herd, for these animals individuals, and then in a bigger, broader sense, one of my favorite things is sharing these elephants with the guests that come to the park and watching them light up when I tell them a story about elephants bathing and having a pool party or going into the mud and throwing mud all over themselves. And watching the guests connect with the elephants that way, and knowing that I maybe helped them with that A little bit a little selfish on my but it me up in the morning.

00:25:04
Speaker 1: I love it.

00:25:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's worth dorowning.

00:25:07
Speaker 3: You and guests are just part of this experience, not just a wide love care crew. But also you know, kudos to your nutritional services are making those amazing diets right, horticulture for helping you out allulture.

00:25:17
Speaker 2: Right props or horticulture.

00:25:18
Speaker 3: But everybody and especially you, guess up there, I know. Come to the Safari Park of the San Diegazoo this summer celebrate World Elephant Day, right, and just get connected to these projects that we do all over the world, and especially with these amazing packaderms.

00:25:30
Speaker 4: Yes, please do well.

00:25:32
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Katie. You really appreciate you spending time with us today.

00:25:35
Speaker 2: Thank you both.

00:25:36
Speaker 1: This was fun.

00:25:36
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks man.

00:25:41
Speaker 3: It was so great talking to Katie and I really liked how she shared with us a unique brick like teeth and the multiple sets of teeth elephant have.

00:25:49
Speaker 1: And how she described the nuances of the trunk thousands of muscles, no bones, and yet still able to uproot trees or pick up a single blade of grass.

00:25:57
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and what was it around like one hundred and fifty pounds of food a day?

00:26:02
Speaker 2: I mean, no wonder the use tracts to clean up back.

00:26:05
Speaker 1: All right, so true. Now, our talk with Katie was what I was hoping it would be. It gave us more of a personal look at elephants and hopefully allowed our listeners to feel a little more connected to the elephants through Katie. And that's important because the day after this episode comes out is World Elephant Day, like we mentioned at the beginning of the show.

00:26:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly right, Rick and World Elephant day is set aside for everyone to come together and remind the world that elephants they really need our help.

00:26:31
Speaker 2: I mean the preservation of.

00:26:32
Speaker 3: Habitat, minimizing human elephant conflict, and making sure we all work together to create a world where all life can thrive.

00:26:41
Speaker 1: It's really important, well said Marco, very well said. And like Katie had mentioned, one of the big challenges elephants have historically faced is being poached for ivory. It's hard to believe, but some poachers will illegally hunt and kill elephants just to take their tusks only. And although this is still a problem, the demand for ivory or tuss has slightly gone down in the last few years, a trend we hope to continue to see.

00:27:04
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, definitely, And we need to mention that it's things like World Elephant Day, raising awareness and large scale public education programs across the globe that have helped people change their behavior and slow down the demand for things made of ivory like earrings.

00:27:19
Speaker 2: Or necklaces, to large sculptures and so much more.

00:27:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the work isn't over yet. Of course, we need to see that demand go down even further. I'd love to see it go to zero in fact, because honestly, ivory looks best and is most important to the elephants, not to us for trinkets and decoration. You know, wildlife conservation for elephants is a huge undertaking, pun intended. So not only can our listeners help elephants by adding their voice and raising awareness during World Elephant Day, but also in supporting San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and our many partners. And you can find out more about our conservation efforts and how you can help by going to SDZWA dot org. Yeah.

00:27:54
Speaker 3: I mean, it's so exciting to see all that we're doing and Rick that reminds me.

00:27:59
Speaker 2: I mean, we did your day and now Elephant Day. Of course.

00:28:02
Speaker 3: Are we gonna visit one of our conservation hubs anytime soon?

00:28:05
Speaker 1: Oh? So glad you asked, Marco. I just booked us earlier today, in fact, a visit with the gorillas because we're diving into the African Forest Hub next.

00:28:14
Speaker 3: Ooh, right on, I know a few people that will go ape over that topic. Oh brother, come on, you're only mad because I did the pun before you go.

00:28:23
Speaker 1: Okay, that's probably true. All right, amazing wildlife listeners be sure to subscribe and tune into our next episode, which Marko and I find out more about one of the largest primates on the planet.

00:28:36
Speaker 2: I'm Marco What and I'm Rick Schwartz.

00:28:38
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to SDZWA dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio's Ruby Studios. Our supervising producer is Nikia Swinton and our sound designer and editor is Sierra Spreen. For more shows from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.