Most elephants love the water, and Tupelo and Baylor are no exception. Where there is a hose, pool, or even puddle, these two are probably not far away. While they love being in the water, swimming is something they have to learn. At the Houston Zoo, we start the babies off in small kiddie pools. These are a lot of fun, but it gets expensive as the pools usually only last one or two “swims”.
From there, they graduate into a big pool, but keepers do not fill the pool all the way up. We start by keeping the water about two feet deep and gradually fill it until they are comfortable moving about in the water. The new elephant yard which is slated to open this fall has an 80,000 gallon pool with terraced landings so the elephants can enjoy the water at various depths. At first, the pool will only be filled a few feet so that they can become familiar with the tiers, ramps, and contour of the pool. This process does not take long and before we know it, Baylor,Tupelo, and Tucker will most likely be spending the better part of the day romping in the pool. This series of videos shows Tupelo and Baylor’s first adventures into the adult elephant pool. Tupelo is fearless and pretty much dove right in to the water.
Baylor erred on the side of caution and took a more methodical approach. Once in, it was game on and getting them out of the pool then became a challenge.
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