Follow us as we blog about the Houston Zoo’s family of elephants. From births, habitat expansion, and worldwide elephant news, we cover it all.
_
A lot of zoo guests have a noticed a new elephant in the exhibit while visiting the zoo. But, it is not really a new elephant to the Houston Zoo. In fact, the elephant is Thai the zoo’s adult bull and father of Baylor and Tupelo. Thai has been spending a lot of quality time [...]
Continue Reading Who’s Your Daddy?
With Spring approaching and the temperatures slowly rising, kids all over Houston are starting to think about swimming and playing outside. The baby elephants at the Houston Zoo are no exception. Now that Baylor weighs more than 1,100 pounds and Tupelo about 600 pounds, the small, inflatable pools do not last longer than 5 minutes without getting [...]
Continue Reading Elephant Calves are ready for Spring!
Our elephant calves, Baylor and Tupelo, have certainly kept us busy the past few months, but we are welcoming 2011 with excitement and anticipation. On January 3rd, Baylor turned 8 months old, and just one day later Tupelo turned 3 months old! It is hard to imagine just how small they were at birth (if you [...]
Continue Reading Time flies when you’re having fun!
Back in June, the Texas coast was hit by Tropical storm Alex. The Houston area was on the outskirts of the storm, but experienced several days of heavy rainfall. While most of us were trying to stay dry, there were at least 5 large grey pachyderms soaking up the rain and one of them appeared [...]
Continue Reading It’s raining, it’s pouring, Baylor is NOT snoring.
Baby elephants love to climb and explore new things. While Tucker is not new to Baylor, Tucker is still the perfect thing to climb on. These two bulls have had a great relationship since the day they met. It is good to have young elephants together, so that they can spar, play, and burn some [...]
Continue Reading Who Needs a Jungle Gym, I Have a Big Brother!
The first time Tupelo went into the exhibit yard to meet the rest of the herd was an exciting time for the Elephant care team and elephants alike. The sound of trumpets, rumbles, and chirps from the elephants could be heard throughout the zoo. All of the elephant quickly ran over to Tess, Tupelo, and [...]
Continue Reading Who’s the New Girl?
October is Zoo Boo time at the Houston Zoo, and for the Asian Elephant herd that means one thing: pumpkins! Elephants are herbivorous animals and are naturally fond of many varieties of produce. Because they are primarily a fall seasonal item, pumpkins are an excellent source of food enrichment for our herd. Every Saturday and Sunday [...]
Continue Reading It’s Pumpkin Time!
Baylor dusting himself. Baby Baylor learned a new life skill this past week. To many, it may seem like he’s doing nothing more than making a mess, but to an elephant, it is a necessity. What is this behavior you ask? It is dusting. It takes baby elephants awhile to develop the necessary trunk control [...]
Continue Reading A Dirty Elephant is a Happy Elephant
A lot of our guests ask how zoo staff comes up the names for the elephants. Just like when a child is named, a lot of thought goes in it. Baylor got his name from the Baylor College Medicine. Baylor College Medicine (BCM) has been heavily involved in Elephant Herpes research for the past 18 [...]
Continue Reading She’s as Sweet as Tupelo Honey!
