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This story made me feel good is all. - Perdita
Tinkerbelle, an 8,000-pound Asian elephant and one of the country's most political animals, finally left the San Francisco Zoo on Sunday for a Sierra foothills sanctuary -- after almost nine months of turmoil. She said goodbye to her oceanside home of 36 years just after 9 a.m. and arrived 3 1/2 hours later at the Ark 2000 refuge, run by the Performing Animal Welfare Society, or PAWS, in the Calaveras County town of San Andreas. Located 123 miles east of San Francisco, the 2,300-acre sanctuary includes hills, lakes, trees, a pachyderm Jacuzzi and, most importantly, other elephants.
"Tinkerbelle was very calm," said Bob Jenkins, director of animal care and conservation at the zoo. "And she liked the trailer so much that she didn't want to come out. She stayed inside until 2:30." Nineteen zoo employees and eight people from PAWS assisted in the move. Her motorized escort to PAWS included one vehicle filled with her toys. "Her truck tires and her balls and all the things she's so fond of," Jenkins said. "It's just like when people go to strange places. They like to take familiar things with them. This will help her in the acclimation process. "
Tinkerbelle, 38, hadn't moved anywhere since arriving from Thailand at the age of 2 -- and nobody was about to rush her. "We're on elephant time now," PAWS founder Pat Derby had said when the move was first announced. For the San Francisco Zoo, the clock started ticking on March 7. Asian elephant Calle died that day, at the age of 38 -- a few days before she was scheduled to be euthanized for degenerative joint disease -- when companion Tinkerbelle pushed her.
Maybelle's demise. On April 22, Maybelle, a 43-year-old African elephant, succumbed to heart failure. Animal rights activists escalated protests that had begun with Calle's death, and the city's Board of Supervisors joined them in a quest to send the zoo's two remaining pachyderms -- Tinkerbelle and African elephant Lulu -- to a sanctuary, where they would have far more space as well as companions. On June 2, zoo director Manuel Mollinedo decided to do just that, pacifying critics but angering the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, which had recommended four zoos instead. The AZA threatened to withdraw the San Francisco Zoo's accreditation -- which allows members to do such things as trade animals and obtain federal funds -- and won't decide until March.
On June 23, the PAWS sanctuary was selected as the pachyderms' future home. And now, almost nine months after Calle's death, Tinkerbelle is finally there. Her saga is part of a larger debate taking place throughout the United States on how to treat elephants in captivity and whether they should be kept in zoos at all. Although elephants are routinely drugged, chained and dragged into trailers when they're being relocated, neither Derby nor the zoo wanted to do that.
The alternative was "trailer training," an excruciatingly glacial process designed to acclimate Tinkerbelle to entering and staying in an 18-wheel PAWS trailer parked behind her barn. "We try to get them (the elephants) to tell us what their needs are, what they want," said Jenkins, who added that tranquilizers can hide signs of distress. "It's not easy to move most animals," said Michele Rudovsky, associate curator of mammals. "There are always variables and unknowns."
The daily training was an intensely private affair. However, the zoo allowed The Chronicle to attend one early-morning session, on the final day of September. "It's very focused, structured and formal," Rudovsky said.
Tinkerbelle had already consumed two gallons of bran mash for breakfast. She meandered from her outdoor yard to her indoor barn, then up and down a long hallway before heading into a specially built chute leading to the waiting trailer. The long-term objective was to persuade Tinkerbelle to voluntarily enter the trailer, make a 90-degree turn and maintain a steady position. A seemingly modest goal, but not where elephants are concerned.
The training had been going on for four weeks, and Tinkerbelle had gotten all four feet into the trailer only once. "The trailer shifts under her weight, so that's unnerving to her," Rudovsky said. "She needs to figure out that it's OK." Rudovsky was standing on the other side of the trailer, slicing up Parisian sourdough bread, bananas and cantaloupes as rewards. Keepers Peggy and Jim -- too wary to have their last names used, given the heated nature of pachyderm politics -- held baton-like targets for Tinkerbelle to move toward.
Peggy extended an aluminum pole through steel bars, while Jim waved an equally lengthy golf ball retriever. Progress was, literally, two steps forward and one step back. Whenever Tinkerbelle did what was asked of her, a keeper blew a whistle, followed immediately by a treat. With the patience of Zen monks and the zeal of preschool teachers, the three trainers kept exhorting the elephant to achieve forward motion. "Let's go, Big T! ... Good girl, look at you! ... Here she comes, Miss America! ... C'mon, Tinkerbelle, not just your head but your body!"
And so it went, for almost an hour. "Somebody could ask, 'How come you're not spending 10 hours a day training her?' " Rudovsky said. "For an individual learning something new, it's a stressor. You have to focus and then take a break. You reach a point where you're saturated, and it's no longer fun."
Jim described Tinkerbelle as a very bright and curious animal. "She's kind of punky," he said affectionately. "She takes you off guard every once in a while. If you give her a toy, she'll just obliterate it. She likes to make a lot of noise, she likes to bang things. She's a drama queen."
Back in the yard after her training session, Tinkerbelle trumpeted loudly, clanged on a metal plate, swatted herself and grabbed clumps of acacia that she tossed on her back. Moving Day, as it turned out, was two months away. "Conditioning and preparing animals for moves like this is more an art form than a science," Jenkins said. "It's kind of like producing a work of art. You know when it's ready."
For the last few weeks, Jenkins said, Tinkerbelle had easily moved into the trailer, held her position and showed that she was comfortable. "It's a question of bearing and attitude," he said. She will be kept apart from the other three Asian elephants at PAWS -- Annie, Rebecca and Minnie -- until she adjusts to her new world. "Again, this will be done on her time and the other elephants' time," Jenkins said. "She'll know there are other elephants around. She'll smell them and she'll hear them."
Zoo vets will visit her regularly, although PAWS will have primary guardianship. Jenkins said Tinkerbelle is in good health and her trouble-prone feet are healing. Meanwhile, Lulu will be joining fellow African elephants Mara and "71" at PAWS in mid- to late December, after she learns to enter a large, green crate that will transport her to the sanctuary. "She's still playing the coy, nervous beastie doing the hokey-pokey in and out of the container," Jenkins said.
- Patricia Yollin, SF Chronicle, November 29, 2004 photo
Tinkerbelle, an 8,000-pound Asian elephant and one of the country's most political animals, finally left the San Francisco Zoo on Sunday for a Sierra foothills sanctuary -- after almost nine months of turmoil. She said goodbye to her oceanside home of 36 years just after 9 a.m. and arrived 3 1/2 hours later at the Ark 2000 refuge, run by the Performing Animal Welfare Society, or PAWS, in the Calaveras County town of San Andreas. Located 123 miles east of San Francisco, the 2,300-acre sanctuary includes hills, lakes, trees, a pachyderm Jacuzzi and, most importantly, other elephants.
"Tinkerbelle was very calm," said Bob Jenkins, director of animal care and conservation at the zoo. "And she liked the trailer so much that she didn't want to come out. She stayed inside until 2:30." Nineteen zoo employees and eight people from PAWS assisted in the move. Her motorized escort to PAWS included one vehicle filled with her toys. "Her truck tires and her balls and all the things she's so fond of," Jenkins said. "It's just like when people go to strange places. They like to take familiar things with them. This will help her in the acclimation process. "
Tinkerbelle, 38, hadn't moved anywhere since arriving from Thailand at the age of 2 -- and nobody was about to rush her. "We're on elephant time now," PAWS founder Pat Derby had said when the move was first announced. For the San Francisco Zoo, the clock started ticking on March 7. Asian elephant Calle died that day, at the age of 38 -- a few days before she was scheduled to be euthanized for degenerative joint disease -- when companion Tinkerbelle pushed her.
Maybelle's demise. On April 22, Maybelle, a 43-year-old African elephant, succumbed to heart failure. Animal rights activists escalated protests that had begun with Calle's death, and the city's Board of Supervisors joined them in a quest to send the zoo's two remaining pachyderms -- Tinkerbelle and African elephant Lulu -- to a sanctuary, where they would have far more space as well as companions. On June 2, zoo director Manuel Mollinedo decided to do just that, pacifying critics but angering the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, which had recommended four zoos instead. The AZA threatened to withdraw the San Francisco Zoo's accreditation -- which allows members to do such things as trade animals and obtain federal funds -- and won't decide until March.
On June 23, the PAWS sanctuary was selected as the pachyderms' future home. And now, almost nine months after Calle's death, Tinkerbelle is finally there. Her saga is part of a larger debate taking place throughout the United States on how to treat elephants in captivity and whether they should be kept in zoos at all. Although elephants are routinely drugged, chained and dragged into trailers when they're being relocated, neither Derby nor the zoo wanted to do that.
The alternative was "trailer training," an excruciatingly glacial process designed to acclimate Tinkerbelle to entering and staying in an 18-wheel PAWS trailer parked behind her barn. "We try to get them (the elephants) to tell us what their needs are, what they want," said Jenkins, who added that tranquilizers can hide signs of distress. "It's not easy to move most animals," said Michele Rudovsky, associate curator of mammals. "There are always variables and unknowns."
The daily training was an intensely private affair. However, the zoo allowed The Chronicle to attend one early-morning session, on the final day of September. "It's very focused, structured and formal," Rudovsky said.
Tinkerbelle had already consumed two gallons of bran mash for breakfast. She meandered from her outdoor yard to her indoor barn, then up and down a long hallway before heading into a specially built chute leading to the waiting trailer. The long-term objective was to persuade Tinkerbelle to voluntarily enter the trailer, make a 90-degree turn and maintain a steady position. A seemingly modest goal, but not where elephants are concerned.
The training had been going on for four weeks, and Tinkerbelle had gotten all four feet into the trailer only once. "The trailer shifts under her weight, so that's unnerving to her," Rudovsky said. "She needs to figure out that it's OK." Rudovsky was standing on the other side of the trailer, slicing up Parisian sourdough bread, bananas and cantaloupes as rewards. Keepers Peggy and Jim -- too wary to have their last names used, given the heated nature of pachyderm politics -- held baton-like targets for Tinkerbelle to move toward.
Peggy extended an aluminum pole through steel bars, while Jim waved an equally lengthy golf ball retriever. Progress was, literally, two steps forward and one step back. Whenever Tinkerbelle did what was asked of her, a keeper blew a whistle, followed immediately by a treat. With the patience of Zen monks and the zeal of preschool teachers, the three trainers kept exhorting the elephant to achieve forward motion. "Let's go, Big T! ... Good girl, look at you! ... Here she comes, Miss America! ... C'mon, Tinkerbelle, not just your head but your body!"
And so it went, for almost an hour. "Somebody could ask, 'How come you're not spending 10 hours a day training her?' " Rudovsky said. "For an individual learning something new, it's a stressor. You have to focus and then take a break. You reach a point where you're saturated, and it's no longer fun."
Jim described Tinkerbelle as a very bright and curious animal. "She's kind of punky," he said affectionately. "She takes you off guard every once in a while. If you give her a toy, she'll just obliterate it. She likes to make a lot of noise, she likes to bang things. She's a drama queen."
Back in the yard after her training session, Tinkerbelle trumpeted loudly, clanged on a metal plate, swatted herself and grabbed clumps of acacia that she tossed on her back. Moving Day, as it turned out, was two months away. "Conditioning and preparing animals for moves like this is more an art form than a science," Jenkins said. "It's kind of like producing a work of art. You know when it's ready."
For the last few weeks, Jenkins said, Tinkerbelle had easily moved into the trailer, held her position and showed that she was comfortable. "It's a question of bearing and attitude," he said. She will be kept apart from the other three Asian elephants at PAWS -- Annie, Rebecca and Minnie -- until she adjusts to her new world. "Again, this will be done on her time and the other elephants' time," Jenkins said. "She'll know there are other elephants around. She'll smell them and she'll hear them."
Zoo vets will visit her regularly, although PAWS will have primary guardianship. Jenkins said Tinkerbelle is in good health and her trouble-prone feet are healing. Meanwhile, Lulu will be joining fellow African elephants Mara and "71" at PAWS in mid- to late December, after she learns to enter a large, green crate that will transport her to the sanctuary. "She's still playing the coy, nervous beastie doing the hokey-pokey in and out of the container," Jenkins said.
- Patricia Yollin, SF Chronicle, November 29, 2004 photo
That sounds like something I would do, had I thought of it 
