Mogli is well acquainted with the game and remains calm. The 45-year-old female elephant is part of an exercise during a course for zoo keepers. She now is required to walk into a container and Mogli's huge behind is to go in first. The zoo keeper curriculum calls for "loading and unloading".
This year, the "First European Elephant Management School" celebrates its tenth anniversary. What sounds like a strange continuing education course for thick-skinned managers and corporate grey eminences, is a programme for elephant keepers from all over the world. Each year, the Hamburg Hagenbeck zoo trains keepers in the appropriate treatment of animals. Over the course of the past decade, 146 participants from 25 countries and 57 zoos attended the Hagenbeck school.
Twelve zoo keepers, all well experienced, now stand in a corridor. Strong animal odours fragrance the air, but they remain unaffected. They observe how tutor Roy Smith manoeuvres Mogli's four tonnes out of the enclosure into the container. This has to be done bottom first. Head first, Smith says, elephants would show more resistance: "Nobody wants to climb into a container." Yet sometimes this is necessary. For example, when zoos exchange elephant bulls to avoid incest.
One thing the course participants pick up immediately: When it comes to loading the grey giants, technical support is indispensable. The container features an electrical cable winch, the end of which Roy Smith fastens to Mogli's right hind leg. This makes sure the animal cannot escape forwards while he encourages it to walk backwards.
Practical part is unique in the world
Emma Evison, 26, keenly observes the scene. She has travelled here from Chester Zoo in Great Britain. The fee for participation in the nine-day elephant course is 1,900 Euro. Evison thinks this is money well spent. After all, she is being instructed by renown experts with regard to all aspects of elephant keeping, from daily care and diet to medical treatment. "And the practical part is unique in the world", she says.
After a few minutes, Mogli stands in the container. Tutor Smith chains her right hind leg and left front leg to the metal walls. "This makes sure she cannot turn around during transport", he explains. Mogli remains unperturbed. A tutorial elephant, she has practised this many times before. With other elephants, however, the procedure can take up to several hours. Now a crane could lift the container onto a lorry. But because this is only a tutorial, Mogli is released and, this time trunk forwards, walks back to her fellow elephants in the enclosure.
A journey from zoo to zoo can take several days. Animal rights activists criticise these transports. Much criticism was voiced also after the popular elephant Hussein died this summer due to heart failure after having been transported from Hagenbeck to Belgium. It was said that the journey had been too stressful for the 40-year-old bull. Managing Director Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck strongly rejects this assumption. He says, Hussein's death was an unfortunate accident. Such transports, he adds, are common in the industry and complications hardly ever occur.
Thus, a new bull soon is to arrive in Hamburg: Thisiam (15) from Katowice in Poland. At Hagenbeck, he is awaited by eight females and two young males, all Asian elephants. The loading technique, says tutor Smith, can be equally used for both Asian and African elephants. The zoos and animal parks, where the twelve course participants work, feature both species.
Emma Evison says, she now feels well prepared for the possible event of having to load an elephant herself. Until completion of the "Elephant Management School" on Tuesday, she intends to learn even more about pachyderms from Mogli.