Safari Park's new Elephant Valley gives rare view to Earth's giants

S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hyneman. Today we hear all about San Diego Zoo Safari Park's newest addition , Elephant Valley. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park opened its latest edition earlier this month. It's called Elephant Valley , and it gives visitors a rare glimpse into the lives of Earth's largest land animals. Here to tell us more about it and its inhabitants is Christy Burtis. She's the vice president of wildlife care at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Christy , welcome to midday edition.

S2: Thank you. Andrew. Thank you so much for having me on today.

S1: Thanks for joining us today. So tell us more about Elephant Valley and what people can expect.

S2: Well , we are so excited for guests to come and join us at Elephant Valley. They are going to see things and hear things that they've never been able to experience before. This is an opportunity for our guests to walk in and you are in between two habitats. So as you enter in , you have elephants surrounding you. Our guests are able to get up much closer. We have areas in the habitats where you are literally eye level with an elephant. So this really provides opportunities for guests to get closer than ever before. And we really want them to not only have a greater appreciation for elephants , but also the native habitats that they come from.

S1: So yeah , let's talk more. You know about the elephants themselves , what makes them unique ? Other than just , you know , obviously their scale , their size.

S2: Well , elephants are absolutely unique , obviously , as you mentioned , that the largest land animal , but they're also a part of a patriarchal society , which means that the females are in charge. They have very dynamic family groupings. They are ecosystem engineers. And what I mean by that is they are incredibly destructive in their native habitats. But this destruction is actually helpful for a lot of other species that that live in elephant habitats. Um , they have , you know , obviously large bodies , their trunk is filled with multiple muscles. Uh , they're just a very unique species. And I'll tell you , I was out there this morning , and every day that I go out there , I see and hear things differently. So that's the other thing that the guests are really going to appreciate is no day is the same here at the safari park at Elephant Valley.

S1: You know , about a year ago , there was , you know , something of like a viral video of elephants at the park , um , reacting to an earthquake. And I'm wondering if you can remind us about that moment and why that was was special and what you think we can take away from from that , that you know what that can tell us about elephants.

S2: I'm so glad you brought this up. It was really an opportunity for us here at the safari park to see a natural behavior. So as your listeners probably remember , we had a pretty significant earthquake. And we have protocols that we follow after earthquake to check all the animal habitats , check all the elephants and all the other animals that that call the safari park home to ensure that everyone is safe and sound. And upon looking at videos , we actually saw that the elephants responded before we even felt the earthquake. And so once the earthquake started going , we saw the herd all come to a , uh , the closest point between all the individuals. And they created what we call an alert circle. This is something that researchers have seen , but to my knowledge , they haven't been able to document it. We actually were able to document it through one of our cameras , and we saw them demonstrating this natural behavior , and that was protection of the youngsters. So all the herd came together , they all faced outwards , and they were looking around their surroundings to see what this is. Is there a threat ? But their key instinct is to protect the young in the herd. So Mickey and Julie were in the center. And as I always , I love to watch this video back because Zoey and Mickey are seven years old. Julie's a male. And so it was interesting because he was trying to step out into the outer circle with the adults , but of course , his sister pushed him back and let him know , no , no , no , you need to go back in the center. So it's such a such a great opportunity for us as humans to one recognize the dynamic behaviors and that instinct to protect one another and the instinct to protect young. It was truly a life changing moment for all of us here at the Safari Park. And a great honor to share that out with the public , because I don't think that many people have seen this behavior before.

S1: And we'll try to have a link to that video because , yeah , it's it's a really interesting window into , um , into their , their lives. Right. And their behaviors.

S2: You know , much of the the sounds that we don't hear is how they're communicating. So they have the ability to hear through the air , like you and I , but they also have the ability to take in sound through their feet so they can hear up to six miles away. So they have a very dynamic communication system. This is another opportunity. You know , when you came here before , there was really two areas where you could see the elephants. And so now you are literally surrounded. And so every day our guests are experiencing not only watching the dynamics of the herd , watching the three different family units , but they're also hearing hearing rumbles , they're hearing trumpeting. So they have a lot of unique sounds that we hear. But also what I find so interesting about them is you can be standing in one area and looking out over the savanna , and then all of a sudden there's an elephant off to your side. You you don't hear them walk up. They actually can be very silent as well. So such a large , you know , creature to be up to £8,000 and to be able to walk in a way that you don't even recognize or hear them coming up is truly remarkable.

S1: How endangered are elephants in their and globally right now ? Yeah.

S2: Great question. So the African savanna elephant is endangered. There's roughly about 400,000 left in the wild. And they have declined significantly over the past 50 years. So that is our aim. Andrew. When people come here , we want you to not only fall in love with elephants , we not only want you to feel immersed into these spaces of plant life and trees that are representing their homeland in Africa , but we'd love for people to walk away and understand how they themselves can take part in conservation efforts , not just across the globe , but in your own backyard. So elephants play a critically important role in conservation. There's such a dynamic species that they often help tell the conservation story of many other species that that live in the same habitats as them.

S1: What are the biggest dangers facing elephants today , is it ? I mean , it's like their tusks were hunted for a long time , right ? Um.

S2: So that's the other element when you're walking in and around these elephants. I want our guests to imagine. What if my home was right here ? And what if my crops were right there ? Right. Sometimes as Westerners , we don't think about how other people live and the fact that an elephant could be walking through and only looking for a food source. But that's also the food source for your family. And so this human animal conflict is really , you know , something that we're working with our partners in Kenya to help mitigate and to find strategies that we can protect human spaces and also ensure that elephants have spaces to thrive.

S1: So , you know , I need to ask some animal rights groups , you know , have argued that animals , especially large animals like elephants , maybe should not be held in captivity. One study by In Defense of Animals found that elephants born in zoos were twice as likely to die by the age of two than in the wild. And I'm wondering , how do you respond to those concerns about just the overall health and well-being of elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park ? Sure.

S2: Well , listen , there's a lot of there's there's a lot of issues that elephants face in the wild. I'm not familiar with that research project , so I can't comment on that specifically. But what I can tell you is that three of our elephants were actually rescued from the wild , and the rest of our elephants were born here in human care. And so we know that these animals live very healthy lives. There's a lot of data that we can collect and share with researchers out in the wild that you simply couldn't collect there. So I think this opportunity to work together , to not only have animals in human care so that we can continue to learn about them , but also how do we share the conservation work ? How do we how do we help people understand why it's important to love these animals and to care for them ? So I think that's that's critically important.

S1: Finally we have about two minutes left here. I'm wondering , you know , what can we as humans learn from elephants ? You've , you know , studied them. You've worked with them for many years.

S2: This is something you can take back to your own backyard. You know what ? Elephants live in our ecosystems. How are they important to our ecosystems and how are we living among them ? You know , we've we've taken a lot of wild spaces in the world. And how can we give some of those spaces back ? And also how can we coexist with other animals ? And how can we learn more about how each of these species is so important to , to human life ? You know , we talk about a one health approach , and I think this is really important for people to understand that , you know , you may have bees in your backyard or coyotes , bobcats , mountain lions , these animals are all very , very important.

S1: She is the vice president of wildlife care at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park , and Elephant Valley is open now , Kristie. Thanks so much.

S2: You're welcome. We hope to see you out here.

S3: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.