SAN DIEGO COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Behavior Modification for a Pachyderm

Since long before Hannibal’s treks, humans have established dominance over elephants by hitting them with a stick known as an ankus. To spare the ankus, the reasoning went, would spoil the pachyderm and risk injury or death to human handlers.

The traditional training method held risks for both trainer and elephant, however. Being an elephant trainer is one of the most dangerous of professions. Per capita, more elephant trainers are killed in the line of duty than police officers or firefighters.

The danger was graphically illustrated last year when trainer Pam Orsi was caught between two elephants at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and crushed to death. Earlier, another trainer was severely injured when an elephant threw him against a wall.

There were also risks for the elephants. In 1988, a Wild Animal Park elephant named Dunda was disciplined with an ankus over a period of days. The beating pitted traditionalist trainers against those who felt that the punishment was abusive.

The Wild Animal Park defended the use of the ankus. But even before Orsi’s death, it started exploring new ways of controlling elephants. Now it has a new training method, which separates handler and elephant with a steel mesh fence and borrows the positive reinforcement methods used to train killer whales at SeaWorld. Elephants are coaxed, with carrots and apples, to put their feet, trunks or ears through openings in the fence.

This eliminates the need for the ankus and ensures the safety of trainers. But teaching old elephants new tricks has proved easier than convincing old elephant trainers.

Traditional trainers prefer physical contact with the elephants and say it is better for the animals; they don’t believe the ankus is cruel. And in case of a crisis requiring hands-on care, such as rescuing a newborn, the elephants need to be accustomed to obeying to human handlers.

Wisely, the Wild Animal Park is setting those concerns aside for now. As difficult a choice as it would be, park managers say that if a baby is lost because of the new method, that would still be preferable to having a trainer lost.

Managing animals in captivity requires many compromises. The Wild Animal Park deserves credit for trying this new method. Besides protecting trainers’ lives, it might also prove gentler and safer for elephants.