Written by: Deb Miller, Zookeeper, North Carolina Zoo
Here at the North Carolina Zoo, we are home to C’sar, the oldest male African Elephant in the United States. He is 46 years old and weighs in at around 12,000 pounds! As C’sar gets older, we want to make sure he is staying strong and healthy. How do you help an elephant stay strong? You do elephant yoga!
You might be thinking, what is elephant yoga? Well, it is similar to how people do yoga. We use our positive reinforcement training and ask C’sar to do different poses. The poses target different muscle groups that challenge his balance and work on his range of motion, and, as a reward, he gets his favorite treats, carrots and sweet potatoes.
We started doing yoga with C’sar in April 2019. It started out with simple leg lifts because we needed to build up his strength. We would ask him to lift one foot at a time forward and backward. Doing those movements, we were able to work on stability and his range of motion.
Pictured Above: C'Sar's range of motion, prior to starting yoga
As C’sar got stronger, we had to come up with more challenging poses. First, we started with duration, moving his foot forward and backward before placing it back on the ground. Once he mastered that, we moved onto having two feet up at the same time; we call it his “split.” The “split” tested not only his strength but also his balance.
C'sar doing his "split"
We were able to acquire a large tree stump that we have incorporated into his yoga. We use the stump for him to step upon to help build his front leg muscles. We want to make sure his front legs are strong because African elephants carry most of their body weight on their front legs.
C’sar continues to amaze us! Every time we come up with something more challenging, he masters it quickly. He keeps us on our toes, and we’re always trying to think of new poses. Now, over a year and a half later, C’sar’s strength and range of motion have increased drastically, and we continue to find new ways to test his abilities.
Pictured Above: C'sar's range of motion in November 2019
