We lost Elijah from Utahs Hogle Zoo this past fall. Bobbi and Erin express their thoughts on this larger than life individual. Elijah was the class clown. He lived to entertain keepers and public alike. Elijah introduced himself to almost anyone who approached him. He taught all of us many lessons in patience. Elijah was our star pupil, a training sponge, and he taught us as much as we taught him. We grew together in our training knowledge. While training anything from simple body positioning to blood draws and ultrasounds, when we would get stuck hed watch our conversation and struggle at how to get to the next step and with a twinkle in his eye, hed make a small adjustment, swivel a hip, move a hand, and just like that, hes fixed the problem and all he wanted in return was the cheering of his girls. Everyone who came into the building new that if you heard a Good boy Eli! everyone jumped in the cheer. We were an unstoppable team. My favorite memories of Elijah are when he was first reintroduced to Eve and his infant Acara. Keeper staff were nervous, this big 280lb guy and this little girl, but we never had a reason to be. Elijah learned very quickly that his quick, big movements were scary to Acara so he would lay down nearby, stretch out one hand look away and just wait. Acara would slowly come over and start to play with a finger, his hand, an arm and Elijah forced his whole body still, wiggling just one safe finger until he earned Acaras trust. It wasnt long before that giant goof and that tiny girl were doing full body wrestling. They were a pair that charmed their way into the hearts every visitor and kept every keeper on their toes.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 00:20:00 +0000
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