Recently, a video featuring an elephant named Osh opening a pumpkin at an American zoo has captured the hearts of many viewers. In the video, Osh cleverly smashes open a pumpkin filled with frozen coconut water, showcasing its outstanding problem-solving abilities.
So far, the video has garnered over 2 million views on social media platforms, with nearly 230,000 likes.
To enhance the daily lives of animals, many zoos employ methods such as mimicking natural environments, improving feeding methods, increasing food retrieval difficulty, and creating novel toys to enrich the lives of the animals. The Oakland Zoo in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California is one such example.
“We often ‘tamper with’ their food to exercise their minds and increase their activity levels,” said 41-year-old elephant manager Gina Kinzley to The Epoch Times. “Elephants are very intelligent animals with high IQs. We try everything to make their environment as complex and dynamic as possible, which is crucial for their overall behavioral abilities and welfare.”
Osh is a nearly 30-year-old African elephant who previously resided at Howlett’s Wild Animal Park in the UK. In 2004, it was transported to the Oakland Zoo in the US, where it is currently the only elephant in the zoo. This gentle giant is a “jack-of-all-trades,” constantly being challenged by the staff at the zoo.
“It loves to explore every corner of its habitat,” Gina said, describing its demeanor as “calm and composed.”
“For adult elephants, they need to consume large amounts of food every day to maintain their massive bodily functions, with wild elephants spending up to 22 hours foraging in the wild,” Gina explained. “So, when you understand this, as their caretakers, our crucial task is to constantly challenge them mentally and physically.”
These challenges may come in the form of feeding. Foods like the frozen pumpkin in the video often puzzle elephants. Their usual approach would be to crush it with a foot, but the rock-hard frozen pumpkin presented a huge challenge for the animal.
Keepers at the zoo brainstormed similar puzzles, but Osh remained unusually calm in facing these challenges.
“In fact, we placed the pumpkin inside a hay net hanging from a pulley system,” explained Gina. “Then we saw it lift its front feet off the ground and stretch its body upward to access the pumpkin.”
She noted that Osh had already mastered the skill of standing upright on its hind legs to feed, highlighting its remarkable intelligence.
Gina joined the Oakland Zoo in 2005 when she was a young university graduate unsure of what career path to take. Her internship experience at the zoo not only provided her with ample knowledge but also revealed that she seemed naturally suited to working with animals.
“This is a fun place,” Gina said to this newspaper. “I am very happy to see the positive responses people have given to Osh’s amazing performance.”