News for December 15th 2010
Just after the stroke of midnight Tuesday morning, Birmingham’s newest resident took the first steps into his new home.
Bulwagi, a 13,000-pound, 10-foot-tall, 29-year-old male African elephant, made the daylong trip Monday from Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando to become the first occupant of the zoo’s “Trails of Africa” exhibit, slated to open next spring. Despite an unloading process that took roughly three hours, Bulwagi calmly backed into the zoo’s new elephant barn, shoveling sweet potatoes into his mouth along the way.
Within an hour, Bulwagi was roaming the climate-controlled barn, throwing sand on his back with a bale of hay nestled between his tusk and trunk, occasionally reaching up to grab a mouthful.
Bulwagi is the first elephant for the zoo in almost four years and will be the first of its male elephant herd — something zoo officials say has never been tried in a zoo setting before. Elephants in the wild tend to travel in female-dominated herds, with males pushed out at maturity to fend for themselves.
Bulwagi will later have two other male elephants join him, allowing zoo officials and scientists interested in elephants to study their interaction.
Zoo officials looked specifically for male elephants that would be temperamentally suited to living well with others. They expect Bulwagi to be the herd’s patriarch.
But how do you move a 12,000-pound elephant? When the elephant is good and ready.
Zoo officials spent five days with Bulwagi to prepare him for the moment he stepped out of his specially-designed trailer into a very cold Birmingham. On Thursday, the zoo sent two employees to Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World to get acquainted with him.
Bulwagi stands out in a crowd because he only has one tusk, on his left side — the result of an accident in his youth when he fell and broke the right one. His home for the last four years has been four acres of simulated African savanna at Disney. Before that, he lived at Lion Country Safari near West Palm Beach, Florida.
One of those who made the trip down was Pat Flora, the zoo’s zoological manager. Before coming to Birmingham, he helped put together the elephant program for the zoo in Melbourne, Australia. Accompanying Flora was Jason Miles, an animal keeper who has worked for the last five years with the zoo’s predators, managing and training the big cats. This was his first time around an elephant.
Flora and Miles spent the weekend getting to know Bulwagi. Animals at Disney get to roam, but rest during cold nights in a heated animal barn. This allowed the two men at least four sessions a day to spend some time with him, pick up feed, lead him into the barn, scrub him down for a bath and observe his movements.
“He has a gentle nature,” Flora said. “He’s a bit passive. He doesn’t seem as eager to interact with the other males.”
Miles said Bulwagi’s laid-back temperament is “perfect for what we want to do.”
At first light Monday, workers began coaxing Bulwagi onto a special climate-controlled trailer for the 580-mile trip to Birmingham. Once a crane arrived to load the trailer, keepers used guide ropes to walk Bulwagi inside. The process took about 40 minutes, Flora said.
To assist with the move, the zoo flew down veterinarian Stephanie McCain. During the trip, workers monitored Bulwagi’s temperature, the temperature inside the trailer, and his behavior at regular intervals.
“We try to balance how often we stop with the necessity of getting there as quickly as possible,” McCain said.
Bulwagi arrived at the zoo shortly after 9 p.m. A crane lifted the trailer up to the door of the barn, allowing the zoo’s team to begin backing him out. A worker from Animal Kingdom will remain at least through Thursday to give Bulwagi a familiar face.
Over the next few weeks, Flora said keepers will be watching Bulwagi for signs of how he is acclimating. African elephants can be a little more suspicious of their surroundings, Flora said.
“We make sure he’s eating, drinking, getting the attention and care that he needs,” Flora said. “An adult elephant typically needs about two or three days to get their head around a new facility.”
The next few weeks will also give Bulwagi time to test the new “Trails of Africa” exhibit area ahead of the other elephants.
“He’ll teach us everything we need to know about it,” Zoo CEO Bill Foster said. “He’ll leave his scent for the others who come after, and we’ll get to know him.”
Edited: December 15th, 2010
Tourism officials in the areas of the Gulf Coast hit hardest by spring’s BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill say winter tourism appears to be normal or better as snowbirds flock to the region in numbers approaching those of previous years. The return of those mostly older visitors from northern climates is “vital” to a region that banks on tourism dollars and was battered in the summer by dwindling numbers of visitors, says Linda Whitlock of the Gulf Coast Area Chamber of Commerce in Baldwin County, Ala. The snowbird season heats up on the Alabama and Florida Panhandle coasts in late December and early January, says Karen Harrell, who publishes Snowbirds Gulf Coast. ”The season appears to be on track to equal or even be better than last season,” she says. The snowbirds, she says, “closely followed news of the oil spill” through news media and friends. “Some are true part-time residents and spend up to six months here,” Harrell says. Snowbirds, or “winter guests,” are looking to get away from the snow and ice, Harrell says. Gulf Shores saw about a 33% decline in tourism-related income in the summer because of the oil disaster, Mayor Robert Craft says. “This past summer was expected to be the beginning of the good times,” he says. “Everything pointed to people wanting to travel again after the tough economic conditions of 2008 and 2009. Our first-quarter totals for this year were up about 12% over 2009. … We were going into the spring and summer season with a great deal of momentum. Then the spill happened.”
Betty and Marv Hastings of Ankeny, Iowa, plan to travel to Orange Beach, Ala., this year just as they have since 2003. They direct the Iowa Snowbirds Club, which has 175 to 200 members. “We’re looking forward to returning,” Betty Hastings says. “It’s a great area. We followed the news of the oil spill, of course. We’ve had friends go down on shorter trips, and they tell us everything is cleaned up and back to normal.” Aside from spending money, snowbirds will become ambassadors for the region when they return home, says Craft, the Gulf Shores mayor. www.treasureislandbedandbreakfast.com
For the complete article please see http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-12-10-snowbirds10_ST_N.htm.
Edited: December 15th, 2010