i have a zoo

Chapter 114 Pedicure (Two in One)

Hearing this, Zhao Jia looked back and was a little puzzled at first. He had no impression of this person who took the initiative to talk to him.

But after watching it for a while, he realized that this was the person who asked him for a ghost video at the gate of the zoo last time.

However, in order to avoid mistaking the person, Zhao Jia still took the initiative to ask, "Hey, bro, are you the one who asked me for a ghost video last time?"

"Haha, I was recognized by you!" Qi Ming said in surprise. Seeing Zhao Jia's hesitation, he was going to give him a hint. Unexpectedly, Zhao Jia just hesitated for a while, and then put the He was recognized.

"I saw you just now, so I came out to say hello to you. Are you here with your friends to see the elephant's pedicure?"

After finishing some basic preparations together with Lao Wang and Zhuge Qi, Qi Ming went out for a walk. Anyway, he didn't have much to do in there, so he might as well come out to have a blast.

Not long after he came out, he saw a group of Zhao Jia and the others, so he walked over on his own initiative, since he was idle anyway!
"Yes, although I have heard that some zoos give elephants pedicures before, I have never seen them before. I just saw the announcement in the morning that the elephants would be pedicures in the afternoon, so we waited until this afternoon to come and have a look. " Zhao Jia said simply.

"This is the first time our zoo has opened to the public for elephant pedicures. You can be regarded as witnessing the history of our zoo when you come to watch this time." Qi Ming said with a smile.

"That handsome guy, are you an employee of the zoo? I think you always talk about our zoo." Tao Yingying said curiously.

"Yes, I am an employee of this zoo, thank you very much for your support to our zoo!"

Qi Ming took out his work card from his trouser pocket and took it with him. When he was working in the breeder's hut just now, he thought it was inconvenient to wear it, so he took it off. He forgot to bring it when he came out just now. Now, under Tao Yingying's indirect reminder, he took it out put it on.

"Ah, you are actually the director of this zoo! Aren't the directors usually kind uncles?" Tao Yingying looked at Qi Ming's work card hanging on her chest in disbelief.

"No wonder the last time I mentioned the zoo's ghost animal video, he hurriedly asked me to pass it on to him. It turned out that he is the director of Jiajia Zoo." Zhao Jia stood aside thinking but didn't speak.

He also couldn't believe it, the young man in front of him who was not much different from himself turned out to be the director of a zoo.

"Director, Director, why do you pedicure the elephants?" After being surprised at the beginning, Tao Yingying became excited. It was the first time she came into contact with the director of the zoo.

She felt that there were countless questions about the zoo in her mind, and she wanted to ask them out, but she chose a question related to the current situation, after all, she had just met.

Listening to Tao Yingying's question, Qi Ming gave a "hmm" first, and said with a smile: "You actually asked a very good question! Actually, in the process of raising elephants in the zoo.

The most caring work done for elephants is pedicure, but why should we give elephants a pedicure?

An elephant in the wild can walk 30 to 50 kilometers a day. In order to find food and water, he will have friction between his feet and the sand on the ground every step of the way.

This process is just like our nails, their feet can be worn naturally.

After the process of searching for food and water sources is not lacking, it can walk about three to five kilometers a day in our captivity, so the natural wear and tear of the elephant's feet will be much reduced. "

Speaking of this, Qi Ming pointed to the platform shoes Tao Yingying was wearing today with a smile:

"After the natural wear and tear is reduced, its toenails will continue to grow, always long and very long. The cuticle on the elephant's soles is thick, just like wearing a pair of platform shoes. Walking for a long time will cause damage to the joints.

In addition to being bad for the elephant's joints, the elephant's nails are also the same as human nails. If they are too long, they will naturally bend.

And after bending, it will be embedded in the flesh of the foot, which will cause paronychia.

Elephants often step on their own feces in their daily life, and if they have paronychia on their feet, they are prone to foot diseases. If you do not pay attention to these seemingly minor foot problems, toenails will grow over time, Squeeze, crack, sole abscess, infection.

During the intensification of the trauma, the elephant will assume special postures to relieve the pain, which will lead to joint and spinal lesions, which will have a negative impact on his health.

An elephant weighs several tons, so if there is a problem with its foot health, other secondary problems will appear under the premise of this huge weight.

That's why we have to regularly pedicure the elephant's feet to keep its feet soft, make it more comfortable to walk, protect its joints, and reduce the occurrence of diseases. "

"Hey, Director, can the elephant cooperate with you? My best friend got scratched several times when I cut the cat's nails. Would the elephant let you cut the nails?" Tao Yingying looked at Qi Ming curiously and asked.

"It is really difficult to get an elephant to agree and cooperate with people to give it a pedicure. It is a huge project based on animal behavior training to make elephants willingly turn their feet towards people.

Of course, I must emphasize that all the training I am talking about here uses positive reinforcement training, not the unnatural behavior of whipping and beating animals in circus training.

Elephants are very intelligent animals and have their own emotions. It is easy to build trust if you get in touch with them from a young age.

After adulthood, it takes a long time to train elephants to obey orders and let them lift their feet up at a fixed location. This is a huge project based on animal behavior training.

The principle of training is conditioned reflex. Through target sticks, whistles, and food rewards, the elephants are guided step by step to complete cooperation.

At the beginning, we will guide the elephant and touch the target stick with our feet. When the elephant does the right thing, we will use the clicker to 'click'. This is equivalent to telling the elephant that it is doing the right thing, and then take out a stick. Small pieces of food such as apples and carrots that they usually like to eat are used as rewards to make elephants happy to accept training.

The process of behavior training is also the process of building trust between the breeder and the elephant. This behavior is very simple to say, but it is very troublesome in practice.

After the elephant is familiar with the first step, slowly reproduce the process to make it familiar with the process of checking pedicure and various pedicure tools, so that the elephant can accept the breeder's pedicure step by step. "

After listening to Qi Ming's explanation, Zhao Jia and the others nodded thoughtfully.

"Director, it's not easy for you to train!" Zhao Jia exclaimed, "By the way, Director, what tools do you use for the elephant's pedicure?"

"For this, there is a formula in our zoo. Toenails are like a big bowl, and a file and a scraper are used together. In addition to the two kinds of knives mentioned in the formula, we will also use a special round spatula and flat spatula."

Qi Ming said, and then he said with great interest: "I just happen to be free now, so let me first tell you the general process for the elephant.

At the beginning of the pedicure, the keeper first used a brush to clean the mud on the elephant's feet, and then used a special round scraper and flat scraper to clean out the mud hidden in the nails little by little.

After all, facing the muddy soles and rough skin of an elephant, most people really have no way to do it without cleaning it first.

After cleaning up all the dirty things, the breeder must disinfect them, carefully observe the growth of the elephant's toenails, check whether the soles of the feet are damaged, and whether there are stones stuck between the toes.

The next step is to cut the toenails. At this time, you need to use a super large nail file to grind off the toenails a little bit.After the pedicure, the breeder also applied skin care oil on their feet, free and valuable foot care service, the elephants are five-star praise!

During the pedicure, if the keeper makes it comfortable, the elephant's hind feet will cross their legs comfortably and enjoy it like a human being, and once it hurts, they will attack the keeper violently. "We often get sprayed all over by elephants."

Just as Qi Ming was explaining the pedicure process to Zhao Jia, the park's radio rang:
Dear tourists, the Elephant House in the Meng Beast District is about to start pedicures for elephants. Visitors who are interested in watching, please go to the Elephant House as soon as possible!
After hearing the broadcast, Qi Ming stopped chatting with Zhao Jia, and he had to go to the scene to check.

"I'm sorry, it's about to start, I'm going to get ready first." Qi Ming said embarrassedly to Zhao Jia.

After hearing the broadcast, Zhao Jia and the others didn't hold Qi Ming back much, and followed the crowd into the elephant house after he left.

On the west side of the Elephant House is the place for pedicures for elephants. There is a transparent railing outside a large iron gate for tourists to visit. There is also a large canopy for shade, which looks very grand.

There are some thin slashes between the thick vertical railings on both sides of the iron gate to prevent the elephant from sticking out its trunk, leaving a rectangular opening in the middle with a height of about 50cm.

Qi Ming stood with Lao Wang Xiaoli and the others between the iron gate and the railing for tourists.

After a while, seeing that there were already a certain number of tourists outside the railing, Qi Ming clapped his hands and greeted Old Wang: "Old Wang, almost everyone has come, let's start!"

Old Wang held a slender target stick, pointed at Doudou's left foot, and then pointed at the railing!
Having had many times of pedicure experience, the clever Doudou very cooperatively lifted the big foot to the fence, waiting for Lao Wang to trim its toenails.

Seeing Doudou put his feet on the railing, Pharaoh clicked the clicker, and at the same time threw a piece of apple into Doudou's mouth.

Doudou picked up the apples with his nose and ate them. Pharaoh also took a long ruler-shaped scorpion and filed them on Doudou's toes.

Tao Yingying was surprised: "Wow, so good!"

"As soon as the breeder pointed it out, the elephant lifted its feet up!"

"This toe is like a big steamed bun. One toe is bigger than my fist."

"What if it hurts, will you kick someone angrily? I feel that this job is still a bit dangerous!"

"Picture the toenails, it will walk more comfortably, can you be angry with your own good things! Look at it so obedient."

"It's too human, knowing what's good for it, it won't mess around!"

"Elephants are really smart!"

The tourists were afraid of disturbing Lao Wang's work, and their voices were relatively quiet, but they all squeezed their heads to look ahead, took pictures by the way, and observed the elephant's soles.

Zhuge Qi, the breeder brought by Lao Wangxin, was on the sidelines to maintain order, keeping everyone at a distance of one meter from the railing for the convenience of the breeder.

Qi Ming stood watching Lao Wang file Doudou's feet, and explained to the tourists approaching with a smile, "This is not a smart question. Pedicuring elephants' feet is indeed good for them. Elephants may also understand this." , but this alone cannot make the elephant cooperate.

The most important thing is our usual behavior training work!

At the beginning, we will guide the elephant and touch the target stick with our feet. When the elephant does the right thing, we will use the clicker to 'click'. This is equivalent to telling the elephant that it is doing the right thing, and then take out a stick. Small pieces of food such as apples and carrots that they usually like to eat are used as rewards to make elephants happy to accept training.

The process of behavior training is also the process of building trust between the breeder and the elephant. It is easy to say, but it is very troublesome in practice. The first step alone took a month.

After getting familiar with the first step, raise the target rod again, let the elephant put its foot into the pedicure window, and then let it get familiar with the process of checking pedicure and various pedicure tools, and master this process step by step. "

"Oh~"

The tourists made a sudden sound.

Hearing this, Zhao Dapeng, who had been making soy sauce on the road, felt a strange feeling in his heart.

I used to think that breeders just shovel excrement to feed animals, as if it was no different from raising chickens and pigs. Looking at it now, it is really not an easy job.

Not only do we need to understand animals and master the knowledge of various theories, but we also need to develop relationships with animals, enhance trust, and skilled technology to complete this kind of cooperation.

The zoo is not just a place for people to see all kinds of exotic animals, but also shows the way of green farming, the way of living in harmony with nature, understands the content of behavior training behind the scenes, and arouses people's care and love for nature.

Jiajia Zoo really opened his eyes!

It can be regarded as knowing what a good zoo should look like.

Lao Wang filed Doudou's toes, and dust and debris fell from them one after another.

Pedicure looks easy, but it is quite laborious.

After filing, he took a small knife and gouged out the dead skin on Doudou's toes.

"It looks like it's enjoying itself!"

"It looks so relaxing!"

"Kind of like I peel potatoes at home!"

"The elephant really didn't move, it was like being hypnotized."

After plucking off the dead skin, Pharaoh patted Doudou's foot, took two steps back, and said softly, "Change another foot!"

Lao Wang walked to the other side of the pedicure window, pointed at its right foot with the target stick, and moved a little towards the bar.

Doudou immediately put away his left foot obediently, and put his right foot on it!
"Wow, it's really nice!"

(End of this chapter)