Summary of OKC Zoo Brings Global and Local Partners Together for Elephant Conservation:
The Oklahoma City Zoo is collaborating with partners in Sri Lanka to study and conserve Asian elephants. Sri Lanka is a biodiversity hotspot with over 22 million people competing with wildlife for limited resources. Elephants are particularly affected by this conflict. The Zoo’s research team studies elephant behavior and social organization in Minneriya National Park, where over 100 elephants gather daily at central water sources. To estimate the elephants’ age, the team uses a similar laser device developed by NewView Oklahoma, a local organization that empowers individuals with visual impairments. The device measures the height of elephants from afar using laser beams as a visual scale. This information will help wildlife managers in Sri Lanka understand the social needs of elephants as they age and conserve them effectively.
1. The Oklahoma City Zoo is involved in elephant conservation and research initiatives in Sri Lanka, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
2. The Zoo’s research team is studying Asian elephant behavior and social organization in Minneriya National Park, home to Asia’s largest gathering of elephants.
3. To measure the height of elephants from a distance, the Zoo’s research team collaborated with NewView Oklahoma, an organization that empowers individuals with visual impairments.
4. The device designed by NewView uses parallel lasers and custom 3D-printed pieces to accurately measure the elephants’ height.
5. The data collected through this research will help wildlife managers understand the social needs of elephants as they age and aid in their conservation efforts.
The conservation reach of the Oklahoma City Zoo extends well beyond Oklahoma, with field partners around the globe. Recently, the OKC Zoo has begun new conservation and research initiatives in collaboration with partners on the South Asian island of Sri Lanka. Less than half the size of the state of Oklahoma, Sri Lanka is one of the world’s remaining biodiversity hotspots. With over 22 million people living on the island (that’s over five times the population of Oklahoma, for that keeping track), that also means that humans and wildlife are often at odds competing for limited resources.
One of the most prevalent forms of this human-wildlife conflict in Sri Lanka is with elephants. Despite being endangered, the island is one of the last havens for Asian elephants, with an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 elephants in Sri Lanka alone. For a long time, the Zoo has contributed expertise and resources to elephant conservation around the world, and with field partners from the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka and the Kaludiyapokuna Primate Conservation and Research Center, Zoo team members set out to better understand Asian elephant behavior and social organization.
Currently, members of the Zoo’s research team are observing elephants in Minneriya National Park, the site of the largest gathering of elephants in Asia. Each day, over 100 elephants can be seen congregating, gathering around central water sources to drink and socialize. Our team is trying to better understand how these elephants form groups and interact with each other. To get a more complete picture, estimating the age of the elephants we observe is also helpful. Fortunately for researchers, male Asian elephants continue to grow as they age, so if we know how tall an elephant is, we also have a good guess as to how old he is.
Our research team wasn’t the first to experience this problem of measuring animals from afar. Recently, researchers have developed similar laser devices to take photographs of wildlife that are measured later. These devices are made of two perfectly parallel lasers a fixed distance apart. These lasers are aimed at an animal in a harmless way that goes unnoticed by the animal, and researchers take a photograph while the lasers are shining on the animal. Later, we can use these laser beams as a visual scale to estimate other body measurements, such as height and the length of the legs. However, the design and manufacturing of these devices can be logistically challenging, with each rig purpose-built for the species a particular study focuses on. To solve this problem, the Zoo’s research team turned to one of our local partners, NewView Oklahoma.
NewView works to empower individuals who are blind or have low vision, and they are Oklahoma’s leading employer of those with visual impairments. NewView collaborates with a variety of partners (including the Zoo) to manufacture a variety of goods. Most recently, NewView has worked with the Zoo’s behavioral husbandry team to donate supplies and tools to make enrichment more efficient for various animals. When the conservation team approached NewView to help us design a device to measure the height of wild elephants from afar, they again stepped in to save the day. The device, designed and built by NewView, comprises custom 3D-printed pieces and aluminum to make it lightweight in the field. It also has a high degree of adjustability, making it perfectly adaptable to changing field conditions that we often experience in Sri Lanka.
Before bringing the device into the field, we needed to ensure it worked. NewView Engineer, Doug Massey, led the effort to design and build the parallel laser rig, visited the Zoo several times to troubleshoot the device, and ran trials using the Zoo’s Asian elephant herd. After several months of meetings (and a few unsuspecting elephants), the device was ready for the field!
Currently, we are using the parallel laser device to measure male elephants and compile a growing catalog of the animals congregating around Minneriya National Park. With this database, we will be able to assess the elephants’ social needs that may change as they age, information that is important for wildlife managers as they seek to conserve elephants in Sri Lanka. Without the Zoo’s global and local partners in conservation, none of this would be possible. Stay tuned as we share more news from the field!
OKC Zoo research assistants Malsha Warnapura (left) and Darshika Jayarathna (right) used the parallel laser device to measure Asian elephants in Minneriya National Park, Sri Lanka.
Male Asian elephant (left) with two laser beams shining on his left shoulder. The beams from this photograph will be used as a visual scale to estimate this elephant’s height (and, thus, age).
