Sunday 15th November
Didn’t sleep at all well last night, I was totally exhausted all day! No idea why – I felt too hot, but the heating was off. Oh well.
This morning we were back in the elephant Barn watching the keepers and elephant’s morning routines – cleaning the elephants and cleaning the enclosure. I was absolutely amazed at how quickly and efficiently the team worked, it was incredible. One highlight was watching the littlest baby elephant trying to drink from a pool of water – it had mastered sucking water into its trunk but just couldn’t get the trunk into its mouth and the water kept dribbling down its chin. After a few attempts it went back to mum to suckle – much easier!
In the afternoon we took a tour of Hamburg, we went by U-Bahn to the docks where we had a boat tour along the river; I don’t think I have ever seen so many container ships and containers! We then went to a beer tent to eat and drink a lot of beer. There was much dancing and general silliness – great fun!
Monday 16th November
Today was a full day of veterinary lectures and demonstrations, starting with infectious diseases and other medical issues. We then had lectures on fertility cycling and monitoring for breeding purposes. One of the lecturers today was Dr. Hildebrandt, a world renowned animal fertility expert who works with zoos all over the world doing artificial insemination and assisted breeding programmes. We also looked at blood, urine and faecal sampling techniques. At the end of the day were lectures on elephant conservation in India and the conflicts between people and wildlife.
Didn’t sleep at all well last night, I was totally exhausted all day! No idea why – I felt too hot, but the heating was off. Oh well.
This morning we were back in the elephant Barn watching the keepers and elephant’s morning routines – cleaning the elephants and cleaning the enclosure. I was absolutely amazed at how quickly and efficiently the team worked, it was incredible. One highlight was watching the littlest baby elephant trying to drink from a pool of water – it had mastered sucking water into its trunk but just couldn’t get the trunk into its mouth and the water kept dribbling down its chin. After a few attempts it went back to mum to suckle – much easier!
In the afternoon we took a tour of Hamburg, we went by U-Bahn to the docks where we had a boat tour along the river; I don’t think I have ever seen so many container ships and containers! We then went to a beer tent to eat and drink a lot of beer. There was much dancing and general silliness – great fun!
Monday 16th November
Today was a full day of veterinary lectures and demonstrations, starting with infectious diseases and other medical issues. We then had lectures on fertility cycling and monitoring for breeding purposes. One of the lecturers today was Dr. Hildebrandt, a world renowned animal fertility expert who works with zoos all over the world doing artificial insemination and assisted breeding programmes. We also looked at blood, urine and faecal sampling techniques. At the end of the day were lectures on elephant conservation in India and the conflicts between people and wildlife.
Watching elephants have baths 
Bathing elephants
Baby elephant trying to use trunk
Suckling from Mum
Keepers cleaning enclosure
Group Photo
Lazlo, George and some very big beers
Most of elephant school 2009
Dr Hildebrandt explaining an elephant ultrasound
Dr Flugger taking bloods
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