Ambika

Her right wrist looks bent inward. She must be in a lot of pain for that position to be preferable. I myself have a very accelerated form of osteoarthritis, but even mine can't compare to the rapidity of her decline. It's as if she was just suddenly hit with it--BAM--about 18 months ago. It's just a precipitous decline. When I was there in January, they were celebrating the birthdays of all born in the wild, and A and S were so immobile that they came only a few steps outside a door to get their gifts and then stepped back into the barn. That day, neither appeared publicly anywhere.

NOVA, I really love this picture and keep coming back to it. The way her mouth is open reminds me of her mischievousness. lol I think she's clearly angling for something here.

I have a ton of photos of her doing this behavior. I always like to imagine shes using it like elephant sized dental floss.

@NOVAElephantEnthusiast

LOL You've clearly adored her for ages! Where have you been all of our lives here on ZooChat?! You have so much to offer us Ambika Addicts. Maybe we should form a club lol

I didn't think of dental floss; I thought she was either scratching the underside of her trunk or curling that trunk around hoping someone would put something in iti! She seems to be eating again; for awhile I was worried. They have been pro-active for years about saving this last set of teeth. If she misses a treat Marie throws into her mouth during foot care, I've seen Marie twice step through the bars to pick it up and clean off all the sand. I know there have been some deaths worldwide due to sand in the gut, but another elephant lover from Canada told me he thinks sand would wear down her teeth and that's the reason for the precaution. lol She really is SO smart and funny, I can almost imagine her pretending the use the wire like dental floss just to get some keeper running with some treat to stop her!

I posted earlier today what I saw on the webcam. She just could not find a position in which to stand that didn't hurt. It was pretty awful, but then she wagged her tail! She never ceases to amaze me. I always say I was brought into this world the year Ambika was brought to DC. How long have you known/loved her?

@AmbikaFan I saw. I hopped on the webcam a little later and saw that she was outside by where the gates between what I believe are yard 3 and 2 are with keepers and it looked like keeper aids. They were all just observing her and taking pictures of her. I watched her walk away during this little meet and greet session and I fear she isn't doing quite well, but I still have hope for her!

To answer your question, I have been a fan of hers since about 2007 when my passion for animals really took off. I have been able to differentiate the NZ original 3 since I was 7 years old and have always thought Ambika was a beautiful elephant and until I had access to the internet she was my favorite. I now have grown very found of many other facilities elephants and try my best to differentiate between not only NZ's herd but Houston and St Louis as well. I tried to do the same with Dallas' herd of African's however I find it extremely difficult to differentiate between different african elephants.

lol Usually I'm good with math, but the way I'm looking at this, you could be as young as 14 or old as 20! There are other elephant fans here who can name everyone in the studbook--my daughter and I used to be able to do that--but you seem to be like me in watching animal behavior. There was one of those little meet and greets on New Year's Day when they gave Shanthi and Ambika their treats, although the people seemed like keepers. I'm glad Ambika was able to walk away. When I was watching her back feet were 2' behind her body with knees bent and her front feet 2' in front of body, with her left rear leg bent inward. I will never, ever forget this image; she truly looked like biblical cripples who are bent and twisted. She could just not find a position that was comfortable with two bad rear legs. She was really on the brink of her back legs not holding her up. I wish they'd make a big sand pile that she and Shanthi could lean against to take some of the pressure off their feet.

Thanks for your observations and that wonderful picture! Byw, I'm Christine.

Lol I am 22. And No problem. In light of her recent passing I think I'll be going through all my picture and post some of my favorite of her. Also, Im Charles.

I'm glad it was you who reported this. Let's continue this in a pm.