Amersfoort - Bulls house

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Keepersroom

The stables

The outside cage

The shute

In this area, the keepers can fill the foodsupply systems, and they have access to the stables.

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Hay. Through a hole in the fence the bull can get as much hay as he wants to. The hay can be replenished in the keepersroom.

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Water. A special watersupply system is build. The elephant can put his trunk in a pipe to find the water.

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Food. Through a hole in the fence the bull can get some fruit and vegetables. The food can be replenished in the keepersroom.

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Entrance to the stables. This door exists of three parts. When the lower and upper part is closed, the elephant can put one foot on the lower part, for footcare. With the lower and middle sections closed, the elephants' trunk can be examined (TBC control).

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This is the home of Sammy since June 18, 2004. Alone, as he clearly indicates when he was living amongst the females. As a young bull, it was no problem to live in the same room with the others. But now he want some privacy during the nights. First he got a separeted stable in the same building as the herd. And now he has a complete new building for himself! This building is heated by a hot-air heating system.

Sammy is a very neat elephant. He only uses this room as his toilet. Lucky keepers; the concrete floor is easy to clean. The keepers regulary lay some branches here. An elephant like to eat some.

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Toy. An elephant does not sleep the whole night. In fact, he sleeps only four or five hours a day. To entertain them, some toys are made. Like this one. Sammy likes it very much as you can see at the marks on the wall. This toy is one of the reasons why Sammy has two brass rings on his tusks. He put his tusks between the toy and the wall. As you can imagine, the tusks will wear very fast on the concrete. The rings prevents this.

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Tire. Another favorite toy of Sammy is this tire. Keepers found the marks of it high upon the walls!

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A stable is an covered outside enclosure. This perception of the zoo is put into practice with this stable. A thick layer of sand and a huge pile in a corner, where Sammy is sleeping against. Because Sammy uses the other room as his toilet, this sandfloor needs not much maintenance.

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Tire. Here also a tire. here hanging on a chain. Sammy plays a lot with it, as you can see.

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The outside cage. If it is necessary to keep Sammy inside (in case of illness), he can get some air in this cage.

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Copyright Gerald Postma

Entrance to the outside enclosure. Via this gate Sammy can enter the outside exhibit.

During my visit, Indra was very curious what happens in the cage. Altough she can get as much fresh water as she can, this little puddle with rainwater was irresistible.

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The shute is a special cage for medical treatment of the elephant. This cage is very small, the elephant can not move when he is put into it.

The shute has a floor which can be filled with disinfection fluid (or something else) when needed. No more messing about with buckets. Just put the elephant into the shute and the necessarely footcare can be given.

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Hatch. Via this hatch, the veterinarian can safely examine the legs of the animal.

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The shute has two entrances. One from the outside and one from the inside. Here you see the door inside.

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Copyright Gerald Postma