Mom and Baby!

Christie and Zuri enjoying another winter day outside. Elephant Encounter is wonderful for any season!

Also be sure to check out our first Hogle Zoo podcast where we interview the artist of the Baby Zuri poster featured in this year's World of the Wild Art Exhibition!

Or check it out on YouTube.

Wintertime Outside

Here's a fun video of Christie and Zuri outside on one of January's less-blustery days!

Zuri's Winter Wonderland

Quite a few people have asked us, "Does Zuri like the snow?" You can see from these pictures taken by Hogle Zoo elephant keeper Eric Peterson that Zuri is having a great time this winter! Christie and Zuri have been going outside quite a bit this winter, and the snow we had over the past couple of days was very entertaining for the young elephant.

Eric said, "There was a snow bank that Zuri kept sticking her head into, and then she kept swishing her trunk around in the snow for quite awhile!" Was Zuri making snow angels? Maybe snow elephants!

Take a look:
Zuri's making "snow elephants" with a swish of her trunk.

Zuri started out using her trunk to eat the snow, then opted for a full-on Olympic-style snow bank face plant.

Still growing!

The keepers at Elephant Encounter have been working to get a height on Baby Zuri and it appears she is getting taller just like any baby does. When Zuri was born, she was 36" tall-- that's three feet to you and I! We are pleased to report that Zuri measured in at 44" tall today. That's getting to be about a foot taller than when she was born just five months ago.

The weather has been chilly, but yesterday's temperatures were falling on the warmer side for a Utah January. Zuri and Christie went out for quite a bit of time during the day, and visitors who happened to be enjoying the sunny chill were able to view them in the working yard at Elephant Encounter.

Zuri is also still playing with Christmas trees left over from the holidays a few weeks ago. She likes to drag the trees around and bury her head in the soft pine needles, then push the trees on the floor before she swings her little trunk back around them. It's quite a sight to see a growing baby elephant play with a Christmas tree!

Milestone!

We hope that everyone had a fantastic holiday season and 2010 is starting out well!

Another Zuri milestone was reached just before the new year! Elephant Supervisor Doug Tomkinson revealed that Baby Zuri now weighs 502 pounds, which means that she's doubled her weight since she was born in August. Things are going so well with Christie and Zuri and it is going to be an amazing year watching this baby grow up.

We know Zuri is a star, but now she is going to be immortalized as the "face" of this year's World of the Wild Art Exhibition at Hogle Zoo. 17 years ago, this art show began as a way to showcase both local artists and wild life and wild nature art. Since then, this has become one of the premiere venues in Utah for featuring artwork of this type. Each year the art show sells a limited poster, and if you're a Zuri fan you're going to need to pick up right now for only $10!! Guess what? You can! Go to our Web site to order this collector's piece featuring our own Baby Zuri:

What's even cooler is that for only $5 more, you can have this beautiful work of art signed by the featured local artist, Cara Koolmees. And don't forget the 17th Annual World of the Wild art show at Hogle Zoo begins January 30, 2010!

Happy Holidays from Zuri and Hogle Zoo!

So the weather outside hasn't been totally frightful this week, in fact at the start of the week Christie and Zuri were able to spend some time outside in the sunshine. Elephant Encounter was designed to give the elephants the opportunity to go out even in the colder winter months, and Zuri always enjoys her heated pads in the yard.

Zuri is still starting to experiment with eating solid foods and has really been getting used to her trunk! The keepers say she seems to be getting some dexterity in her trunk and gets more used to what it can do each day. When Zuri went outside at the start of the week, she had her choice of watermelon chunks or grapes but she had a little bit of a tough time getting her trunk around the watermelon. In fact, she just smashed her forehead into the fleshy watermelon bits on the ground and then used her trunk to instead pick up grapes and daintily put them into her mouth. Hey, it's a start! Here's to Zuri's first Christmas at Hogle Zoo, she really seems festive right now!

Click here for Hogle Zoo's holiday e-card featuring our own little elf Zuri.
Happy holidays from Utah's Hogle Zoo!

Bathtime for Baby

Since the bitter cold weather right now has brought the elephants inside a little more often, Baby Zuri recently had a scrubbing soap bath! These scrubbing baths are very healthy for the elephants, as they provide care of feet and skin.

Zuri didn't seem to like the first scrubby brush the elephant keepers used, she threw her head up and made it clear it wasn't her favorite! Then the keepers changed up bathtime and used a different scrub brush that Zuri didn't seem to mind. The second scrubber was the big orange brush and she stuck around for it-- maybe it reminded her of a giant Feast with the Beast pumpkin?