You won't believe it: Even the elephants clean the house for Passover • Field reporter

April 11, 2014   

""You obviously don't enter dangerous cages when the animal is inside," Dr. Nili Avni-Magen, chief zoological and veterinary director at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, told me at the beginning of the conversation. Disappointment rose in my throat: "Maybe after all?" - I tried to retroactively change the cage cleaning procedures in the hope of hearing about a brave, muscular, and gigantic worker who went in to clean the tiger cage, while the tiger cowered in a corner out of fear. We all know the zoo from the outside of the fence. Those who work there every day and are responsible for feeding the animals and cleaning the cages also know the inside of the fence, the interesting, fascinating side, which most of us have forgotten even exists. Our children, as well as the child inside us, are used to arriving at the zoo and immediately running to find the monkeys, making them do strange movements and watching them successfully imitate the chimpanzee, or more entertainingly - watching the little baboon get into trouble. The nut we threw at him cracked open the first second that the keeper turned his head. But the zoo is much more than that. The daily care and care of each animal according to its needs, the monitoring of its growth and the medical care it receives, require the caretakers to always have their finger on the pulse - sometimes of the animal itself. Almost like humans, and perhaps even more so, the animals eat nutritious, healthy, and even dietetic food. The elephant and the rhinoceros, which weigh hundreds of kilograms, are also weight watchers, just like their friends the monkeys and tigers.  Menu change for Passover About two weeks before Passover, preparations begin to transition the animals to kosher food for Passover. Not only for animals that regularly eat slices of bread, such as wild animals and rodents, but for all animals - even those that eat legumes - a change is made to the regular menu in preparation for Passover. The transition from the regular year-round food to Passover food is done gradually, step by step. "It is important to maintain the health of the animals," Dr. Avni-Magen reminds us, "so the change is made gradually from the regular mixture to a mixture that contains mainly vegetables." And don't think that the animals eat matzah, they certainly don't eat it. It is harmful to them and it is not part of the menu. With the change in the regular food, the zoo enters a cleaning atmosphere. "It's not that they don't clean all the time," the doctor explains, "the cages are constantly cleaned throughout the year, but during Passover they take advantage of the atmosphere and clean thoroughly." A pair of Asiatic lions are kept at the Biblical Zoo. The Asiatic lion was common in the Land of Israel hundreds of years ago, and today it is almost completely extinct, with about 200 lions of this species living in a nature reserve in India alone. The lions' cage is only cleaned when the "owners of the cage" are not inside. Apparently they don't really like the smell of bleach, or they are allergic to dust. Most of the animals have a special house for sleeping at night. When the cages are cleaned, the lions go into their night house or, alternatively, go out into the yard. Apparently, they haven't gotten a babysitter for them yet. Wild animals, such as ibex, donkeys, and rams, do not need special arrangements when cleaning. They are in the field and do not interfere or walk around with a bag of Bisley between their legs, so their living area can be cleaned freely. Cleaning under security In contrast, the crocodile pool is a different story. This dangerous pool has special, skilled cleaners. There are four crocodiles in the pool. One is very large and three are teenagers. When they come to clean the pool of food scraps and accumulated dirt, the cleaners know which side of the pool its residents are gathered on, and clean the other side - the empty one. The cleaning is done under full security - one cleans, and the other watches over the crocodiles with a long stick in his hand as a deterrent. "Feeding the crocodiles is no less interesting," adds the doctor. "A bridge crosses the pool across - from which the food is thrown into the pool. The crocodiles recognize that it is mealtime, approach, and wait for their portion of meat. When it is thrown from the bridge, the crocodiles jump and happily accept the meat while it is still in the air." Up the path that surrounds the garden, you can see the elephants - also Asian - who, despite their grayish color, are very interesting. The elephant enclosure is cleaned when these giant animals are in the field. "That's what happens when the elephants themselves help clean," laughs the doctor. The elephants have handlers who are also their personal trainers, a kind of coaching or trainer, if you will. The team in charge of the elephants consists of two Thais and three Israelis. The elephant is a very smart, very curious animal, and you have to keep it busy all the time to enrich its world. Such a nerd. Therefore, when you want to clean their enclosure, you simply involve them in the work. "Just like a little child whose mother lets him clean something so that he doesn't get in the way of cleaning." I remembered my childhood. The elephant picks up the buckets of water with its trunk, takes them to where the handler tells him to, and puts them there. When the caregiver finishes cleaning one place and moves to another, he picks up the bucket again and places it in the other place. Bleach is very disruptive. The garden also has a small animal enclosure, such as various reptiles and small monkeys. Among the very curious residents of the enclosure is the snake. You can say anything about this animal, but it is not dirty. The snake is very clean, and like everything in its life that is done slowly, it takes time to get dirty. When it comes to a non-dangerous snake, the cage can be cleaned, even when it is inside it, but when it comes to a venomous snake - it must be taken out skillfully and carefully and returned only when the cleaning is finished. Although I thought that the monkeys were left in the area during cleaning, I was wrong. The monkeys can get stressed from the cleaning routine that is done to them - and go wild. Therefore, they are taken out into the yard and returned when the cleaning is finished. "A monkey that is stressed can be very unfriendly and even dangerous," warns the doctor. Do the animals feel that their cages are being cleaned? Are they aware of the change that their home has undergone? - I inquired curiously. "If you use strong odorants, the animals feel it immediately. Bleach, for example, really bothers them, so we generally don't use strong-smelling materials to clean the cages. But other than the smell, the whole cleaning thing is routine for the animals and they are used to it." Towards the end of the conversation, Dr. Avni-Magen wants to emphasize something important: "The animals are very dear to us. In nature, they simply disappear and become extinct. At the zoo, people learn to get to know them, play with some of them, and enjoy the acts of creation. We do everything to give the animals a living space that suits them, in the hope that visitors will actually get the best out of it." We wrote.