This baby now weighs a whopping 694 kg! Otto, a 16-month-old elephant from a German zoo, is already a heavyweight. Bananas, grapes, and fresh bread are among the pachyderm’s favorite foods.
If Otto spots his animal keepers, he quickly comes running and already opens his mouth so that we can put his reward directly on his tongue,” says the zookeeper and head of the elephant house, Daniel Materna. Before he is allowed to clean his treats, Materna checks Otto’s teeth and mucous membranes.
Little Otto lives in the shared zoo with his parents, Mama Elephant Temi and Papa Gajendra, and his aunts Panang and Mangala.
Materna: “He watches everything Gajendra does and interacts with him a lot. Sometimes the little man gets annoying, but Gajendra is very caring and patient.”
The little rascal likes to play with a tractor tire, “which he throws back and forth with dedication and perseverance,” says Materna. And Otto loves to splash around! “Playing with mud, clay and water is the greatest thing for him. He just discovers everything and tries everything.”
When fully grown, the Asian bull elephant can reach a shoulder height of up to 3.5 meters and weigh six tons. Materna: “Asian elephants in captivity can live up to 60-70 years.”
“The little pachyderm means a lot to me! It was my first elephant birth that I was allowed to accompany. That will always be something very special for me.”
According to the zookeeper, the newborn elephant is very bright and always eager to learn new things. It is imitating the behavior of older elephants by breaking long sticks into pieces with their feet and trunk and chewing on them.
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