Animal Stories from All-Creatures.org

Celebrating Sukari's Seventh Year at the Elephant Sanctuary

From The Elephant Sanctuary
November 2022

Sukari spent most of her life being handled under Free Contact in shared spaces with her handlers. Since arriving at The Sancutary, she has transitioned to Protected Contact. Always cooperative in her training sessions, Sukari is a fast learner; she knows more than 50 cues and is easily engaged by Care Staff in learning new ones.

This month marks Sukari’s 7th year anniversary since joining our herd at The Sanctuary! Sukari was born wild in Zimbabwe in 1984 and transferred to the United States the following year.

Upon arrival in the U.S., Sukari was a resident of Reston Animal Park in Virginia where she spent almost 15 years as the sole elephant, giving rides and painting for the public, and was later transferred to the Nashville Zoo. On November 4, 2015, Sukari retired to The Elephant Sanctuary.

Sukari "had a ball" at a fall foliage fiesta in her honor! Caregivers set up decorated hay balls, two of which were just recently donated by our supporters, meaning Sukari was the first to have the chance to interact with them. This involved a lot of sniffing to test out the new toys before investigating the browse! She received a multitude of browse types, including sumac, dogwood, hickory, tulip poplar, and sugar maple, all native to Tennessee. She ate the sumac and tulip poplar first and only left behind a couple of sticks when she was finished with the party, walking away to explore. 

Sukari, sometimes called “Suki,” is a large elephant with big, round eyes. Her most distinguishing feature is her very long trunk, which she uses to roll hay into a ball before eating.

Sukari is often seen wallowing in the mud and enjoys all types of browse, especially large logs from which she can tusk off the bark. She is not picky about food items, except for beets, which she does not like. True to her name, which means “sweet as sugar” in Swahili, Sukari’s favorite foods are apple-flavored horse treats and bananas. Caregivers have noticed she often holds her left ear out when she eats.

Sukari spent most of her life being handled under Free Contact in shared spaces with her handlers. Since arriving at The Sancutary, she has transitioned to Protected Contact. Always cooperative in her training sessions, Sukari is a fast learner; she knows more than 50 cues and is easily engaged by Care Staff in learning new ones.

At The Sanctuary, Tange and Sukari have become inseparable, reuniting often with Flora in the shade of their habitat’s wooded valleys. In the wild, elephants live in a matriarchal society, among a herd of related females. Though The Sanctuary’s herds are made up of unrelated individuals, it is not uncommon to see an elephant take a matriarchal role with others in her social group. In the Africa Habitat, we are beginning to see Tange take on this role with Sukari, as the two explore the habitat together, venturing regularly to the Pipeline, the Plateau, and the upper East Habitat.

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