SLIDE 14
(Nancy Pratt)
So, the very first step is to assess
Shanthi's reproductive state. Now, there are several ways of
doing that, and John has commented to you that for almost eight
years now we have been monitoring Shanthi and the other elephants'
reproductive cycles hormonally. We can say that Shanthi's reproductive
cycle is about 15 to 16 weeks in length. We can say that the
follicular stage, that is the phase of the cycle at which time
the oocytes, the eggs in her ovaries are growing and maturing
and about to ovulate is about five weeks, but we cannot say when
ovulation will occur. This is very important. We need to know
when those eggs are coming out if we're going to do insemination.
So, the very first step is to do an assessment with Thomas's ultrasound
technique, and the very first step of that procedure is to clean
out the rectum because an elephant is obviously very large, and
we can't just put a probe on her belly like you would in a human
ultrasound. She has lots of skin and lots of fat and lots of
tissue to go through, so the probe has to go transrectally. The
first thing we have to do is try to explain to the keepers here
how much fun this is so that they will willingly participate,
and it's worked with two of them. It is incredible. We haven't
convinced the other ones yet. So the rectum is cleaned out and
then you can see that what happens here is that Shanthi gets fed
out of this red bucket, which is her favorite part of the whole
thing. And she will stand almost perfectly still for this procedure.
I hope that some of you have been able to see this; if not please
come by for it. We do this in the public part of the elephant
house so you can see it. Now, Thomas is standing here with this
helmet on. You can see it in this picture as well. The reason
for this is that he needs to be able to see the image on the ultrasound
monitor while he is up to the shoulder in elephant, and this is
kind of awkward to do on the little computer screen here, so he
has a small monitor on the end of his helmet, and what he does
is he moves the probe around inside and then we can manipulate
the controls so that he can visualize what he needs to see.