Zoo's latest elephant is a big star

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has a movie star in its midst.

Malaika, a female African elephant, arrived at the zoo in December after 21 years in the hands of a private owner - an animal trainer who found Malaika plenty of work on TV and in film.

Despite her Hollywood status, keepers say she hasn't been throwing her weight around - and at 7,800 pounds, she has plenty to throw around.

"She's real calm and laid-back," said Jason Bredahl, the zoo's elephant manager.

It has been an interesting journey for Malaika, from the wilds of Africa to Southern California to our mountain zoo. Relinquishing Malaika was a heartbreaking but necessary step for her longtime owner. And it brings the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo's years-long quest for another elephant to an end.

The early years
Malaika was born in Zimbabwe in 1986. Animal trainer Cheryl Shawver bought her the next year and brought her to the United States.

It was a rough start for a young life. Zimbabwe had an overpopulation of elephants. So the government culled some herds - killing adults but sparing the babies, which they could catch and sell. Malaika's herd was among those culled.

So instead of growing up in Africa, Malaika was raised in Shawver's facility in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Shawver started working in animal parks in 1966 and for the last 30 years or so has concentrated on training animals for television and movies. "All I've ever done is work animals," she said in a phone interview from California.

Malaika's first job was an appearance on "Card Sharks," a TV game show. "They had to guess her weight," Shawver recalled. Malaika also appeared on the small screen on "Full House," "A Peaceable Kingdom," "The Super Dave Osborne Show" and the TV movie "Tarzan in Manhattan." Her film credits include "Indecent Proposal," "Congo" and "Gremlins 2." And, Shawver said, "she's done a bajillion commercials."

"I think she liked to do it," Shawver said of Malaika's Hollywood career. "It was something to do. It was fun."

All elephants are quite intelligent, Shawver said. Malaika was a quick learner. "She never caused any trouble, she never was a bad girl. She always listened to me."

And, Shawver said, Malaika showed a sense of humor. Take her talent for sucking up water in her trunk and spraying it - a skill she put to use in a beer commercial. Shawver recalled with a laugh the time Malaika snatched a bucket of water, and Shawver demanded it back.

"So what she did, she looks at me for a second, eye to eye, then she drops her trunk in the bucket, snuffs up a bunch of water and then pours all the water in my hand, which was reached out for the bucket. It was, to her, a big joke."

Shawver didn't want to let Malaika go. But the 60-year-old Shawver has been suffering health problems.

"My health isn't allowing me to do what I have to do to take care of an elephant," she said. "I can't walk very well. She was totally wonderful with me, she didn't take advantage of that, but it was getting to the point where it wasn't a safe situation."

So, working through the International Elephant Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to the welfare of elephants, Shawver began seeking a new owner for Malaika.

"What I was looking for was a place that had elephants, that wanted another elephant and that sounded like the elephants might be able to get along." That place turned out to be the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

Seeking an elephant
The zoo, longtime home to elephants Lucky and Kimba, had been looking for a third elephant for years.

Bob Chastain made finding another elephant one of his top priorities shortly after becoming the zoo's president and chief executive officer in 2005. With Lucky and Kimba getting along in years - Lucky's 28 and Kimba's 30 - Chastain didn't want to risk having a solitary elephant if one died. And having three elephants more closely resembles life in the wild, where elephants exist in larger social groups.

Finding an elephant, though, is easier said than done.

"It's very hard, very expensive, to get an elephant shipped over from Africa," Chastain said. And though there are breeding programs in the U.S., they have only begun having success in the last five years or so, he said.

When Chastain heard about Malaika, he quickly called Shawver. That first call, about an hour long, led to more conversations.

"At some point, she just told us she liked us so well, she was only talking to us," Chastain said.

Shawver had two key demands, he said. One was that if the zoo had to give up Malaika, it would send her to another zoo, not an animal sanctuary; Shawver preferred the level of care zookeepers can provide.

 Shawver also wanted the zoo to determine if Malaika was capable of having a baby - and to try to breed her if she is.

"We're in that process right now," Chastain said. "It's not an easy process. You don't just ask them."

The clock is ticking, though. At 22 or 23 - her exact birthdate isn't known - Malaika is nearing the upper range of when an elephant has been known to give birth to a first baby.

Life at the mountain zoo
Malaika was transported to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo via trailer in mid-December. Bredahl, the elephant manager, made the trip, too, after spending several days in Thousand Oaks getting to know Malaika.

"She did great," Bredahl said. "I think we were more uptight about it than she was."

At the zoo, Malaika settled into the elephant building for a customary 30-day quarantine period. Since then, Malaika has interacted with the other two elephants through cage bars and other barriers - "doing the howdy," as Bredahl puts it.

It's not clear when the three will be allowed to interact freely. Keepers don't want to put them together too quickly for fear one might be aggressive. Kimba, in particular, takes time to adjust to anything new, Bredahl said. Malaika, though, seems to be eager to be with the other two.

Malaika, meanwhile, is getting a bit of a reputation as a toy hog. One day the three elephants were in different sections of their yard, with each elephant given a tire as an enrichment toy. At the end of the day, Malaika, who was at the bottom part of the yard, possessed all three tires and had stacked them on top of a rock. Bredahl's not sure how she got all the tires - perhaps they rolled down to her or perhaps she grabbed them from the others.

"That's happened to other toys, too," Bredahl said. "At the end of the day, Malaika has them all."

Bredahl shares such stories with Shawver as he keeps her informed of Malaika's progress.

"I'm sure she must wonder where I am," Shawver said, crying. "It's very sad for me to let her go."

But, she said, the move was the right thing for her and for Malaika.
"I just think, from everything they tell me, that she's doing well. She's friendly with the other elephants. She's being good to the keepers. It seems like its working out very well."