Exercising Elephants

The Alaska Zoo built a treadmill for their elephant in the interests of building it a better habitat. I can only imagine that the poor elephant was sitting around, day after day, depressed and longing for those treadmills its ancestors used to run on over in Africa back in the good old days.

Surprisingly, though, Maggie - that's the elephant - is not particularly excited about this design, and has not yet been convinced to use it despite being offered all her favorite treats. No doubt they will eventually train her to walk on it, just as we train our dogs to do agility courses. Then again, even I would run an agility course of sorts - think children's playground, obstacle course, ropes course - and be glad to do it. And various animals also play. Watch a kid (goat, not human) with an old tire, or a cat with a dangling string.

Only once or twice have I voluntarily run on a treadmill, and it got old very quickly. I know many people do it, and good for them if they can keep up exercising that way (or even, is it possible, enjoy it?). I can't do it. Running on a moving machine without racing, without even going anywhere, with no change of scenery to look at, holds no interest for me. And I used to run both track and cross country when I was younger, as well as entering occasional 5K races just because. I have nothing particular against running.

Only the human mind could convince itself to run so many miles without going anywhere at all, in the sake of health. No animal would naturally do this. They play, and run, and gets all sorts of natural exercise. It's what I prefer as well (and so far, I'm doing fine).

That said, I don't blame Maggie at all if she finally gets onto her exercise machine only to turn around and walk right back off.

As a side note, this brought to mind a short story by Orson Scott Card called Elephants of Posnan. I'd link to it, but it's no longer available as a free read on his website. It's about elephants dominating the earth; more than that I can't say without getting my hands on it once again, which means finding it somewhere and purchasing it, something I intend to do as soon as possible.


***Edit - I stand partially corrected. Case in point: hamsters and mice. Insane active little rodents.***