Every game, every treat, and every training session helps prepare Rita Jean and Oliver for a lifetime of excellent care.

Raising one Asian elephant calf is a rare and remarkable experience. Raising two at the same time is something even fewer elephant care teams have the opportunity to do.

After approximately 22-month pregnancies, Asian elephant, Sunny, welcomed Rita Jean in July 2025, followed by Phoebe welcoming Oliver just three months later. The calves share the same father, Sabu from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, who temporarily resided at the Columbus Zoo while Cincinnati redesigned its elephant habitat. Today, they're growing up alongside their mothers and the rest of the herd, giving guests a front-row seat to an extraordinary chapter in the Zoo's elephant program.

While their playful personalities often steal the spotlight, every day also brings important opportunities to learn. Through enrichment and positive reinforcement training, Rita Jean and Oliver are building confidence, exploring their world, and developing skills that will support their health and well-being for the rest of their lives.

Learning Through Trust

Training teaches animals to voluntarily participate in their own care, not for performance or obedience. Beginning that process while elephants are young helps build trust, confidence, and lifelong habits that reduce stress and improve veterinary care for decades to come.

Every training session is built around positive reinforcement, allowing the calves to choose to participate while strengthening the relationship between each elephant and the people who care for them.

"Our goal is to build trust and respect," says Calli H., Assistant Curator of Elephants at the Columbus Zoo. "That foundation allows us to examine, treat, and care for them throughout every stage of their lives."

Small Lessons That Make a Big Difference

Although Rita Jean and Oliver are still young, they're already learning skills that will benefit them for years to come.

They've learned to present their feet so keepers can inspect them, hold out their ears for examinations, and open their mouths on cue. Those simple behaviors make routine wellness checks easier while giving the calves confidence during veterinary procedures.

Some of their most important lessons involve their trunks and ears.

The calves are learning to voluntarily present both for blood draws and trunk washes, procedures that allow the veterinary and animal care teams to closely monitor for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV), a disease that poses one of the greatest health risks to young Asian elephants.

They're also beginning to practice voluntary hip injections. Once they celebrate their first birthdays, those skills will allow the team to administer EEHV and other vaccines with minimal stress, all because the calves have learned to confidently participate in their own care.

Play With a Purpose

Training is only part of the equation.

Enrichment encourages elephants to express the same natural behaviors they would in their native ranges while keeping them mentally stimulated and physically active.

For Rita Jean and Oliver, that means spending their days exploring, climbing, foraging, and, of course, playing.

Some of their favorite enrichment items are oversized boomer balls, which send both calves sprinting across the expansive habitat in a game their keepers affectionately call "race cars."

They also love climbing opportunities, especially Rita Jean, whose favorite is a sturdy firehose cube thoughtfully built and donated by the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden's volunteer enrichment team.

Every new object, texture, scent, or challenge encourages curiosity and problem solving while helping the calves build confidence in their surroundings.

Growing One Day at a Time

Although Rita Jean and Oliver may spend much of their day chasing each other through the habitat, every game and every training session is helping prepare them for the future.

The trust they're building today will make future veterinary care less stressful. The enrichment they enjoy strengthens both their bodies and minds. Together, those experiences create a strong foundation for healthy, confident elephants.

As the calves approach their first birthdays, they're developing the skills that will help them thrive throughout their lives, one playful adventure, one successful training session, and one well-earned treat at a time.