On a blistering August afternoon, Stephanie stands itching her legs in the heat at the Sedgwick County Zoo. As a three ton, 54-year old African elephant, leg scratching can be quite the balancing act. That’s no matter to the comparatively small, 400-pound Kijani.
The four month old male calf, covered in distinctive red hair and a layer of dirt, saunters right under Stephanie. The elder elephant lifts her trunk as Kijani makes his way underneath her on his march towards a nearby mud wallow.
Katie Muninger, the zoo’s manager of elephants, watches on from the other side of the enclosure fence. She says this is the new normal for Stephanie…