Elephant’s Upbringing Is Aided by Getting His Goat

The Oakland Zoo’s pride and joy--the baby African elephant called Kijana--has been steadily growing at the rate of a pound or two a day.

Now 10 months old, he weighs 600 pounds (well, earlier this week he did), stands just under four feet tall, and daily quaffs 60 to 70 pints of African elephant formula designed for him and flown in from Canada. His favorite toys include an abandoned baby stroller that he can poke and prod and a little wading pool in which to dunk his trunk.

The zoo attracted national attention when it embarked upon the largely experimental task of hand-rearing the elephant after his mother failed to take up her duties. Baby elephants are rarely born in captivity and few of them survive the first year, but Kijana appears to be thriving.

He has also acquired a playmate--a 4-month-old, 35-pound goat named Rafiki (Swahili for “friend”) who is serving as a kind of four-legged transitional object from the humans Kijana bonded with in his infancy to the full-grown elephants with whom he will one day live, if all goes well.

Typically, Rafiki rears up and head-butts Kijana, who then flaps his ears furiously and tries to swat the goat with his trunk.

“We were hoping the goat would draw Kijana’s attention to eating grass and plants, but that hasn’t happened,” says Colleen Kinzley, zoo curator and elephant manager. On the other hand, Kijana is only too happy to sample a piece of fruit he sees his human handlers eating.

Some things haven’t changed: Kijana still sleeps each night in his barn in the company of a human keeper. The human periodically dispenses a bottle of formula; the elephant occasionally offers a nuzzle with his trunk.

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Just say no: As school starts up, a UC Berkeley fraternity has made the ultimate pledge. The 104-year old Sigma Nu chapter has banned alcohol and smoking at its house. The decision comes after the fraternity chapter was disbanded last spring by its alumni board because of problems with alcohol abuse. When the chapter was “recolonized” this fall, it had mostly new members and a new clean-and-sober attitude.

“We’re not going to be the campus pub anymore,” says Brad Beacham, associate executive director of Sigma Nu’s national office in Lexington, Va. “We’re not going to be the place where people come to get drunk.”

Only about 10% of Berkeley students join the campus’ 37 fraternities and 13 sororities. “There are quite a few fraternities keeping a close eye on this because they’re thinking of moving toward substance-free houses,” said Tina Barnett, the university’s liaison to the fraternities and sororities.

But Jesse Mulholland, the 19-year-old president of Zeta Beta Tau, one of Berkeley’s largest fraternities, says his isn’t one of them. While admitting, “We live in a fraternity and people drink,” Mulholland said: “During our parties there’s alcohol served but we have bartenders to I.D. everyone, so no one under 21 gets served.”

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Personal Watercraft Accidents

Reported accidents involving personal watercraft such as Jet Skis or Wave Runners have been rising in the seven years since the State Department of Boating and Waterways began tracking them. For 1995, 15% of the craft were rented, 25% were operated by the registered owner and 53% were borrowed from the owner; information for the remaining 7% was unknown.

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YEAR ACCIDENTS INJURIES DEATHS PROPERTY DAMAGE 1989 105 83 1 $73,300 1990 167 115 2 $159,400 1991 181 116 5 $169,300 1992 167 118 2 $128,000 1993 248 178 5 $306,900 1994 257 178 7 $294,800 1995 353 226 6 $579,550

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Source: State Department of Boating and Waterways, Sacramento

Researched by TRACY THOMAS / Los Angeles Times

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If you wait long enough, your number will come up: When the California Super Lotto started, Carma and Austin Ceno concocted a set of six numbers and played them over and over again. For 10 years. Guess what? They finally won. The San Jose couple--she is 76 and he is 80--held one of the three winning tickets for September 4, splitting a $14-million jackpot.

The winning numbers: 22, 25, 32, 39, 42, 45.

The Cenos have no idea why they picked those numbers in the first place. “I know my daughter was 42, but I don’t remember the others,” says Carma Ceno. The Cenos’ total take: $4,666,666. Says Carma Ceno: “All sixes at the end. Strange.”

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The gator search, unplugged: “Well, we still haven’t gotten him yet.”

That’s the latest from the San Francisco Zoo’s Nancy Chan on the quest for the elusive Mountain Lake reptile. In fact, the zoo has temporarily stopped looking--in hopes that the hordes of tourists and publicity-stunters will stop frightening the alligator/caiman/whatever-he-is with their presence at water’s edge. Besides, says Chan, the consensus is that he’s getting along well for now--presumably eating whatever tadpoles he needs and soaking up the rays necessary to warm his reptilian body.

EXIT LINE

“She’s learned how to get to food and learned it well. Now she’s teaching her cub that cars are a good food source.”

--Lassen National Park Supt. Gilbert Blinn, issuing a warning about a mother bear who breaks car windows, with cub in tow, on nightly rounds of the Manzanita Lake campgrounds.

California Dateline appears every other Friday.