PORTLAND –When Roger Henneous became senior elephant keeper in 1971 at what was then known as Washington Park Zoo, he took over a herd whose lives were different from what their descendants and successors now experience.
The zoo was building a reputation as “the nation’s premier Asian elephant breeder,” as a Syracuse Post-Standard article put it in 1990, with 24 births in 28 years. The zoo’s researchers were the first to understand the 16-week estrus cycle in female Asian elephants, which was crucial information for breeding. And Henneous was introducing a new style of elephant-keeping, one that revolved around observing elephant behavior and using what he learned to work cooperatively with the animals.
Henneous’ career and legacy are at the center of the new book “Elephant Speak: A Devoted Keeper’s Life Among the Herd” (300 pages, $17), by Melissa Crandall. Published by Portland State University’s Ooligan Press and relying heavily on interviews, newspaper and magazine stories and research articles, the book is a no-holds-barred, intimate look at Portland’s pachyderms during Henneous’ three decades in charge.
Take all those elephant births: The resulting calves didn’t always thrive. Some were born with fatal deformities; others, to mothers that didn’t fully understand how to care for their newborns after years in captivity and, sometimes, isolation.
